h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

to all concerned in the refreshed look of the Front Page and the regular content updates. It's lovely to see things changing regularly again.

I have had a thought, I'm quite nervous about posting it because it is just a suggestion but...

Would it be worth spreading the updates out across the week? So - for example - the new Edited entries went up on Sunday, the Showcase updates were Wednesdays perhaps, and the Post came out on Thursday (I am sure it used to be Thursdays?) or Friday?

I know that Sunday / Monday is good because people can do the work over the weekend so I am *very* hesitant to suggest this. But I wondered what the Guide Editors thought in particular, as well as what the rest of the Community in general think about this idea.

Ben

As a spectator, I would think it a good idea. Keep things changing and 'fresh'. But in the end, atleast for now, I imagine it would depend on available staff resources. My two-round-bits-o-metal

The Post used to appear on Mondays at first. I don't know when it changed to Thursdays. It went back to Mondays when the eds only updated the FP once a week. I've talked about it with Dmitri, and for him it is easier to have the Post on Mondays.

Is it perhaps one of those things that can be done when the FP is less difficult to work with? Or is that better already?

The key limitation is probably content - quotes and threads and journals seem to be running pretty well - articles, whether either UG or EG, to use the old money, seem a bit less active...

sprout

I believe it's easier than it was, Sprout, but I don't know that for sure. There's two parts to it, isn't there? There's getting the content ready, and there's doing the GML to update it.

My dream is that updating the FP should be like putting food into a bird-feeder; you can top it up once in a while and it comes out at a steady rate. So my thought is that the Eds should be able to update the FP queue once a week, and the new entries, etc, should be published once a day.

B

That would be great, and this was the original sales argument for the site back a few iterations ago - new EG articles every day...

Now it would have to be a wider variety of new content, I suspect.

sprout

Anyway, it is great to see updates on the FP. I love the 'Topical entries' section, and the fact it is not reduced to edited guide entries. for the GEs.

I'd not like to go back to having EG entries on the FP for only a day. Once a week was too little for an update, but every day doesn't give people a chance to get their work seen (depending on what the CTR for entries from the FP is of course). I wanted to see two or three times a week. Always Monday, and maybe Friday, something for the weekend!

I just remember being being happy they got a Friday for their entry, because it was there for 3 days.

I was wondering if a rotating system would be possible. So if we had a daily update of one entry, but each entry stayed their for 3 days, but moved down the front page..

I think Mina's right on the Entries. A big update (4 Entries?) on Monday with maybe a smaller one (2 Entries?) on Friday seems bang on. It would also be a nice idea to save our more creative and humorous entries for the weekend when people have more chance to appreciate them at leisure.

B

That would depend on when we get most hits, when stats are higher, that's when the best should be published. Although don't tell people you're doing that, as someone then has to get the quiet time!

It's a tricky one - it's good as an author to feel you're getting more than one day up there but I know I stopped reading the Front Page altogether when it dropped down to one update a week. Before that time enjoyed reading a new Entry each day and got into a nice habit.

I'd vote for the idea where there's a number of Entries on the Front Page, and as a new one slides in at the top the one at the bottom drops off. You get a chance to be on the Front Page for several days but there's still a new Entry each day to draw readers back every day. And they can catch up if they miss a day.

Heck, with a proper automated Front Page it might even be possible for the reader to pick how many they see at once - a default is three (to pick a random number) but they can scroll down to the past fortnights Entries or something if they wanted to.

In my dream world of h2g2 I want to be able to have lots of ways to find entries, not just search and 'front page' but for clever automatic feeds like.

'Something related to where I am?'

'Something related to today'

'Something to make me happy?'

'Something to make me think'

If there are enough entries, I like Dr Z's idea in post 10. Every entry would have atleast 3 days of visibility, and some that roll through the week-end would have longer. So 'premium' stuff could be held for Thursday or Friday releases. Items such as Uni projects of real quantity that folks may want more time to browse all 7 to 12 entries