So you have just joined h2g2, and you want to know how to get the best out of it. Here are a few tips.

First, visit the Miscellanious Chat page and lurk in the forums there. You will soon find someone saying something that you profoundly disagree with, so jump in and add a reply.

If none of the conversations there are of interest, then try looking on the statistics page, where the last twenty conversations are at the bottom of the page.

If that doesn't find you a conversation that you want to talk in, write in your journal, and some of the other people lurking in the statistics page will probably spot it.

Eventually, you will decide that you have something to say that needs an entry in the guide, so you should then write an article about it. It doesn't have to be in GuideML, but if you can get into the habit of writing in GuideML it is much easier later when you get an entry suggested for the edited guide. These must be in GuideML.

Now, you have written an article, and want some feedback on it, or you want some help with some information you need, so pop along to the writing workshop, add a discussion linking to your page, and asking for comments. It is good practice here to link your page back to the forum as well.

After you have your article polished to your satisfaction, you might want to have it put in for peer review, ready for inclusion in the edited guide. Here they will find all sorts of things that have not already been seen, and suggest improvements as well.

As the edited guide has a few rules extra rules, you might fall foul of them and have the thread moved into the peer review sin bin. This does not mean that your article is rubbish, only that it has fallen foul of some of the extra rules. Once this has been fixed, there is nothing to stop you re-submitting it to the peer review page for another try.

If it conforms to the terms and conditions, the extra rules, and is judged to be good enough, it may get included in the edited guide. This feels very good, and means that new users might start dropping by your page to see what else you have written.