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

The key to retaining Newbies is to catch them before they get bored looking for everyone else and wander off. They may never discover the h2g2 community.

We have an amazing community here. Its resources are very diverse, but I suspect it's difficult to navigate. There isn't really a single focus for it. Askh2g2, The Post, MiscChat etc are all useful places to find, but then there are clubs and societies, meet-ups, campaigns, etc, etc. The Front Page isn't really community-centred - it focuses more on the Edited Guide, and you can't post messages to it.

I'd like to see a Community Portal created. The nearest thing we have at the moment is the <./>Talk</.> page - it has good links, but it reads like an FAQ - it's not an exciting central hub. I think there's a case for creating a central community page with a catchy name and a bespoke layout (like the Front Page). Whether this is something which could or should be managed by the Editorial team or the Community itself I don't know (maybe it could be managed by a new volunteer group, for example).

Anyway, it's just an idea at the moment - I haven't designed it!

So, what do you reckon?

How would this be different to a Front Page that included things like Ask?

Divide and conquer is not the best strategy, I think.

We might need to make the community links on the FP more prominent; we shouldn't shunt the community aside somewhere else again!

Think of it as something new, rather than something existing - a page whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate, but I would envisage:

It will be linked from every other h2g2 page (as is the Front Page, PR, etc currently).

It will feature links to other community pages (The Post, Askh2g2, meet-ups etc)

It will welcome new members.

It will clearly link to a lot of 'How do I do this'-type stuff.

It will allow conversations to be posted on it.

It will be visually arresting.

So a <./>Welcome</.> page that includes <./>ThingsYouCanDo</.>, and looks a lot nicer?

Maybe this idea is too conceptual - pie in the sky - but I just don't think the community is joined up enough. I see two strands to h2g2 - the content the community produce and the community who produce the content. The Front Page concentrates on the first of these, but the second is served across a number of areas, and there's no real focus. You mentioned two pages there, and I mentioned <./>Talk</.> earlier. There are probably others too. I'm thinking of a single page where people can feel they can be at the heart of the community and talk about it. It needs to have an identity.

But isn't the community so content precisely because it's spread out? What incentive would there be for everyone to suddenly move to the new page? And if they didn't, would yet another page populated only by newbies be any help to anyone?

It's a portal, not a replacement for those other areas. It's new, and it sits above them. Nobody needs to move, but I guess everyone would want to subscribe to it. It's for the whole community, not just newbies. I could see it having readable community-based content on it, like community news and other features (although it isn't a replacement for The Post in that respect) - it could be just summaries of items found on other community pages (with appropriate links). I'm slowly forming ideas on how it could be editorially controlled, but I'll save that for the moment.

So you mean an Announcements page, but for the community, and with tonnes of links and how-to sections?

You're designing this quicker than I can conceptualise it.

I can see it including announcements and features, but not in detail. It would 'connect with' the community pages as the Front Page 'connects with' the content of h2g2. It would look more like the Front Page than any other existing h2g2 page - ie totally different.

Rather than tonnes of links, I can see it linking to the key community pages - maybe to the level of granularity that the FP links to for example the h2g2 Post - a graphic plus three individual links to specific articles.

Still, how would that differ from the Front Page detailed in A51277773?

I'm not convinced that the new FP could serve both purposes adequately.

I'd also want more of a community involvement with the editorial management.

I want the community portal to be a place where people can hold conversations - I think this is necessary to catch newbies. They will want to post a message there and then and should be encouraged to. They must feel that they have reached the heart of the community, or at least its central nervous system. At the moment, they're navigating around its kidney, its metatarsal and its clavicle without seeing the whole body of the community.

(Don't look at me like that, Alex - maybe I'm short of a good analogy sometimes)

Right then - built it, and they will come

But that means we'd have to artificially make it the heart of the community. The community is very spread out, you can't herd them all into one forum.

Were you thinking something like A53034671, by the way?

Interesting, Alex! But I'd get rid of the "h2g2's 20 Most Recent Conversations" link, that just leads to odd invasions of semiprivate threads...

It's only an example, but I've made the change anyway.

Mala, why do you keep thinking people need to be be moved or herded? This is an addition, not a replacement.

Some of those links on that page could well feature on a community portal, Alex. I see links as being only part of it, though. It will have a dynamic element too, and community interaction through conversation threads. It should also have an arresting design.

Why not just have multiple pages all interlinked, as Askh2g2, HowDoI, GamesRoom and MiscChat are?

>>They must feel that they have reached the heart of the community<<

It reads to me like you want them to post directly on that page. And that page won't *be* the heart of the community unless you move established threads over there and encourage people to start their new ones there. You'll get a few volunteers subscribing to answer the newbies, and everyone else will keep posting wherever in the vast labyrinths.