Hi! Welcome! We're so glad you joined us!

h2g2 is a fun place to be, but it can seem overwhelmingly big when you first arrive. But if you're having difficulties then don't panic! There are plenty of lovely people out there who would love to help you.

Grab yourself an ACE. These are other researchers like you who have volunteered to help new users (and not so new users!) get to grips with the h2g2 community.

Or get your own Guardian Angel, as nice a bunch of people as their name suggests.

Practice makes perfect,and you'll soon get the hang of all the features h2g2 has to offer.

Take the Tour and if you can't find what you're looking for then try finding it in the list of Frequently Asked Questions.

Still Stuck? Then post your question in the appropriate section of Feedback and someone will get back to you. (Did I tell you what a nice helpful bunch we are here?)

Another group of volunteers here to help you are the Gurus. If you're having any trouble with h2g2 then these are the people to ask.

Avoid being moderated by checking out the House Rules (and then take a sneaky peek at the Alternative House Rules. Written by other researchers and totally unofficial [read the disclaimer at the top of the page], but it should still give you an idea of how the rules are actually put into practice).

Everyone is an expert on something

So why not share your knowledge with the rest of us?

First place to check out is Writing Guidelines.

If you want some help with an entry you're writing then pop in to the Writing Workshop, and once you're happy with it then you could always submit it to Peer Review where you can also comment on other peoples entries (But remember - be nice out there, people)

Of course, if factual entries aren't your thing then you'll meet like-minded people at H2G2 Fiction Central.

But it's not all "hard work"

Find out where all the action is at Talking About The Guide.

Find out what's coming up by checking the Noticeboard.

Before joining in with some of the more imaginative conversations you might want to read The Law of H2G2 continuity which should help you to avoid upsetting the locals

Are you a creative soul? Then why not consider becoming a Muse?

Everyone has a favourite something. Declare yourself Keeper of it. Or ask nicely, that might work better.

We have our very own newspaper here at h2g2! The h2g2 Post is always a great read. It's updated every thursday night(GMT) and they've even got their own Page of Useful Links.

You can't afford not to have a look at their list of h2g2 Clubs and Associations! It's a huge list of all the best places to meet people.

A good place for starting out is Ask the h2g2 community where reasearchers ask questions about anything and everything. You're not allowed to ask the question, though. You know, the ultimate question...

You'll notice a lot of these little fellas all over the place. You can learn all about them at the smiley page.

You may hear people talking about the italics. This is a nickname given to the h2g2 Team because their name appears in italics when they post to conversation forums. These lovely people are responsible for the running of this wonderful site. (Although it's you, me and the rest of the community that make it really special!)

Getting to Grips With GuideML

You don't need to be able to use GuideML to contribute to the guide, but it allows you to make really neat looking guide entries, and add lots of really snazzy stuff like pictures to your user space.

The GuideML Clinic is a good place to start but a cool tip is to see how other people do it.

To see the code for a guide entry type the address into your browser but put the word 'test' in front of the page number instead of the letter 'A'. For example to see the code for this page (A618888) you would type:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/test618888

Looking at the code for a user space is very similar - you type 'testuserpage' instead of the letter 'U'. So to see the code for my user space (U179821) it would be :-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/testuserpage179821

Don't worry if you're not familiar with techie stuff and it all looks very confusing - I'm normally hopeless with technical stuff, but GuideML is really easy to get the hang of.

These are just some links to get you started.

Most of the fun is finding really cool places by yourself!

But if you come across anything you think other new users really should know about then please click on the 'discuss this entry' button and tell me about it.

The most important thing? Have fun!