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

They annoucned it was coming, then we all sneakily krept into it, at which point we were lashed and told off for being naughty, as it was 'unstable' but now, as of Thursday (this thread), they've got it up and we can go break.... test it... : the link is in the first post in this thread; they've not put a direct re-direct in, cept from the URL as given in I think the first post of this thread.
Certain issues are obvious with it, like its getting a bit annoyed if you try and post smileys; some if not all seem to trigger the sweary word filter thinggy... but asides that, and the apostrophy problem its kinda working

This :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2


link oughta redirect you to the Guide MK2. (should have foudn the link before I posted the first message but my brain is being overly sympathetic to the servers today due to caffine overdose and alcohol wilthrdawel )

See post 1 - You can go here and test :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/
Best of luck.

I don't like it. I love my Goo and the new site is TOO DIFFERENT. So I'll be here until I'm forced to change. Harrumph.

Deb

Thanks!

Has anybosy else noticed that when you click on a conversation with the number of new posts it takes you to the first page rather than the new posts?

Yes... Its unusable for that reason alone as far as conversations go, so I'm mainly still on the old version where it works

That seems a bit hit and miss at present. I've clicked on 'latest post' and been taken to the last post made though more often than not to the 1st post, regardless when that was made.
Also noticed that journals don't show in the new PS by default. You have to click the journal tab which brings up a list of all your journals.

But the 'Entries' button is fantastic. It brings you to your latest entries with just one click.

Wasn't the beta version supposed to highlight all the bugs that we're finding now?

I thought that too. Its not only, or just the bugs, its the huge gaps in missing functionality from the current/old version I'd have thought someone might have noticed as well along the way, let alone seemingly no way to post most smileys...

Put this in your pipe and smoke it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/01/h2g2_refresh_design_and_techni.html

The useual self-forfilling positive angle which developers put on their own work... how non-refreshing, it was a constant barrier when I worked on producing accessible educational content for a European wide unviersity project a few years back... I'm also seeing a few key differnces now between waht we've been given and waht was in initial beta version that was put up (which if I remember correctly wasn't an actual* active version of the site so could really not be tested for any actual functionality). Ultimately (in my experience), some of the more major design choices for any design when it comes to actual functionality over appearance, always end up being taken on the ease of the option, the use of familiar technologys/techniques by designers, rather than a wider pool of potential options being considered. We used to have to constantly tell our designers we didn't want X Y or Z in our products, (moreoften than not, specifitying we didn't want Flash, and such like), only to find they then happily demonstrated to us ten versions all entirely reliant on that which we'd asked them to exclude, with whatever justification they came up with being a cover-up for the fact they just used that mehod because they had a couple of guys who did 'that kind of thing' spare and so it ended up being cheaper for them in the project..

I'm not sure what he was talking about. It seems like he thought that a functioning product had been the outcome.

So far, it doesn't seem like the new hootoo really works much at all.


Any word on the convo popup?

I have not yet been able to find the Who's Online link anywhere and wonder if it will be added on at a later date.

But, this is* meant* to be the 'later date', we've got a version, which as far as they're concerned is* the finished version, and we're meant* to be ironing out bugs that don't obviously present themselves, yet anyone, on this version, within the time it takes for a kettle to boil, notices the entire thing is full of bugs and not functioning even at the level of being able to make a post which contains a smiley and an apostrophy. The whole functionality thing, missing conversation popup thing, who's online lists, no unsubscribe buttons next to the threads when they're listed on your PS, etc., etc., is stuff that oughta have been apparent from the initial planning stages and scetch designs, not where we are now, seemingly at the end* of the design process. Little thought now seems to have been given to what functionality existed on the old site, and which was used frequetly, and thereby what oughta have been preserved... I had an optamistic opinion at first yesterday, first looking at the new version, but the more I try* to use it, the more obvious are the glarring omissions, which, I would have thought shoudl have been noticed during initial testing and design and I don't, as yet, anywhere, see anything which is new in terms of functionality, or actually takes the site forward to a differnt place, I don't know what the actual 'look' in terms of asetics is like, but taht is all superficial anyhow relaly as its just the 'skin' and such like... but I thought it was meant to be more than just a new skin, otherwise that could have been achieved by adding a new skin to the old site, yet.... where's the new funcitonality.... and for that matter, where is the old* functionality....

Do we have an option to keep 'old' h2 do no choice but to accept 'New' h2.

I like my Brunel

I think you have a point, 2legs.

The problem with the conversations is keeping most of us off the new site. To someone other than a hootooer, those problems might not seem serious, but to us, they are.

If we can't have rapid conversations, and keep track of them, a lot of the work we do here becomes much harder. We might have to resort to (gulp!) email.

When people can't post properly, or find the latest post quickly, or even see at a glance what they haven't answered yet, it makes the 'ongoing conversation' of h2g2 (or H2G2) more difficult.

Be trendy with your colour palette all you want. You are welcome to design the graphics to suit the Awards Committee. But please fix it so that we can keep talking to each other. It's what we do, and it leads to guide entries and Post articles and a whole lot of cool stuff.

Even I, one of the staunchest supporters of a new design, have reverted back to Goo 'while they sort out the bugs'. While I am hoping this is all it is I agree some of the things that aren't working appear to be fairly important.

That blog that Witty Moniker pointed us at @72 is, I found, very good.
It points up a few difficulties they've had and are having with 'this' site as opposed to the more usual development work.

It's easy to knock, less easy to create.