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

Preserve H2G2 as it was on the last day of existance ... sounds like we would become a museam peice.

Bel in the V and A now theres a thing.

The history of h2g2 is in the post, and Bel is part of the post, so be it. Of course there is also much more to h2g2.

Some people have mentioned that edited guide entries for H2G2 have been listed in the bibiliographies or footnotes for shcolarly papers. Even if we had nothing else going for us, that should be enough to ensure some kind of preservation....

still no word from TPTB about entries now being closed

MUSHROOM syndrome

Can anyone find out for sure

About mushrooms, or about preservation, or about the citations in scholarly papers?

Well, what can they say? If the BBC do not yet know the final fate of the site - whether they dispose of it to a buyer - who that buyer will be - then what's to say until they do?

Ben

"entries now being closed"

I think that means bids, offers, memos of intent to buy, etc
from potential new owners, Mr D.


~jwf~

May I take this opportunity to wish the Committee (and everyone who helped) good luck and thank you all for all your hard work.

You certainly may.

I'm actually pretty optimistic (I'm also pretty when I'm not optimistic ). I look forward to all the towels I'll be buying from this site as a means of financing its operations.

I thought we'd agreed that if a buyer isn't found we were going to run it ourselves. Even if the Beeb decide not to play ball we've got enough domains between us to host the Zarniwoop's office equivalent of Hootoo. It would probably even have better functionality. If they pull up the shutters it will just be the start of the Hootooers doing for ourselves. I'm more concerned that they'll sell it to the wrong people and we'll be stuck with a site which becomes an echo of what it was and leaves us in a 'like it or leave it' situation.

We're all worried about that.

We're lighting a candle in the darkness. It is a beacon to show the way for any who may wish to follow.

What I wonder is all of our posts and people's accounts and things, will those be transferred over to the new location when they do find a buyer or is everybody going to have to start over from scratch?

'When I hear about privatisation I reach for my gun'.

Some of you don't seem to realise there's a recession on, resulting in all kinds of fair and unfair savage cuts. I don't think personal responses are adequate, myself. The Beeb's budget has been cut and they are looking for a way to sell us or close us down, in spite of the nice words from good people like Nick, who obviously don't agree with the decision.

Well, what can they say? If the BBC do not yet know the final fate of the site - whether they dispose of it to a buyer - who that buyer will be - then what's to say until they do?
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Curiosity peeked..what were the terms they acquired h2g2 from digital village...what codicils.codecs/crocodiles ect were imposed as to the continuation was on the site for less than a month before it moved...but what contingencies were in place then and is the old site still viable..were pinky and perky real jews or are they just old hams...curiosity is such a strange beast..

Sounds an interesting line of enquirey

Shakespeare had some colorful things to say about cuts -- "unkindest cut of all," e.g.

As for our situation, there would be some logic in thinking that a site that was originally in private hands [i.e. The Digital Village) would be made private again. We could even od a reality check: look at the other sites on the Internet. An awful lot of them are privately owned. They survive somehow. If we really got in trouble, there might be some of them that could tell us how to make it, too. It can't require the mentality of a rocket scientist, or many of those sites wouldn't be out there.

Having never dealt with the subject of internet sales and worth I can't even fathom a guess as to what the place may be worth but I can't imagine the figure is all that large. I wonder though, given that there won't be a whole lot to be made off an actual sale if promoting the donation of the site as a whole to a non profit would be a better tact to explore. I've given away plenty to folks who need and can appreciate items rather than sell for a pittance and that's what our sales figure would to a multmillion dollar or pound corporation.

National libraries on either side of the pond would be a worthwhile avenue and here in the US we have PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) which is where most of us here were first exposed to BBC programming. Unlike the BBC there is no web community currently associated with it and I believe they would welcome hosting an already establised one such as ours, as true a sybiotic match as one could ever hope for. Plus it only seems logical for one broadcasting service to give a hand to another in such a fashion and an act of generosity that would be worth far more from a publicity and PR standpoint than any monitary proceed is likely to generate