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

still no word about entries now being closed!!!

any of the italics care to comment??

Man Up!!!!

That's not a bad idea, Spynxx, though the timing could not possibly be worse. Congress voted recently to totally eliminate its funding for public radio and television. Individual stations will be looking at budget shortfalls of 10% or more, and would hardly be receptive to taking on anything extra like a website. In a few years, after the dust has settled and they've strengthened their fundraising apparatus,m it might be a different story.

From the beginning of the end I've been thinking that the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) would be a good fit for hootoo. The CBC is a Crown Corporation (Government owned but quasi-arms-length from the Government of the Day), it has an almost fanatical devotion to culture and the arts but is not in any way averse to selling towels, etc. for funding and, indeed, does not depend on Government for all of it's funding (unlike the BBC), it has a very active and engaged web presence, and a very active and engaged and devoted audience.

Of course, a French language version of hootoo would have to be developed after such a take-over, and the Editors' time zone would change, but, would those necessarily be bad things?

But, this is all just a daydream. Who knows what plans are being made behind closed doors?

>> Of course, a French language version of hootoo would have to be developed <<

Mon dueiu! Say she eez not so!

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Guide_du_voyageur_galactique


~jwf~

Many's the time I've found things on the French wikithingy that simply weren't covered by the English one. It's nice to see that Le Guide de l'autostoppeur pour la galaxie is covered so nicely.

Leesten ferry carfully,I vill oonlee zay zis wance...

The French / Francophoniques can take care of their own if they want to translate the Guide so that is not an issue I think.
Thinking about it... English, French and Spanish are the most used languages of the world, apart from Chinese which is gaining popularity now, so why not embrace the multi-lingual setup? This does not mean we have to translate every single Entry or Conversation but I think in time the most laureated Entries could be translated to show/feature in The Post of other languages.
We would not have to incorporate every language under the sun and certainly not in one site but we can sanction the use of the look&feel and the engine for a h2g2 site in a different language. The rules & regulations of the 'mother' h2g2 would govern the 'offspring' sites but the content can differ between them.

The time-zones are not such a problem now and hosting the site in Canada (to name just a different timezone) will not make a difference as we have / will find volunteers in most of the timezones. The challenge in hosting h2g2 in a country other than the UK will be in finding a way to establish the legal entity of the not-for-profit organisation. That is presuming the BBC will sell h2g2 to the Community.

Let's keep on dreaming and write down what we dream of for that is the way to make some dreams come true.

Taff, I'm going to explain this as simply as I can in the hope you will understand it...

The only information we, as users of h2g2, need to have right now about the closing date for enquiries is that there has been one. After that there needs to be meetings; internal meetings and meetings with bidders, which cannot be rushed because business doesn't work that way. Anybody involved with theprocess at either end will very likely have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement, meaning they cannot discuss what's going on until things have been finalised, so even if the italics do know what's happening they cannot tell you. And no, before you say it (because you will), this is not an attempt to decieve us in any way, it's standard practice.

then why wont they confirm the window they set in the advertisment is now closed???

do they think it will give too much away

come on a simple post, stating the bleeding obvious!!!

what are they affraid of, what are they not admitting??

it just stinks to me, and that is my opinion!!!

I think we can assume that nothing material has changed since their last announcemnet and things are continuing based on their published time table.

Taff, you are asking them to make regular annoucements saying:

Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.
Ladies and gentlemen, the news is that there is no news.

Not expecting "regular" announcements, but a posting to the effect of "Applications to take over the site have now closed, and (x) parties have expressed an interest" would have been nice. I don't see how *that* would have broken "commercial confidentiality", unless they were stringing the only party who had expressed an interest along by pretending they were bidding against someone else...

Yeah, you are right Peet.

I actually get Taff's frustration and agree that there could be more updates more often.

Taff, it may help you help us if you know what frustrates the rest of us about your outbursts. It's

(a) the rage you vent when you're expressing your frustrations and
(b) the paranoid-victim mentality
(c) the fact you completely ignore anything anyone else says to you or about the subject



I'm deleting everything else I've drafted in this post because it really wouldn't help...

Ben

>>come on a simple post, stating the bleeding obvious!!!

Well, if it's obvoius then there's no real need to say anything is there.

We know the window has closed, because the published date for enquiries has passed. Posting in order to say just that seems somwhat unnecessary.

We are reasonably intelligent people here. We do not need to be told that 2+2=4.


Geggs

I retract that last post. Ben is right.


Geggs

>> Let's keep on dreaming and write down what we dream of
for that is the way to make some dreams come true. <<


Thanks for that shot of optimism and hope Haragai!

BTW, anhaga's mention of the necessity of creating an
equal and parallel French version is because of Canadian
Law. We are an official bi-lingual country and by law
everything from Parking Tickets to instructions on a
cereal box has to be offered in both French and English.

There is a legal, pedantic and bureaucratic 'need' to
do this for all things, even those that are of no interest
or of any real concern to the 'other' language.

In addition, the province of Quebec operates under the so-
called Napoleonic Code of Law so things like setting up a
company or corporation or co-operative society are a little
different and effectively double the costs of all the legal
necessities to register and operate a business.

~jwf~

I think you hit the nail on the head there Ben. And for what it's worth I do agree that there could be more updates, but don't think that throwing a wobbly every time there *isn't* one will help anybody.

And might well end up with one of the known conflict-avoiders throwing mufflewhumps at the wobbly-thrower

Whenever I see that there have been a lot of recent posts in this thread, I think that an important announcement has just been made (be still, my heart!). Then I come here and find more of what we've heard before (except for the CBC idea, which seems new).

The real world has some really huge problems right now: a population almost the size of New Orleans homeless in Japan, bloody civil war in Ivory Coast and Libya, a looming government shut down in the U.S. because of political intransigence in Congress, plus ongoing wars that never seem to get resolved. The world is a mess, and I'd like to have a safe haven where I can go to temporarily forget it....

You can always just unsubscribe. And I don't mean that in a "well, just go away if that's the way you feel" manner, but as in simply, don't let a thread bring you down. If there is to be any significant new announcements, the Eds will make a new thread.

I've unsubbed from a few threads lately and I've thought about doing so in this one for reasons similar to those you expressed. Until there are new developments, nothing much is happening other than some fretting and fraying, which is to be expected. The lack of new information can be quite stressful if you let it. Much better to just wait calmly, help where you can, and continue on with normal activity.

"Much better to just wait calmly, help where you can, and continue on with normal activity." [Count Zero]

I'm doing most of that. Are you're certain that the editors would start a new thread if new developments arose? If so, I could unsubscribe....

Yes, fairly certain. This thread isn't even the latest. While they have occasionally revisited existing threads they typically create a new one when anything significant happens.