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

indeed!

It is indeed, 17 and gorgeous.

Please wish her many many happy returns from us. And and s of course.

Happy Birthday, Polly!

I thought I'd pop my head through the door and add my congratulations to Robbie and the team. I wish I could say I had something to do with the bid's success, but all I could offer was good wishes and vague advice.

I haven't been hands-on with h2g2 (or DNA) for a few years now, having been working on other projects inside the BBC, but I've always felt very paternal towards the site. I'm really glad it's now going to have the opportunity to grow in a natural direction, rather than having to fit in the rather odd-shaped corner the BBC left it in. I had dinner with Pastey yesterday, and we discussed a few of the challenges ahead (even came up with some likely-sounding solutions) so I'm sure the future will be more fruitful than the recent past has been.

That's enough horticultural metaphors from me. Good luck.

James - lovely to see you here, and thank you so much for dropping in, I do hope that you find it to your liking.


Another happy birthday to Polly as well

Jim - Thanks for your support - and great to see you back.

Z - Still with a big grin all over my face.

And now it's all sorted out, please don't hesitate to ask about the technical stuff. I'm not sure I'll have a huge amount of time to offer, but I'll help where I can.

Jim! Yay! Verily today there are giants among us all. Thanks for dropping by, it will be really good to have your advice and help.



Ben

We are so lucky!!

It's amazing how much luck one has when one works hard at being prepared for it.

There was a *lot* of work that went into this.

I can't visualize a place for myself on the transitional teams, but after things are settled in, I intend to be more active in Peer Review. I used to enjoy PR, but somehow got away from it.....

Oh my. The revered Great Ancient Ones are among us once more.
How Awesome.
What's next? N*ghtH**v*r or it's bostard child?
Anyho(otoo), thanks for the kind words and the caring.

"Robbie Stamp"

Sounds a perfect name for hootoo

Besides, it's a little known secret that Robbie is n*ghth**v*r's long lost brother.

>> n*ghth**v*r's long lost brother
Well, he's not so lost anymore now. Is he?

n*ghth**v*r isn't lost, he's dead

n*ghth**v*r may (or may not) be dead but it seems he lives on (or not) by proxy if not (or not not) by progeny.

Good to see you back Jim! Hopefully you'll keep popping by and seeing how we're doing, if not helping steer, I'm certainly going to be bugging you for help!

It was good to see Jim last night and talk a little techy, and since I'm even more convinced that we can achieve something truly great here folks!

We've said it before, but I think a couple of things need repeating. We were a blogging site when "blog" was still a shortened term for "Web log" and referred to the visitor tracking stats. Yes, we're indirectly responsible for WordPress. We were an online reference site two *years* before Wikipedia, it'd take about two years to build that site two. We were a social networking site when a certain Harvard chap was still in high school. Douglas, Robbie, James and the others had the vision for this site, Jim Lynn and his team built this site, and we populated it and turned their vision and work into what I believe is the single site that went on to inspire what the internet became.

And now? Now we're free to see what else we can pioneer!

Over the last 36 hours we've seen those we thought had elvis'd either return or unlurk. We have here the community that isn't about quantity, it's about quality. And we keep coming back. I couldn't give a pair of fetid dingoes kidneys how many people use Facebook, they don't *care* about it. If Facebook was being disposed off do we really believe that the current owners would put the community first? Or that the community there would try to guarantee its future? No. Because they're not a community, they're users.

We have the community, we have the vision. And now we have the future.

Welcome aboard, it's gonna be a heck of a ride! :D

The one who dusts in the dark is not dead, yea variably whee prey to his (or her, or any variation of said person or persons or partial recreation) wholly presents (or wooly ones).

Are you sure you want back into this madhouse?

As always Pastey, very well said!

Actually, I wouldn't put any money on Facebook being around much longer, despite their size and profile. Much backlash and muttering going on about people closing their accounts and wanting to be rid of them forever. It didn't help when they started talking about closing accounts people had made for their pets.,