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This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 1

D

I am just asking why there is not a link to this page on the h2g2 homepage?


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 2

Post Team

It is very difficult to get a link from the Main h2g2 page. We already have one leading to the current edition, so it is only a short step away from there. smiley - smiley

shazz smiley - magic


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 3

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

Times passes.
smiley - zen
The page grows.
smiley - zen
The need for this page to be more visible grows exponentially.
smiley - zen
The reduction in h2g2editorial staff has seen a gross reduction in leadership at this site. This gap must be filled by enthusiastic members politely requesting that certain areas and aspects of the guide be given more visibility. That certain trusted and senior members be given the opportunity to update the many Guides to the Guide to reflect its established qualities rather than its original aspirations.

As you know, there are currently more than half a dozen active threads in Ask h2g2, all asking the same questions about how to use the site, where to find things, backgrounds and history. This is a new and growing phenomenum and the frustration levels of newbies are being exacerbated by the lack of access to any fresh direction from the central information source.

h2g2 Help pages, written perhaps three, two or even one year ago fail to reflect - because they failed to anticipate - the 'generational' gap that has occurred. Not a gap in terms of individual researcher ages, but in time spent on the site. Newbies need a new kind of direction. If all they see is the rowdy chatroom of Ask h2g2 and the closed doors of Peer Review, they'll never get to find all the things that have been created in between. Things that people have been working on for years, to close that very gap. Like smiley - thepost.

smiley - peacedove
~jwf~


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 4

LL Waz

Hear, hear ~jwf~, hear, hear.


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 5

Ancient Brit

IMHO
Until BBCi/The Hub recognise that researchers and other DNA site members are all one virtual community that need drawing together under one recogniseable banner with common objectives, there will be continued confusion and division.
A community needs the father figure and develops bottom up with groups and sections evolving to meet its needs/aspirations. That way the community grows in a controlled way from a central source, developing and expanding its resources accordingly.
H2g2 was/is such a self contained community growing from within, with aspirations and a potential for growth that goes way beyond the edited guide. Unfortunately it no longer has control over the services/resources that it needs.
You must Stumble into the DNA Hub to try and understand what lies ahead.
Ancient Brit


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 6

Ancient Brit

I should add the new breed of intellegence who have signed in for Message Boards, Points of View and other DNA Sites, past, present and future are all part of the BBCi Community, along with Listeners and Viewers. Let's not forget that DNA the BBC's Community Website Engine has the capability to make the h2g2 snowflake grow into a BBCi blizzard. Once again folks Stumble into the DNA Hub and Get Together. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A896097 http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F94020?thread=441839 Merry Christmas to all Ancient Brit


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 7

LL Waz

Ouch, Ancient Briton. I stubbed my toe, stumbled and fell over "collective is the trendy pub with chrome and glass tables, with loud house music pounding away, while h2g2 is perhaps more of a Weatherspoons (!?). "

And not for the first time smiley - cry! The first time I lurked across that post I was about to put something in to collective's photo caption gallery. Motivation evaporated instantly. I've felt I didn't belong in collective ever since. Don't tell me what a Weatherspoons is. I have an idea but am deliberately not thinking about it. I might find I don't belong in h2 either.

I refuse to be anyone's demographic.

When did the staff become competing breweries instead of community-representing town councillors anyway?

This community should be a town in which there are many pubs. And cafes, and coffee shops, even tea houses if you must drink that stuff. (A solid half hour discussion I had to listen to on water:teabag ratios on New Year's day, and no agreement, no ground given or taken at the end of it, no negotiated way forward... unbelievable.) Where was I, oh yes, we should be a town in which there are many pubs, etc, not a mere collection of competing pubs.

I refuse to be demographytubbied! I'm a Scots country dancing, traction-engine-fancying, Big-Brother-watching, tree-hugging, bean-counter who loves the Gherkin and doesn't particulary like any pub. Demography that BBC!

Why am I standing on a box?

I'll get off.

Happy New Year you lot smiley - smiley.


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 8

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

An epic posting there Waz!
As the movie reviewer said, "I laughed, I cried, I ate popcorn."
smiley - roflsmiley - crysmiley - popcorn

I hope to give you some encouragement by telling you that I know where-of you speak but I am wary of sounding like I told you so because empathy is my intention and nothing more.

Yes, the bedraggled banner of community spirit is a heavy flag to wave sometimes. The apparent lack of support from so many quarters can leave one feeling helpless and foolish. That's why I want to say Thank You for your single handed standard bearing.

Your Herculean efforts over the past few months to coordinate so much of the Underguide and so many issues of CAC-C will have brought you close to edge of total frustration. In senseless cyberspace all sound, smell, touch and taste are lost and the rare and occasional sight of 'printed' words is your only reward.

An actor cannot live with a silent audience; no matter how appreciative they may feel internally, the crowd, the stagehands, the theatre management, all must project some positive feedback or the sad harlequin will abandon the stage forlorn and lonely. Here then is the sound of my one hand clapping. smiley - applause

I hope it gives you the strength to carry on, but I also advise you to take a break. To that end it is my intention to begin assembling a few CAC-C issues over the next few weeks.

I have been meaning to do so for some time and really should have much, much earlier. I have actually tried, but having let myself get too worn down, even the thought of making an effort toward CACCing became a painful chore rather than a joyful sharing of the cyberspatial experience.

I thank the goddessess that you were there to fill the gap this long. Happily the Underguide is still recruiting fresh blood so you should be able to delegate some responsibilities there as well and take some time to enjoy other endeavours where the mantle of responsibility does not rest soley upon your shoulders.
Cheers
~jwf~


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 9

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

PS: Any chick who likes traction engines is OK in my book.
smiley - peacedove
~jwf~


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 10

Post Team

Does this mean that your connection problems are now resolved ~jwf~ smiley - ok

As Waz says, it is approaching a full-time job to keep the spirit of community alive and well on h2g2 - I always intend visiting 'the hub' and sister sites but time escapes me.

As ~jwf~ notes, the lack of feedback can be disheartening. Sometimes I think that <./>ThePost</.> is not really appreciated or a necessary part of h2g2. Ironically, more people post when an edition is missing than when one appears...

I marvel, sometimes, that our contributors keep writing and cartoonists keep creating. I always wonder if I am wasting precious hours of sleep on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning agonising over what tone to take in an editorial which no-one seems to read...

shazz smiley - thepost


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 11

Ancient Brit

Hi you guys having stumbled into this thread perhaps I should not have stuck in my two penny worth.
However since waz responded to my post I feel that I must try to reply along the line of my rant.

Sorry about your toe undemographytubbiedable Waz, bumps and bruises are the price we pay for lurking around.smiley - ok
Must admit that your CV is somewhat difficult to demographitize but every community must have its characters. smiley - smiley This does make the point however that no matter how many tea bags suit your taste you need to wander around to see if there is a tea shop that suits you. If you can't find one, but find other poor soles with similar taste buds to yours, then you get together and create one. Speculative tea shop builders can not hope to meet everyone's taste. Of course once you have your tea shop you need to give it an atmosphere, this may prove more difficult to achieve than the best loved brew of tea. What needs to happen is that tea lovers and atmosphere creators make a compromise and bingo within the community as a whole we have a tea lovers group happy to coexist. Of course this could be problem to some community members because in the course of evolution they find that they have been demographically absorbed. smiley - biggrin

F1703092?thread=540472?thread=&skip=520&show=20


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 12

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

>> Ironically, more people post when an edition is missing than when one appears... <<

Somewhere between such ancient wisdoms as 'ya dont miss the water til the well runs dry' and 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease' there is a Truth that should be obvious to the bean counters and number crunchers at the Beeb. But they lack imagination and seemingly Faith, Hope and Charity are more than their job descriptions demand as well.

I'm not speaking of the present h2g2 'staff' (only two now I understand smiley - yikes who somehow carry on in what must be very difficult circumstances to maintain the Edited Guide) but those supposedly wise gurus of mass media and global communication who have failed to see the value and potential of this 'fan based' site and the power of its people.

It bears repeating that the efforts of shazz to keep 'the post'smiley - thepost going is the only form of any genuine site management visible around here anymore. The otherwise complete lack of leadership on this site has resulted in a thousand lonely voices trying to rekindle the original spark and getting no support of any kind from the Corporation.

There is a great and crying need for someone to be in charge and organise activities and conversations on subjects of current popular interest and to give researchers a chance to explore many long standing social issues that need resolutions which governments and corporations see no profit in considering.

If someone could only take a leading role in the direction and purposes of this site. It clearly still has the potential to offer the world and the future something of great value. Even if that is only a smile from time to time amid the chaos of this dying planet.

If there ever was any hope that any place in cyberspace could be the center of a new age of global intercourse and exchange of ideas it was here at h2g2. The potential is still here. C-mon Beeb, give us the tools and the means and we will change the world.

If only I could spend half the energy I currently exude in worry about the horrid waste of talent and enthusiasm around here I might actually be able to contribute something significance myself besides my constant harping that this ship is adrift and needs a happy crew.

smiley - pirate
~jwf~



This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 13

Ancient Brit

POV, the latest DNA release is as close the engine as you are likely to get. - F1951572?thread=559296
Other DNA sites are being put on the back burner.


This should be on the h2g2 homepage

Post 14

LL Waz

POV on POV - a place for Irate of Ipswich and Ranting of Reading to vent. Compare that to ~jwf~'s potential h2g2...

The banner got bedraggled on being hauled back into the Wetherspoons after going out to help some GWers wandering dazed at finding a demolition order on the door of the GetWriting Arms. As you can see I've spruced it up again. AB's still out there trying to help with some others with feet in both pubs. Go AB! I can't stand in the middle of the street with an UGlie hat on. But I'll have a word in the ear of any that come looking in the Wetherspoon's windows.

I appreciate what you said up there jwf. There are times when I get work/fun out of balance here. On the whole though it's a matter of perspective. Which is my responsibility to get right. I can choose that. It's a whole lot easier to do among friends though.

Could say a whole lot more but between you all you've covered it.

I will say that regarding the UG I may have been the most visible UGed recently but there are reasons for that. And Jodan kept the UG going for a long time, perhaps to the point where all this stopped being fun at all for him. I don't know, but he might have got a fair bit more bedraggled than me. And some of my bedragglement was protest...



I read the latest editorial shazz. You said it all, there wasn't anything to add. I've noticed with UGs on the Front Page that you can almost predict which ones will get feedback. There are certain things that provoke an audible response and others that don't.



I just had a thought. We could start a POV thread for POVs on h2g2... I'll be Addled of Ash smiley - smiley.


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