...and welcome to h2g2. Chances are, you've come here from a link I've posted to your user space, welcoming you here. As an A.C.E., or Assistant Community Editor, I have volunteered to help anyone new. As have all these people:

...so feel free to ask any questions of anyone on that list

If your question is more of a technical nature, there are another group, known as 'Gurus', who will be more than willing to help out. Here they are:

If you're new to the guide, you'll probably want to know what it's all about. It's not a Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy fan-site¹, but rather an attempt to emulate the Guide itself, in a special Earth Edition.

There are many places to get started on h2g2, but one of the best is the official tour. Here you'll find how you can contribute to the guide, what all those buttons on the top of each screen are, and also help cut through some of the jargon we're all fond of here². Other places of note are the editors' welcome message, and a welcome message from Douglas Adams.

Once you've figured out what we're all about, you may want to roll up those virtual sleeves and get involved. Hootoo³ doesn't begin and end with the Edited Guide, but it's an interesting place to start. The Edited Guide is an attempt to collate everyone's knowledge of Life, The Universe, and Everything. To get an idea of the wide variety of entries in the Edited Guide, you can have a look at a random entry.

As well as being a guide to everything, h2g2 is also a community. We have our own newspaper - The h2g2 Post - and lots of regional groups of researchers can be found here. If your part of the world isn't covered, feel free to start your own . We have our own 'Notes and Queries'-type page called Ask The h2g2 community, and weekly Talking Points. It's a great place to hang out, there's no need to write hideously complicated guide entries if you don't want to - you can talk nonsense in one thread, and discuss philosophy, religion and politics elsewhere. There are societies such as the Musician's Guild, the Politics Forum, and err, the Procrastinators' Society that you can join, and join in.

Above all, have fun! h2g2 is a big place, but it's also friendly - don't be afraid to interject with your own views in conversations, and if you find anything you wish you had known about when you first joined, let me know .