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

After a serious brush with the Vogon guards on the Apple Discussion Boards (and contemplating the likelihood that they will become 'fee for service" before too long), a number of regular contributors there are looking for a nice new planet to camp on for a while.

Heck! The Vogons even started deleting our quotations from Douglas Adams on the basis that it didn't have anything to do with Macs!

I promise we will only take up a bit of space (there are only twenty or thirty of us as far as I know) , and some of us know a little bit about fixing up Mac things, as well as posting long and meaningless drivel about the relationship between Macs and wedding parties, H.D. Thoreau, George Bernard Shaw and Belgian beer, (well, the Vogons say its drivel, we don't )

Mind if we pop in?

Cheers

Rod

Sure! It'll only cost you $49 for the first year if you're already a member, and $100 a year after that ... sound fair?

Strangely , Shea , I've heard something similar quoted back on the Vogon Constructor Fleet site Vogon Constructor Fleet site.

Tell you what, at absolutely no charge, we are prepared to er...errr. um...

(I'll think of something)

Cheers

Rod

Guess I'm not so original after all ...

Damn - different html conventions in use here obviously -
lets try
Vogon constructor fleet

Cheers

rod

Agggh.

How do I post a link to a URL here without the URL appearing in full?

Cheers

Rod

Rod, This might help: Optional attributes are shown in italics. ...text... This version is used to link to websites outside h2g2. * For websites outside h2g2, the ...url... argument must be a well-formed and complete URL, normally starting with http:// . The tag will put an entry in the 'Referenced Sites' or 'Related BBC Pages' section of the Entry Data box, the text of which will be the ...text... argument if the TITLE attribute is not present, or the ...title... argument if the TITLE attribute is present. If you need to include a & character in your URL, then type it in as & like this: . * If the TITLE attribute is present, then the tag will put an entry in the 'Referenced Sites' or 'Related BBC Pages' section of the Entry Data box, using ...title... argument as the text for the reference link. * If POPUP="1" is present, then the link will open up a new browser window for the linked page or site. * There is no closed version of this tag available, as it's not practical to dynamically search for titles of off-site web pages. Jaq

Ah , thank you Jaq!

Didn't I see you in the Volgon Hold a few minutes back?

Cheers

Rod

OK lets try
a little while back

Hi, Rod!

As you've just figured out, there's no provision for doing that sort of link in these forum threads - it only works in the articles the threads are attached to... Any fully formed URL will automatically become a link, as will any references to user spaces (mine is U38364) or articles, such as A1422 or A593697.

It's free, and should always stay free, as it's run by the BBC here in the UK. (a publicly funded broadcaster) The BBCi moderators will remove any links to purely "commercial" pages, defined as any page with a shopping basket/checkout facility on it.

There's a good range of conversation smileys (overview at A155909) and no practical limit to the number of A-pages (Articles) and conversation threads you can create.

I'll add you to the member list for this group now; I suggest you spend an "interesting" day typing all your interests into the "search" box at the top of the page (well, actually *not* the one in the grey bar at the top, but the one which is next to the links for "Life", "The Universe" and "Everything"...) as you may find other groups worth checking out, interesting articles or just a good laugh.

Share and enjoy.

Other cool stuff about this place...

Forum threads can be any length, e.g. F63252?thread=100492

The site is skinnable! Only two skins at the moment, but at least one more due for imminent release...

Alibaster (default) looks like this: A219638?skin=Alibaster

Goo (Original and best) looks like this: A219638?skin=Classic

If you explore from one of the example links above you'll find a comprehensive and moderately entertaining "Help" system...

(psst Jac, do you think I should tell Peet that last I heard there were actually 2.2 million of us disgruntled iTools members out there. Hope its a fairly big planet)

Thanks Peet.

I just discovered the "no fancy link stuff in conversations" section in the guide to the guide. Keep on forgetting to read the instruction manual. I guess that's why the video still thinks its 1904.

If I can entrice a few of the others over here I suspect we might have a fairly entrertaining time. Watch out for Allan Titmuss if he appears though. He lives in Essex.

Cheers

Rod

Hello everyone .

I used to hang around the Apple Boards in the old days before the format changed. I used to answer questions so often that Apple would send me presents .

Is my friend Spazz still around?



Amy the Ant

Good morning Rod,

I think this is a great eye deer! Got to head off to work, but I'll check in from there later.

Donna

Haven't run into Spazz, Amy. Probably one of an earlier batch of DADBU's) (Disgruntled Apple Discussiuon Board Users).

I've had a couple of "in and out" periods there myself, first during the great "Drive SetUp 3 diasater" of the mid 1990's, and then for most of the last year or so.

Most of the DADBU's this time round are people with a thousand or more posts up , offering succour on the iMac discussion board. Apple decided to get heavy about any extraneous laughter, literary allusions and the like, despite the fact that all the labour was being done by the customers, and the Apple phone advice service's primary role was referring people to us!

They've introduced a new "helper' status with various minor perks attached, which some of us don't like for various reasons. When I posted my reasons for not accepting the offer, my post was dragged very rapidly and I soon after received a note warning me about "inappropriate postings"

(I suspect this probably really stemmed from my posts concerning Allan Titmuss's failure to show up with some Belgium beer on time to marry me at Westminster Abbey, but that wouldn't make anything like as good a story. He's not really from Essex, you know. Donna, who seems to have arrived as well also wanted to marry him, but she didn't have any decent beer. With luck we might get a visit from a passing Belgian, who always has the best beer. Alternatively the notice might have come from likening another poster to Grendel or his mum, but I don't think any of them had read Beowulf.)

Anyway, nice to be here, and a very fine planet it sems to be too, from my antipodean perspective.

Cheers

Rod

Nice to see you arrived safely Donna. I warn you though , Titmuss has been lurking around. Mind those plaits!

Cheers

Rod

Rod,

Thanks for the warning! If he pulls my hair, I'll tie him up and force him to listen to Bob Dylan for 2 hours.

Donna

Followed you over Rod, glad to see you've brought some mates (where's the beer?) (But you didn't invite Ryan, I hope!)

Funny I've been using the Beeb's site for ages, but never knew of this bit.

Is it that time of day already?!