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

Yes. I would say I'm partial to having some kind philanthropist prop up the site, thus saving us the emotional turmoil, but the benefits of h2g2 breaking free are actually there. It would definitely be worth the effort.

>>That's exactly the type of thing I mean when I say an opportunity, jwf. Photo galleries, sound clips, A/V content - these are all options that are open to us with greater flexibility than we had under BBC stewardship.


Maybe. It also makes things more complicated. They're having enough trouble getting text and static images right in the redesign

I like the AV limitations of this site. It makes us more dependant on text as communication, and that's important for a writers' community.

How about asking some of the borderline trolls, who are disliked by many and seem not to care, to be mods. The extra opprobium wouldn't bother them.

As such, I'd volunteer to be a mod

Second great laugh of the day HI.

As the first Borderline Troll Moderator and thus the Borderline Troll Moderator facilitator, it's your job to draw up a list of the others

Kea, I don't see any problems about pictures. Especially in Entries, sometimes pictures are just the better way to explain things.

I think the problem is how much of the formula can you change and still have the same result?
many of our entries have a simple picture
as a community artist I've drawn a few
and the restraints on file size were annoying but necessary
the formatting was a little archaic but the whole system is
I do think sound and video might.. complicate matters
and rather then the format we currently use with talking to each other through type...

I think AV as an adjunct to what we do is fine (the aviators have some some great work). But what I was cautioning against was what Anthea is talking about... changing the base ways of communicating, and opening up the site to holus bolus AV.

I do agree that some entries could do with diagrams etc. But there is a limit and I think we're reasonably close to it.

I also don't think we need pictures in forum posts and definitely not *all* Entries need more pictures, but they should have them where needed.

As mentioned before I'm happy to act as a volunteer moderator... enough common sense to know when something isn't actually offensive, and sensible enough to let someone else moderate any conversation I'm involved with myself.

I think as long as the whole thing is kept reasonably light and transparent instead of the anonymous juggernaut we have now there wouldn’t be any problems. Another thing is that that posts, in my opinion, should only be removed after it has been decided by official people that they break the house rules.

There's been some discussion on the googlegroup about the difficulties of moderating people you know, or doing it invisibly.

depending google groups: I don't get how this thing works, is there any way to just see where new posts are or do I really have to search trough all threads every minute and then find out what I have read already?

It doesn't really work for me either. I'm just reading them from my email account. Every time to go to the site and read the posts it doesn't seem to remember that I've read them, so the 'new' post count keeps on growing.

Your best bet may be to create an email specifically for the groups or set up a filter so it doesn't clutter up the rest of your emails.

I don't have an awful lot to contribute so I'm happy sitting back and only contributing when I need to.

try clicking the "View this group in the new Google Groups" link on the left or just use email (be sure to set up a filter so it all goes into its own folder instead of clogging up your inbox )

Ok, thanks. I have the same problems you have, Vip. Seems like there is no way around having the stuff on email, I tried to avoid it.

re: Email try clicking the "Edit my membership" link on the google groups page.

The new posts thing is working most but not all of the time for me.

See how useful dna/h2g2 functionality is?

Yup, count me in!

I would contribute with some money if needed.
AndreaS

Did you two join the site just to pledge support? If so, that's awesome.