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

This thread is for discussing proposals for engaging the rest of the web, to include:
1) Promote the Guide
2) Attracting and retaining researchers
3) Attracting and retaining readers

This particular topic has been discussed in Recovering from Stockholm Syndrome - h2g2 after the BBC F19585?thread=8029882 and elsewhere on h2g2.

Thank you,

Happy Nerd

While this is an aspect I've very shaky on, I'll try to get the ball rolling:

1)Promote the Guide
I suppose there are a couple of major ways:
-written articles in newspapers/magazines/online
-advertising in same
-maintaining the Facebook and Twitter feeds
-personal word-of-mouth (e.g. verbal, blogs)
-Creating 'Best of' books - Showcase Entries
-Merchandise

2)Attracting and retaining Researchers

-having a clear way to finding the active parts of the Guide
-having important information (like the above) either emailed or having as the background text to a new user's Space
-ACEs should welcome, but be there to provite support to the information already given, not as the sole giver-outers of information
-having all new conversations to Approved Entries displayed so that new user's posts aren't ignored
-remain a friendly group of people who are appreciative of new writers' efforts and of new talkers' posts.


3)Attracting and retaining Readers
-Being able to subscribe to a feed that emails the Reader or posts on Twitter or Facebook , allowing them to be drawn into each new Entry that gets into the Guide
-Having a Front Page that is very clear and easy to navigate
-Having a promoted Entry every day (even if it isn't a new Entry)


I hope this is a good start.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/12oy2wFFaAhSFnF9Vv1G2Ri_bD1QVg4rlAV_4IH3vfcQ/edit?hl=sv&authkey=CL6MlZYD

I wrote this just off the headers in the noohootoo document. And completely forgot these threads.

Vip and Ben have editing rights, anyone else, just click the links when you open the doc, and request.

We've ended up talking about some of this on the wrong thread. Link: F20484619?thread=8121071&post=107346811#p107346811

Make that F20484619?thread=8121071&skip=0&show=20 for the beginning of the thread.

Can I pat the focus of this conversation gently in the direction of engaging with the community, both during the change and after it? I need something on that by midday Saturday, midday Sunday at the latest. (I can potentially pick the bones out of threads myself, but it's obviously easier if I don't have to). We do need to think about engaging with the web, but that's not quite as urgent.

I am writing a basic document at the moment. I will post it up before I go to bed this evening. I will be keeping a close eye on this thread too.

I've gotten all the comments having to do with Engaging The Rest Of The Web incorporated in the Magrathea's Workshop - Engaging The Rest Of The Internet A82589377

If I missed any on-topic ones, please let me know.

If you want to use this thread for discussing engaging the community, both during the change and after it, you are welcome to do so, obviously, but wouldn't you prefer to discuss it on the threads attached to A82658703 Magrethea's Workshop - Engaging the Community ?

I'll join you there presently.

I feel I'm coming ridiculously late to this, but I wanted to say something. Is it too late, or is this convo going on elsewhere?

The convo has pretty much died down, rather than moved. Please do comment.

It occurred to me some time ago, and I think I may have said it elsewhere on site, that h2g2 was "sticky" early on partly because it allowed users to do something easily that they couldn't do elsewhere on the web without a good deal more knowhow. Specifically, the concept of GuideML allowed users to learn just a little bit of HTML and see the results instantly, and to operate within a friendly, supportive and just-restrictive-enough framework.

h2g2 was a sandbox for experimenting with web connectivity as well as writing. I'm not sure many people made that much use of it, but that was certainly part of its appeal to me.

h2g2 of the future could (should?) be a sandbox for creativity, a supportive environment in which to learn to create, with enough restrictions to make it easy and enough flexibility to make it fun. I'm not sure it'll be unique in that any more, but I can't think of anywhere else that is or could do it better...

>> h2g2 of the future could (should?) be a sandbox for creativity, a supportive environment in which to learn to create, with enough restrictions to make it easy and enough flexibility to make it fun. I'm not sure it'll be unique in that any more, but I can't think of anywhere else that is or could do it better..

One place I'm thinking of is b3ta.

They're a focus for creativity, and some of the stuff showcased there is frankly incredibly good. What they don't do, or at least what I've not seen them do, is have any tools or resources to help people do the sorts of things they see other people doing there.

h2g2 had GuideML early on, and people who would help you get to grips with it, and people who would competitively and supportively help you learn to get more out of it. I'm not sure if we ever had a competition for best userpage, but there's mileage in it. HTML's a bit last decade though, or decade before that come to that.

But what's next? And how would we incorporate it into the site? I don't know.

What I do know is that I see the results of other people's creativity all over the place, and in many cases I have literally no idea how they've done what they've done. You see a Dali painting, you know what he did - he put paint on a canvas with brushes. You see something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwtFsmz6J44&feature=channel_video_title and I have literally no idea where to even start doing something like that.