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

Dear Researchers

It has been a while. Firstly we have important news, which is that Pastey - our former digital lead - has stepped down. He was a core member of the team that worked through the transition from the BBC and when Steve Makin stepped down as Chair, Pastey took over, working closely with the Volunteer team. This means that he is no longer Chair of the Volunteers, and is replaced by the Vice Chair - Lanzababy - who is Team Leader for the Guide Editors. We thank him greatly for all that he has done to bring the site to where it is now and to wish him well in his future career as a writer and a brewer, both of which indeed seem to be going from strength to strength.

This has given us the spur to do a thorough review of what has been working and what has not been working so well prior to what we hope will be a new wave of development of h2g2. For a long time we've been anticipating bringing the site up to the standard we all wish for - but with such a complicated beast that is h2g2, with a range of legacy issues, this is no simple matter. Indeed if I am honest it has proved to be a little more challenging than originally anticipated when we took over from the BBC again.

We are taking a good look at roles and responsibilities among the Volunteer team, who continue to do amazing things with some pretty out dated technology, for which much thanks. We do have a little income now from advertising revenue ( and we do mean a little!) and will look to see how we can spend that wisely on some fixes to key tools that will make Volunteers? lives just a little easier. So we are trying to get a new grip on the social and technical issues involved in running a site this size. We don?t get everything right by any means but I do know that everybody has the best interests of the site at heart. We are thinking hard about how we can boost the Guide aspects of the site, as Douglas? original vision was of course for an earth Edition of the Guide. We are looking at mobile options carefully too.

So for all those who have stayed with us, simply, thank you.


Robbie Stamp - Chair of NPL

Lanzababy - Acting Chair of h2g2 Volunteers

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For Robbie and Lanzababy;
Milla

A change is always a difficult time, but it is good that Lanzababy, a stalwart worker for the Guide, should be taking over the chair. Congratulations, Lanza.

It is sad to see Pastey leave, but completely understandable, and we owe thanks to him for his many years of volunteer work for the community

At the same time, I am glad that such a sensible person and altogether hoopy froodess as Lanzababy takes over. I wish her congratulations and hope the researchers will be making her task as easy as possible.

Let me include my thanks to all the other volunteers. You are doing a great job, possibly too rarely appreciated enough.

Thank you!

Hear hear! I agree. I truly appreciate the work of all the volunteers, past and present.

cc

Tea anyone!

So... who is taking over for Pastey as digital lead? Is that Lanzababy as well?

What progress is being made regarding the acknowledged difficult legacy issues? Are they surmountable? It's a great achievement of the team that this place is functioning relatively well considering the mess of incompatibilities we were left with. But there has not been a lot of communication lately regarding progress toward the next phase of h2g2.

Volunteer and help out, and you'll see the huge amount of stuff that goes on behind the scenes

The decision to stand down and step back wasn't one I took lightly. The challenge of getting h2g2 out of the BBC framework was one I relished, and thoroughly enjoyed. Over the last few years we've managed to not just get the old skins stable, but also rewrite the back end of the new system to work on its own, without all the resources (hardware, software and staff) that the BBC threw at it. I've really enjoyed doing it, and I've really enjoyed working with the other volunteers to make this site what it is, stable.

Unfortunately though, I had to admit that I just don't have the time to commit to it that it needs, and while I'm trying to it's just not going to get the attention that it needs to turn it into what we all want it to be. Like everyone, I've got to pay the bills. I quite my job not long after we took over h2g2 with the intention of focussing more on my writing. However coding h2g2 took more and more time, so I had to face facts. I need to pay the bills, so turning my homebrew hobby into a job seemed the good way to go. And this is going better than I was expecting. Between the brewery and the writing I have even less time than I used to, and something had to give. Unfortunately that was h2g2.

It's been fun, all of it. Even if you think I didn't get along with you, I don't think there's a single volunteer (present or past) that I wasn't happy to have on-board. Every one of them cares deeply about this place, so much so that they give up their free time to keep it running. We may not always agree about everything, but we all agree that this is the best place on the internet.

I shan't say so long, because I'm still around and will pitch in if there's any technical problems that crop up that I can help with. But I'm not volunteering any more. Not saying I shan't again in the future, because we don't know what the future holds. At least, we don't until I fix that time machine in the basement.

The announcement doesn't actually say that Pastey is stepping down from the system design role, but it implies it. So do we have any coders?

In my opinion the biggest threat to the site is the lack of any way in which new Researchers can reliably add entries. When the entry editor kicks them out for the third time and deletes everything they've written, they're likely to look around for a better site.

We need coders to fix this.

To all you volunteers, past and present - THANK YOU


Rod

can I start twiddling again with my P/S ?

It's great that people volunteer and keep h2g2 on course. I'm a user pure and simple.
A professional 'lurker' who has taken everything and given nothing in real terms since my son ' Pinniped' introduced me to this community, some 30/40 years ago.
I must take this opportunity to thank all volunteers and those in the background for their efforts.
Most of all my thanks must go to DNA, the man who saw the possibilities of an online community long before Facebook and Twitter were thought of.
My sincere thanks to you all including those who have produced such wonderful entries.
Ancient Brit

Sorry about the age slip 30/40 it should have been 13/14.
http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A550955

"I'm still around and will pitch in if there's any technical problems that crop up that I can help with." [Pastey]



Were there other coding volunteers working with you, Pastey? I hate to think that they will work alone now. Talk about endangered creatures!

I had help from some of my mates as and when I needed it, but they weren't members of the site. And alas their lives are getting more hectic too, including one who's signed a record contract!

Interesting....

Me stepping down means that coding can progress quicker, because it won't be waiting on me to fit it in around my life, but can be done by a dedicated team

That's the first good news I've heard.

By the way, I enjoyed your first book. Didn't know there was a second one, but reading it will have to wait until after I see the sequel to "To Kill Mockingbird" and finish "War and peace."

My second book's a collection of short stories, the sequel to Endangered Creatures is still being written. Draft three or four now

Does the sequel involve any purple K**l-Aid?

Ive been writing my book for the past year, just finished chapter one........ and its great got about 5 words in there and the rest are swear words, thanks to Hootoo i would have never thought of doing a book about knitting