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

Sorry,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAfTr7VPDKI

Dmitri: Thank you! Wow, it's great to see the outside material impact of the Guide, I plan to count those citations too to mention this in my paper!

paulh: Lol awesome!

I was poking around dome of the newer elements of the guide just now and found the original NaJoPoMo post and then the Create page. Wow, so awesome! What a fascinating idea! Did Create exist before NoJoPoMo 2011, as I noticed in the original post the poster refer's to herself as she not we—was it someone's specific brainchild and then became Create? Or was Create originally a solo venture and then got other volunteers?

Create was the brainchild of much group brainstorming as we prepared to take over the site. I remember lots of discussion going back and forth as to how to encourage more writing...

The original Create Team retired (with thanks, and due to important Stuff like babies, moving to Moscow, etc...) and the Team right now consists of Magwitch (Team Leader), Freewayriding (illustrator), Minorvogonpoet (idea co-suggester) and me (kibitzer and proofreader).

Create comes up with a monthly challenge that can be accessed from the Front Page (and from the Front Page of the h2g2 Post). Challenges can be answered with Guide Entries, or Stuff you send to the Post (there's an archive at A87813705), or just by noodling around in your Journal. The Post tries to do tie-ins with the subject matter in the regular features.

The original Create Team was headed by Solnushka, who was a big fan of NaJoWriMo, that writing site that encourages people to try to write a novel in November. So we did our own version: NaJoPoMo, where participants log a journal entry a day. (Here's one of mine at A87862242 - not everybody does it as A-spaces.) We have an ongoing gag about how nobody is really sure what the acronym stands for...

NaJoPoMo has been popular, once we solved the convo list spam controversy.

While these are non-Guide activities (in the sense of not being part of the Edited Guide), they are loads of fun - and we 'steal' episodes for the Post.

I know of at least one Entry that came out of NaJoPoMoA87846547

True, the entry!

I knew which entry it would be before I even got to the end of the sentence.

That's so great! Makes sense that not all the NaJoPoMo articles were on the Guide proper, what with social media and blogs and all. What was the convo list spam controversy and how did it get resolved?

At first, because NaJoPoMo was about journal posting, Researchers found that their convo lists became full every day with journal entries that popped up from people on their Friends list.

This made it hard to keep up. Some Researchers solved the problem by 'unfriending' everybody until the end of November, and letting everyone know that it wasn't personal - they just couldn't read all of that.

Other journaling Researchers put all their NaJos on one thread - a solution of sorts, but one that made readers of the journals feel shy about posting responses.

At the Post, we've always tried to encourage people to put their NaJos on an A-space, like the one I showed you. Then to keep one thread in the journal proper with a link to the relevant A-space every day. That way, people can read and respond at the bottom of the A-space page.


It works, and a lot of us do it. Some don't like it, because they don't like making A-spaces. I love it, because I dream in GuideML, anyway, and I like to see a nice pic on my page.

Another way to use A-spaces is to make one A-space page for the whole month, and add the 'journals' as threads at the bottom of that page.

So different approaches have been used, and most of the grumbling has subsided.

The first year of NaJoPoMo was the year of the transition from the BBC--and I was 'netless from July to January or February. I was a bit confused as to why I had so many journal entries with smiley responses to catch up on, but it didn't bother me (then again, it's acknowledged elsewhere online that I'm for reading every single post on a busy conversation instead of just the last page or so when I've been gone for a few days...). Then again, since I hadn't known about NaJoPoMo that year, only the participants that I was already following showed up on my MP list (though 'twas over 75%, iirc). Just last year, I finally switched over to the "make an A page and have the journals hang off of it" method, and then posted links to each day's "journal" in a NaJoPoMo real journal thread.

Thanks for helping explain that, Amy. I was afraid I was too confusing, there.

No it makes total sense! I quite liked GuideML back in the day! Nice solution!

One thing I was curious about in particular was Field Researchers Inc and the formation of the Core Team. How did those things happen? Were they both a result of the negotiations in the move from the BBC, or did the Core Team taking over some of the day-to-day running of the site predate the move from the BBC? Any clarifications, insights, or memories would be appreciated!

Beeblefish

Let's see...Robbie would be the best one to tell you about all that - or he could point you in the right direction for those involved with Field Researchers, etc.

Basically, at that point (when the BBC's divestiture was discussed), I'd told them, 'If you do it, count me in once you need a content provider.' So I know nothing about the wheeling and dealing...

Now I can tell you what went on during the very brief downtime... you can find it at A87706632 (and nowhere else, because the testing got deleted).

If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit.

And water the houseplants on your way out.

That is the nerdiest test thread ever, so very The Guide

Yes, but it's hilarious when you imagine what the real words were.

I thought you might enjoy that.

When I asked them for permission to 'save' some of the testing thread material, they were all enthusiastic.