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

If you let me join, I'll donate my Friends bug to the group. That is assuming it gets classed as a bug rather than a feature! If you just want to stick to group bugs (like fly paper? ) found after foundation then you should emphasise that the current absence of bugs does not imply that there aren't any or that we won't be looking. You could even reference any existing known bugs which haven't yet been fixed and have some sort of history of h2g2 researchers previously finding bugs. It probably needs to be made clear that mere typos don't count - unless they do (eg in Help Pages or Edited Guide Entries and especially if they involve faulty links)!

PS I can't get this group a graphic as a CA but I was going to be working on some table ones in my new page anyway. So I'll add this group to my unofficial list...

I was thinking of keeping it to new bugs found as a group, i'll try and make it clearer. I'll also add you to the members list. I'll think about pre-foundation bugs... any ideas from anyone on that?

Tango

To be pedantic, I don't think bugs can be found as a group. It is a bit like an argument someone else was having about collective intelligence. Of course once someone spots something strange, all the other members can get involved in testing it exists, exploring the parameters and checking it isn't already a known phenomenon. However, the original idea/niggle has to come from an individual.

I also think we might need a code of practice for maximum group involvement. Obviously someone can do all their own stuff and then merely report findings to the group but it would probably be more fun to report the hypothesis as soon as possible in order to let everyone jump in. This would also help to avoid duplication of previous work of which another member is already aware. Duplication of current work might be avoided by assigning specific tasks. Although people probably work quite differently anyway when hunting bugs - eg in what they test first.

Yes, that is very pedantic. Because all members are representing the group when they find the bugs, it is the group that finds them. (sort of, this is starting to sounds like a version of communism )

Once we get a few more people signed up we can start thinking about methods. I have just made a reference page (A913295), it will eventually hold info that might be useful, i will finish compiling it later. I will make a yahoogroup for the group, then we can discuss things in private (for example, bugs which can be exploited in such a way as we don't want to publish them).

Tango

I've made a few changes, email [email protected] to join the email group.

Tango

How does emailing it work, eg any special content? For the CAs the BBC emailed me and I just had to reply using the email address they were already expecting (plus the title/content they had already put in it). For the BBCRenegades, I requested to join while on the Yahoo site itself (and the moderator recognised my name from the BBC Science boards).

h2g2Bugfinders isn't showing up on Yahoo groups at the moment. Apparently there is usually a delay, so maybe it will be there tomorrow. Otherwise there's some sort of site/country or spelling problem!

The group is hidden because I want people to join via h2g2, not yahoo. Just email the addy i gave you with nothing in the subject or body and it i'll get an email requesting that i accept you.

Tango

My email prog wasn't too happy about the lack of a subject but it allegedly let me send the message anyway.

You should be in now. Welcome!

Tango

Well it took a while to convince Yahoo of that but I'm in there now! It's a bit empty - lots of space to run around in. Do you think we are allowed to break Yahoo while we're there?

By the way, I see Jim has declared self-beFriending a feature - so we all get to keep ourselves in our lists.

Had you noticed that while the list of friends you've added is alphabetical, the one where other people have added you is chronological? It means that only from a fresh start can one get oneself at the top, whereas I was able to mess with the starting character to bounce up and down the other list.

That would explain the ! then!!
Not sure if that's a bug, its a strange feature maybe. Mr manda has just joined, so I'll wait until I have accepted his group membership.

BTW, I just saw an ad on the tele for <./>/dna/onthefuture/</.>!!! But they didn't give the dna addy, they gave http://www.bbc.co.uk/future

Tango

It should be fun to have manda on board - though he does seem to have taken to following me around...

Are we likely to get RhoMuNuQ or GreyDesk? I don't know what has happened to The Guy With The Brown Hat lately.

In case you care about typos at all, the correct spelling is "existence".

Also, the new explanation under the "What" heading has had the unfortunate consequence of pushing the sad smiley next to the directions for newbies. I think that looks a little too disapproving for the friendly h2g2 atmosphere. How about a simple total line - which could say "0 found so far " and eventually be followed by a bullet list with brief description of each bug and possibly a link to a lower section with more details. This list would replace our current excuse. The "for help" bit could go under a "How" heading - unless you have some personal reasons for disliking question words which don't begin with a 'W'!

Speaking of 'W's, you could have a "Where" for all those other page and site links. This could even include an explanation of Yahoo unless that is supposed to be more generally known than the BBC site. I haven't checked whether anyone else has written a decent article on h2g2 that includes how to operate Yahoo. It is briefly mentioned in the explanation on how to have a private h2g2 conversation.

The BBC servers seem to be acting up again. On "F99011?thread=230488&latest=1" they are still showing me (despite refreshes) my previous nickname add-on of "(still stuck in VGA mode)" which I changed hours ago and is correctly shown as "(back in hi-res 24-bit)" in other threads. I don't think this is much of a bug though.

That is most likely a caching problem, when did you change you nickname exactly? If it isn't corrected after 24 hours you should let Jim know and he can give the relevent server a good kick.

I'll make some changes to the page, as you suggest. But first I am going to test a bug I thought of last night, to display deleted articles, i doubt it will work, but I'll keep you updated.

Tango

Well, it didn't work, but there is a sort of bug anyway. When I tried I got this error message:

You do not have permission to delete this Guide Entry.

I wasn't trying to delete it, i was trying to undelete it. Do you think that counts?

Tango

It depends on whether you typed what you think you typed! Do you want me to have a go (need example)? It could be a bug if someone with permission could do a deletion! Also does it matter whether it was formerly a casual article, Edited Guide or Help page?

You can have a go if you like, I tried to undelete A18. The way i did it was:

<./>UserEdit18?cmd=undelete</.>

I'm curious what other commands can go in the URL. I also would like to know what the s_fromedit=1 bit on A12345 URLs is for. You might like to investigate places like F1, and for convenience remember that only the last part of an F url is used, eg:

F12345?thread=12345
is the same as
F1?Thread=12345

F1?thread=12345&post=12345
is the same as
F1?thread=1&post=12345

Not really a bug, just a useful feature.

Tango

You can also undelete non-deleted entries, it doesn't do anything, but it tells you it's been restored.

Tango

Hmm. It sounds like a lack of different error messages = failure to distinguish between types of errors or wrong calling of available error messages on detecting an error. At most it rates a bugette "BAKER!"

PS you still haven't amended the page typo to "existence".

PPS Did you see the stuff I put on your URLs page? I tried the P thing briefly last night and it didn't work for me. I was still having other computer problems though (!) so I'll go searching for the original references I had found to these URLs later and check what they actually said.