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

Well, if pushed, I think there may be some point in doing this: I wouldn't have bothered otherwise. It's more about what it could be in the future. At present, it's just a list of names and nothing more

Ask not what the list can do for you, but what you can do for the list

Trin, I think this could be a very important list. It's a good measure of the health of the h2g2 community.

Should the number of researchers fall below a critical level for any reason, then this would put the community at risk, along with the h2g2 products, like the edited guide.

It's well worth compiling this at regular intervals. No reason for you to do it - I'd have thought that a BBC techie should be able to run off a list like this without too much trouble. I would suggest monthly intervals. The trend over the next few months would be interesting to see.

Yes - monitoring fluctuations would be a bit beyond me. The problem with doing this other than 'by hand' (so to speak) is it would be hard to discriminate between active h2g2 researchers and those who must have signed up to hootoo but are actually active pretty much exclusively elsewhere on the BBC sites (and there are a lot more of those than I thought there would be when I started).

There are also some real *hardcore* lurkers out there People who log in on a regular basis but haven't actually posted for years.

As regards where else this might go, I did have the vague idea that beyond the census - and it's still going to take a few weeks before it settles into a proper shape - this could transform itself into some sort of directory, a kind of 'who's who': I could see that having very clear uses (especially for PR).

I can also see that involving a *lot* of work

Trin,
How do you deal with the doppelgangers? People with more than one id on hootoo?
W

Well, where I'm aware that there are two U-numbers for just the one person, I take that into account when giving the total.

Which is precisely two so far, which isn't very good

With luck, when I publicise this a bit more broadly, people will be able either to identify doubles, or to confess (in confidence, naturally).

Why? Is there something you want to tell me?

who me?
...nah...