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

Hey loup - long time no see.

Thanks for that. Here's another question then:

Other than when a researcher registers, once they have changed their h2g2 name, where on bbci is their registered name visible? (did that make sense?)

"to see how many h2g2 researchers are currently online"

It has never really worked this way as anything more than the crudest measure. It has always included all dna sites - it is just that there used not to be any, many or active ones! It is also showing only people who have accessed a page while logged in in the last 15 minutes. So it includes some people who have logged out and excludes those who are busy typing or looking at pages from a non-logged in window.

"short of going to each user's PS and seeing where they are posting"

Don't forget that their postings may be on different sites than their articles - particularly their PS article (and journal). <./>Info</.> is the way to look at articles and postings for each site. <./>NewUsers</.> is the way to see how many new people are signed up to each site. Since people can unsubscribe and <./>search</.> is not user-specific you can't actually know how much and where someone has posted at all. Someone at the BBC with database access could though.

"choosing names immediately"

As Loup says (though not in these words!), it is now the default to give away half of people's login details before they have a chance to hide it. I don't think it is made clear at registration time that anything embarrassing they may choose as a login will be visible (but that may have changed in the wording since I last looked).

Their registered name will be visible to them on the SSO bar. On the message boards it used to be the case that the full real name was shown there instead but I don't know anyone who has tried to join/migrate since SSO to check this works as before. BBCi Connector probably still shows the registration/login name.

NB iCan wasn't allowing people to set a nickname but it was using them if set on other dna sites. I haven't rechecked this.

Confusion continues to rain !

I get pretty much all of that SEF. As I said earlier, I use Who's online, Info, and New Users. I think we may be talking at cross purposes here.

"Don't forget that their postings may be on different sites than their articles - particularly their PS article (and journal)"

That was my point - the only way to tell if someone from Who's online is from a non-h2g2 DNA site would be to go to their PS and see if they were posting elsewhere (it'd show up in their convo list which site they're on). But hardly a practical option to see how accurate Who's Online is for judging how busy h2g2 is.


"Info is the way to look at articles and postings for each site"

But Info is for _h2g2_ stats not other DNA sites.


Anyway to paraphrase my last question:

Is there anywhere, right now, on bbci where my login name will be visible rather than "kea"?

(the only time I've used my login name was when I rejoined h2g2 after sso. I might have used it on one of the other DNA sites to do the initial login there as well, but I don't remember which one)

you can get an info page for other sites- just add /info to the end of the address for nay of them.

"But Info is for _h2g2_ stats not other DNA sites."

Wrong.

"Is there anywhere, right now, on bbci where my login name will be visible rather than "kea"?"

Externally to other people = probably not, since you had already set a nickname before SSO and are presumably not using BBCi Connector right now. Internally = definitely. If you want me to waste time spying on you a bit I might be able to confirm the external situation.

Given that last reply took me a quarter of an hour of repeated attempts, perhaps I won't realistically be able to look for you on BBCi after all!

thanks Egon, I was assuming that

I think this might be where I feel I am talking at cross purposes. I'm not really that interested in the other sites. Thus if I go to Info from h2g2, it will show me the h2g2 stats which is what I am interested in.


"Externally to other people = probably not, since you had already set a nickname before SSO and are presumably not using BBCi Connector right now. Internally = definitely. If you want me to waste time spying on you a bit I might be able to confirm the external situation."

SEF, what do you mean by 'externally' and 'internally' ?

I'd guess:

Externally- site users
Internally: site editors