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

With the BBC as your home page ( http://www.bbc.co.uk ) you can customise the Weird & Wonderful category to provide links to *h2g2 Highlights*. Presently these links take you to the old dna/h2g2 site in the skin you are using.
Will this feature be maintained after the Barlesque site has been disposed of ?

When h2g2 is disposed of, it won't be part of the BBC, so I doubt they will provide links to it.

Since it contains plenty of return links to BBC articles, it might be a wise idea.

For this reason, I doubt it too.

I notice that some old sites such as the BBC Cult, are still there but with a notice "last updated...". I think there's so much on h2g2 that might later turn out to be controversial that they will just give the new owner (whoever that turns out to be) a copy of the database, and then just delete the lot from the BBC servers.

That's certainly what I'd do in their shoes.

That was the point of the question Icy North.
Is the BBC to wipe all links to h2g2 off the map including any conversation links between other DNA sites that survive the chop ?
Surely the BBC must retain access to h2g2 archives.
Gnomon - The real reason why BBC took over h2g2 ten years ago was never clearly understood :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A896097
The real reason for disposing of it after 10 years of *Mostly Harmless* involvement is just as confusing.

The BBC as an organisation are pretty poor at archiving. They've lost a lot of classic TV, and much that remains is chemically disintegrating in a basement somewhere in West London.

They've not archived more modern things like BBC Messageboards, and I doubt they will archive h2g2.

Some on you guys the BBC is an archive in itself.

Ancient Brit,

I agree with you that the BBC were never clear on what they were getting when they bought h2g2, and they didn't know what to do with it, which is why they haven't really developed it in the interim. OK, they added the Brunel skin, but they also steadily reduced the number of staff looking after it, so it never progressed. Instead of becoming the ultimate Guide, it stagnated.

The reason the BBC are disposing of the Guide is clear. It looks good on their books to close down something which is costing them money.

That should be *Come on* as one archive says to another.

What seems to be happening is that in a Weird & Wonderful way *h2g2* is being renamed *Barlesque*. It might just as well have been *42*
Don't forget that the more people who use it the more useful it will become, and the more useful it becomes, the more easy it becomes to dispose of.

I can't see the Weird and Wonderful because it is not available outside the UK.

Me neither. The Weird and Wonderful link did used to be available, ( it is how I found this site in the very first place) but I think that option disappeared nearly a year ago? I remember asking the Eds about it, but even then I think it was deemed unlikely to be re-instated.

Obviously the BBC Front Page differs for overseas use, more than likely because of their non advertising rule here in the UK. Barlesque puts h2g2 into BBC format to match other sites that together form the BBC Web site. Here in the UK, as license payers, we can display all BBC Web pages free from adverts.
The site has its own search facility and you need only go outside the BBC if you need to wonder into into wider world of Life, The Universe and Everything.
Of course Google can be used as normal, but a lot can be achieved via the BBC Web pages, the one thing that they lack is a decent online community link. They were getting there with the DNA Hub but they now seem to be off on another tack. That's progress for you.
PS: No offense but I am fast coming to the opinion that UK researchers are paying the price for those overseas and the introduction of other so called internet community sites and blogging in general that have been set up by the commercial world.
Douglas Adams was there 12 years ago with Digital Village/h2g2.

It's odds on that it is your provider that has removed the 'Weird & Wonderful' tablet to make room for adverts.

It is the BBC, not my provider, who has removed the Weird and Wonderful widget.

And there are no adverts displayed on the page. The only time I encounter ads is if I use the iPlayer - at the start of each video clip there is a short advertisement.

Yes, certainly. It has nothing to do with your provider. As I said, the Eds were aware of its disappearance months ago. It had nothing to do with the arrival of Barlesque.


But @ Rod - The Beeb has always provided news and education to the whole world. And speaking personally as a BBC licence payer ( from my UK residence) I am more than happy for anyone to use this site, and any other BBC ones come to that.


But none of this will be a problem in the future as we will not be a part of this British institution for very much longer.

Is the BBC page presented to you with a tab at the bottom of the page labelled *Customise this page*? If so then click on it and select the *Weird & Wonderful* option. Failing this we must wait for the editors to show some interest in this Feedback.

No, we no longer have the Customise tab. And I'm pretty sure the Eds said that there were no plans to give it back to us.

Can overseas researchers go here ?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/domesday/2011/05/get-involved-with-the-domeday.shtml

Yes. I am in the USA.