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

Hi there and welcome to h2g2! My name is Amy, and I'm an ACE (or assistant community editor) here at the Guide. We ACEs are sort of the welcoming committee of the site - real people who volunteer their free time to make this place as friendly as possible. We also help newbies (new researchers) get their feet, and generally try to help the community as a whole. And in order to do that, we often end up posting loads of links... so bear with me... it'll be good for you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Aces - the ACE homepage. This is a good place to find help if I'm not around, and to just learn more about what we ACEs do.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Gurus - the Gurus are the techies of the site, a volunteer group that I'm also a part of on top of the Aces. We can answer just about any question about the site - from GuideML stuff (my specialty) to more technically based programming related things.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/thepost - a community like this eventually breeds all sorts of news and interest - so we have a weekly newspaper just for that. Released every Thursday (Thing), early (or Wednesday (Wibble) evening if you're in the US).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Smiley - smilies are either the bane of online existance or one of the coolest things about it - either way, h2g2 has a TON of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/GuideML-Clinic -GuideML is sort of like HTML, but not; it's XML. And it can be confusing at times, so this is the best place to go to find out how to do it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/askh2g2 - ever had a question you've never found the answer to? Chances are, someone on h2g2 will know the correct answer.

A632431 - A community like h2g2 eventually creates its own specialized vocabulary- and some of it can get rather confusing. Go here to catch up.

One of my favorite things about this place is the people that I've gotten to know over the past three years I've been here. As weird as it sounds, there really is a whole community here of really wonderful people. The best way to meet people is to not be afraid to hop in on a conversation, and to check out some of the clubs and societies available here. I've a list of the ones I'm a member of on my user page at U50994. Perhaps some of them will interest you.

In any case, please don't hesistate to let me know if you need any help of any kind. Enjoy your time here - and I hope to see you around.

~Amy (ACE, Guru, Keeper of Wolves, Muse of Procrastinating Novelists, High Priestess of Thing, Musicians' Guild Member)

Hi Amy, thanks for the welcome. If everyone is as friendly as you, I think I'm going to like it here.

Thanks for the links, I'll have a look through them.

Cheers,

-Steven

You're very welcome.

And the people here are truly friendly - we have official meets twice a year in London (which I've sadly not been able to go to living in the States), and lots of unofficial ones all over the place. I've met a number of researchers over the years, and I can say without qualm that they're some of the est people that I've ever met in my life.

Thanks Amy,

I don't suppose you could tell me how I put pictures in my personal space, could you?

Cheers,

-Steven

Yeh I'd be interested to know as well.

I thought I'd found out... but then it turned out I hadn't.

I thought you just had to cut and paste but it doesn't seem to work

Well, I had a look at the Guide clinic bit and copied the coding and posted it in my message... but it didn't work. So I gave up and asked Pam. But she didn't know either.

Lemme run off and get some lunch (ah, student life!) and I will be right back with the answer as soon as I've had some food to wake up my brain...

Ah, so you're back on are you old chap? Excellent excellent...

Ok - I'm back.

My first question is this: Is your personal space in GuideML or text? There is an option box underneath the text box where you write what will be contained in your space, and it has options for either text or GuideML. If text is chosen (the default), then no amount of GuideML you put in your space will work because it's not set up to do so. I'm betting that's the problem...

Also, be sure that whey you switch it into GuideML that you have the and tags like so:







And your space basically goes between the two body tags.

However, if it's in GuideML, here's how to do pictures:

The basic code for pictures is



The justfication can be either CENTER, RIGHT, or LEFT. Each picture that the dna sites host has it's own blob number - this is found in the picture gallery at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/GuideML-PictureLibrary . The title (ALT) can be anything you want it to be.

Basically, you should be okay if you just copy-past fromt he picture library so long as you are in GuideML mode on your space.

Hope that helps.

~Amy (ACE, Guru, Keeper, Muse, Thingite, MuG)

Thanks Amy, but can I just ask one more inane question? How do you make links? I've been trying to get one with all that "HREF" blah and it just doesn't seem to appear on my personal page?

Thanks.

-Steven (lacking in things to put after his name)

I checked out the code for your page (there's a nifty diagnostic tool here where you can type in, say, http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/testuserpage###### as opposed to having the normal U number to see the coding), and I figured out what happened.

In order to make a link using the HREF thing, you need some text to click on in order to *make* the link. In other words, what you have is essentially: , which has no text to make into the link.

What you do is put a phrase or a word or even a single punctuation mark to make into the link. It should look something like Click here to go to the BBC homepage.

Hope that helps some.

Hello again Ms. Ace,

I'm sorry to bother you again, after such a long time (no doubt you've probably forgotten all about this conversation anyway). I'm much better at using GuideML now, but there's something I want to know:

I've noticed on some other peoples pages, they have a text box, and say "type in here to send me a message" or some such inspiring comment. I would imagine (I'm not sure, since I've never checked) that these start a new conversation/thread with that person. I was wondering, if you could tell me how to make one of them.

Thanks for your time/advice/pity,

-Steven

(Mike falls from a dusty cupboard, coughing and spluttering)

Sorry old chap, got lost in the cupboard

(He leaves)

Whoa, not heard from either of you for a while.

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to make the text box - I yoinked it from my boyfriend's page, changed bits, and then used that. The best thing to do is use a testuserpage thing on someone with that on their page (mine for example: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/testuserpage50994), scroll down to the bit that says (if memory serves) and the code should be there. Just remember to change the forum number to *your* forum number...

Ah, cheers for that, Amy. I'll go and yoink it off your page then I guess that's the best way, because then I don't have to bother learning the GuideML for it.

Thanks,

-Steven