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

So there I was late yesterday afternoon, sat in a pub using up the last of my beer tokens, when I got into a conversation with a random guy at the bar. This is nothing unusual for me.

The conversation got around to blogging sites. Personally I've never really seen much point in a site that just has peoples wittering on it. I said this to this chap and he went off on one defending blogging sites and how great they were. How they allowed people to make a public record of their lives, how they allowed people to share their thoughts and sometimes photos too. How they allowed people of like mind to meet in the real world, to make new friends, and how could I not see the point of them. Well, I said I could see why people would like writing stuff down, how it makes us feel better thinking that someone is listening to us, without the actual hassle of having to see them in person, waiting for them to respond, or generally getting in the way of us getting things off our chests, but what else did they do? Apparantly they don't need to do anything else, I just couldn't get to grips (being old (old? I'm 31 going on 12!)) with the idea of blogging.

Right.

Okay.

Let me see here, writing a public journal entry that allows people to know what you're doing, thinking, etc? Check.
Able to link to photos? Check.
Able to discuss said journal and photos? Check.
Able to meet people of like mind? Check.
Able to meet said people in the real world? Check, check, checkity check.

Able to do so much more? To write articles on objects, events, life, the universe and everything? Able to read and contribute to a community newspaper? Able to get feedback on your articles? Able to do research on subjects and get information that is more personal, and not standard text book stuff?

Blogging has it's limits. h2g2 is so much more. When did blogging start anyway? Not just as a couple of people here and there putting stuff on their own personal webspaces, but the commercial side of it? The main one, LiveJournal started in March 1999, it claims. It may well have done, but nobody had heard of it until a few of years ago. h2g2 started in the same year, and look at it. Fair enough, LiveJournal probably has more members, but that's what it's there for, to allow people to write their journals online and let others comment on them. h2g2 isn't there for just that.

Websites that have survived over the years have had to change, to develop and to grow. E-commerce was a good example of this. Any site that sold stuff online, and made people phone up or email orders through soon found that they had to get e-commerce to compete. Secure servers? Another example, who in their right mind these days would buy anything online that wasn't on a secure server?
Even community sites have had to alter. If you don't think so, just think about how h2g2 used to be. When it started it only had one skin, goo. There weren't clickable smilies, there weren't volunteer posts even. I remember when all these things came in, and they added something to the community, helping it develop and grow.

I'm not out of date, I'm a fore-runner!

In that case you don't want to go here

http://linlithgow-libdems.org.uk

Argh!!! Wrong link


http://linlithgow-libdems.blogspot.com

That's what you get for running two sites.

Good question, just waht is the point of blogs then and why do the media hype them so much...

I took this rant to the pub with me yesterday to discuss with a couple of the bar staff while waiting for some visiting camra bods to turn up.

This is turning into another rant so I'll stick it in another entry

Well, h2g2 has some of the qualities of a blog, in its abilities with person-to-person communication in a shared format. It also has some qualities of a wiki, by providing informational content contributed by the masses and edited or cleared by one or more authorities.

What it lacks, in my opinion, is a low level access filter. Livejournal allows me to not only post to particular communities, but also to post only to friends or only to a select sub-group of my friends. Those with communities can allow full public access or restricted access to view posts or restrictions only on making posts. Wikis can allow everyone in the world to write or edit documents, or it can allow only a select few, or it can be an ever growing base of trusted writers/editors from a very loose network where anyone trusted to write can issue clearance.

These access filters did not exist when wikis or blogs were born. They were added on later, all well after h2g2 was created.

At h2g2, those running the site determine who will have access to what privileges and what responsibilities they will have. Anything posted here is viewable to everyone in the world, including your mother, employer, ex-spouse, etc. This has the effect of sanitizing the content and discussions on the site, especially on socially controversial topics like politics, religion, and personal sexual experiences. The discussions still generally go on, with a few exceptions, but people feel constrained as to what they can/should say.

h2g2 could have been the best of both worlds, by incorporating the sorts of access filters used by blogs and wikis. But the BBC is in control and not eager to invest in further additions. Plus I imagine a slight chilling effect on free speech serves to maintain the company's public image. Since I now have a blog and a wiki where I'm more comfortable overall, I fear h2g2 remains on my personal backburner.