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

It's been said before, and will no doubt be said again:

Don't Panic.

Sage advice don't you think?

Anyhoo, a few days ago you're all aware, something happened that has shown up something I don't think people realised. We all know what happened, the beeb announced that they were going to try and find a new home for h2g2.
What happened that I'm referring to?
Was it the community outrage? No.
Was it the community banding together to try and make sure h2g2 survived? No.
What I'm referring to is what came out of the woodwork, or rather who.
If you take a look at who's online you won't see much difference, perhaps a few more people, perhaps a bit more activity, but nothing that stands out.
That's because the lurkers lurk.
I joined h2g2 a *long* time ago as the internet goes. I was very active to start with, I was even one of the co-founders of The Post. I didn't do any of the hard work, that was Shazz. But I was there, and then, I wasn't.
Or rather, I wasn't signing in as much.
I wasn't chatting in the forums, real life got in the way. I wasn't writing entries, I had obligations elsewhere. I wasn't really *there*. Except I was. I came along, I looked at pages, I stalked what people were chatting about, I lurked.
Which is why I'm now involved again. h2g2 can't go, it's as simple as that. If it all fails to come to anything, worst case scenario, nobody buys it, the beeb won't give it away, etc, etc, well then I'll rewrite the system from scratch. It won't have the content, but I'll bleeding well make sure that everyone has somewhere to carry on calling home. When I started at h2g2 I was just starting to learn web stuff. I now make my living in it and am capable of doing this. Like a lot of the community, I ain't going down without a fight.
And I'm not the only one, which brings me back to the woodwork. The Community Consortium, the band of researchers that's got together to make sure h2g2 does survive has seen the re-emergence of a few more "Old Timers" folks like myself who were around back then when DNA still posted, let alone drew breath. We've been away, but now ladies and gentlemen, Magrathia is awakening.
What we've found is more than we could have ever hoped for. We've come out of watching people's posts and chats, and we've started talking to them when we can. And the people we've found are better than we could have wished. They've taken the Guide and they've run with it, they've grown it, they've often improved it, they've made it their own. But it's still ours, it's our child in a way, and the hands it's been left with have become joint parents. Bad analogy, but I'm full of those. The Guide is what the people who use it make it, and the sum of its parts is far greater than the whole.
I love what the Guide has become. I've been doing a bit of prodding here and there as part of the consortium's business plans, and I love this place again. Will I stop lurking? Probably not for a while, I'm now too busy trying to get things sorted out. Will I be here? I always have been.

And I'm not the only one.

Don't Panic folks, our child has grown up and is more than capable of handling itself. But a fight's always better when you've got more people.

(Waaaaay to many bad analogies in there )

I see h2g2 more like a family than as a single entity. Some are around more than others, but what ever happens, you know you can go back. Because that's what a family does.