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

We haven't had one of these for a while.

Please post below what you believe are h2g2's assets (including potential assets).

Two rules:
1. Be bold and creative - don't hold back
2. Don't be judgmental of others

Traveller in Time calculating
"According to 'the internet' it would be the footfall or pagehits where people get informed of commercials.

According to a visitor it could be some obscure information hidden in entries or conversations. (There is a vast load of social interaction information in the conversations)

According to a researcher the lasting of any publication, like geocities and numerous sites started after HooToo but disappeared into the bitbucket.

And for the old skins; accessible with any browser. "

It used to be said, boldly and creatively, that we were "fluffy."

It's also been said that our guide entries emphasize readability.

We have 2Legs, or maybe he has us, or both.....

We have the best smileys I have seen anywhere.

The BBC doesn't try t tell us what to do, despite ten years of trying .

Don't forget the iconic 'Nighthoover'.

MMF

Why not? Nighthoover has forgotten us!

"so I got stuck here then" - nighthoover has never left. no one has ever left the site. we're all perpetually and eternally stuck here then, in an ever-lasting mobious strip of eternality and randomness, our essential and undeliable atomic structures at one with the worldness of the site, and its own electronic wizzyness as our imortal souls are threaded into every word and mispelt smiley on the site, to perpetually perplex and amuse the easily entertained and humanoid inhabitants of our electornic disturbances. Me? an asset? excellent... I knew it wasn't gona be long before I went on the game for the greater good

We were and are a slice of Internet life in all its vast variety of guises.

Early on, we captured the interest and imagination of some highly creative teen and young adults. If we sometimes resembled a playground, so be it. I remember the unexpectedly serious cat vs. dog war, which exposed the underlying insecurity of the researcher who seemed totally self-confident until she realized she had started something she couldn't stop. Part of the coming-of-age/lost innocence matrix, I think.

People formed groups and put them in virtual places -- the Muse Home, the Thingite Movement, the freedom-fighting Zaphodistas, the Water-works, Pierce's Pirate ship [Blood of the Zaphodistas], Asteroid Lil's Salon. People had fun with role-playing games, but eventually, one by one, they found that they had done all they could with these, and wanted other challenges, so they left us for other sites. A few, alas, had their games checkmated by the guy with the scythe.

The last-remaining of the virtual places -- the Pirate ship -- hangs by a thread. Once or twice a year, someone drops in at the Lighthouse Bar or the Greenhouse or the Bridge. I haven't been a regular at Asteroid Lil's Salon, so for all I know people occasionally visit there. I like to think so, anyway.

Traveller in Time once parrot distributor at the Pythonistics
"You need a 'crew' to keep a society running (replying to new members and welcoming them , adding them to the member list . . . ).
Where a constant influx of new members is at least one a month.

Both to keep the topics live, interesting and somewhere near the society ideas. (What the did Helmsdeep at the Pythonists?) "

The Pirate ship is a good example I have been here for 10 years (almost) and never visited in fact I Thought all such groups had closed. What chance has a newby or visitor got?

A welcoming sitemap might help

It might not be a good move to offer a map of what was hot 12 or 13 years ago. There were a lot of fan clubs back in those days, designed for specific researchers. I don't know of *any* that are still active.

The people here - whether just Researchers or volunteers for the various posts.

The educational tool - when I joined in 2000 I had a wealth of knowledge but didn't know how to write - I was an acorn. Now I feel like an oak tree. I can advise anyone!

Peer Review - if only we could get this revived to the point where there was healthy debate about the entries - we turned bare bones into healthy meals in the old days.

The Post - I know of nothing like this on the entire 'Web. You can write about anything and send in your own photos or pictures - so long as it isn't illegal or libellous it's almost guaranteed to be published, and there's no better boost for a budding author.

The artists - current and long gone - never cease to amaze and add much to the finished articles - for me a picture still speaks more than a thousand words would and they draw people in to reading.

Inspiration - I know people who have joined in (even if it was just a single posting) - you just don't know what is going to grow from seeds that are planted.

GB

Thank goodness you came along, GB. The best h2g2 assets we had before that were Nighthoover and the Water Works

Keep them coming. I'll start another thread on what we can do with the assets we have.

Already on it.

Icy North
-

"Thank goodness you came along, GB. The best h2g2 assets we had before that were Nighthoover and the Water Works"
So... You don't rate my chances high of making a fortune by going on the game for the good of the site?

ok, but it's a tie with The Water Works.

- I was rather banking on using the waterworks as my ... 'work base', figuring at least I'd not be paying out for a bisuness presmise

Assets

1. the people:

Writers who know how to write - which even modern-day journalists don't appear to do.

People who will explain to budding writers how to write

People who will encourage, reassure, chat, go mad, and generally help people feel at home.

2. The Guide

A collection of about 11,000 well written articles and a few thousand appropriate pictures.

3. The post - well-managed and entertaining

4. The Unedited Guide - a million pages of madness with some good stuff in among it.



I do not consider the Pliny or Ripley frameworks an asset although they're all we've got. Nor past conversations - they're impossible to find and navigate unless you were there at the time.

Not so sure, peopel have, and may do again, find and navigate through vast long conversation threads... - I can't quite recall what it was now, but oo, quite some years ago, was a random short drama/fiction piece, on BBC radio four, and unless I'm very much mistaken, a lot of it was based on a 'badly recalled by me', bit of hootoo conversation, it was a kinda surreal thing, and I just recall at the time, being so sure they'd nicked bits or been influenced by some aspects of conversation threads of vast sillyness I recall from hootoos long ago past "nighthoover the musical" anyone?

Wine key?

Is that off the coast of Florida?

There is the guide is it large enough to promote as a reference source, or even a research tool that can provide answers to general questions on request.