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

Hi

Can YOU describe h2g2 in a hundred words or less?

We may need to be able to explain the history of the site and what it could be in the future to journalists and in press releases.

I've started a thread on h2g2c2 here https://groups.google.com/group/h2g2communityconsortium/browse_thread/thread/c333c72bd617adb3?hl=en but I thought I'd ask in Ask for obvious reasons.

Ben

Mostly harmless?

ok, I gave this a try, somebody has to make a start I guess:

H2g2 was founded by Douglas Adams in 1999 as the earth edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Today it unites 'Researchers' from all over the world who write various insightful Entries about all aspects of Life, the Universe and Everything and also a wide range of fiction. All this happens in a creative community of people of all ages and backgrounds who support each other and stick together – even outside of the boundaries of h2g2.

(77 words)

Great minds think alike, Mrs Zen - I started one there on a similar note before I left for w*rk this morning.

Vip's version 1:


A Guide to Earth and How To Live In It
-----------------------------------------

The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy talks about a very useful electronic book. The characters in the story use the book to tell them more about where they are, how to blend into local culture, how to escape from dangers, even how to fill in forms. In short, a Guide to the Galaxy and How To Live In It.

The Earth version of the Guide, known as h2g2, aims to be that resource, but for real life. Visiting a foreign country? Look up how to avoid tourist scams. Curious as to how fast beards grow? Ask the Community for their experiences.

Best of all, the unique way h2g2 is set up allows you to both write answers of your own and post your own questions, backed up by a Community of real people with whom to share your experiences.

That is 139 words, but I wasn't counting when I wrote it. I'm a wordy person so it could easily be cut down.

It's frustrating not being able to get on the gmail group until tonight. *taps frustratedly* I wanna see what everyone else writes!

Considering Mrs Zen put together quite a few entries from some ruminatory threads a few years ago listing what h2g2 meant to us all there will be a wealth of quotes and things in there that can be mined.

In fact, they were so well put together (Nice one, Mrs Z ) that they really should be used to show what this site is all about. And we weren't doing it to 'sell'/'buy' the place we were just celebrating why it was so unique in the interweb world and that there really isn't anything else like it.

I like Vip's contribution because it emphasises the Guide aspect and also the Community aspect.

The thing about h2g is that it's big. Like really big. There's facts and fun, serious and silly. Try it, you'll love it.

Beware of the 2legs!

"Too hip and froody for the BBC."

Deep in the unchartered backwaters of the internet, h2g2, the brain-child of the late Douglas Adams, is a unique online community gathered from the four corners of the earth, dedicated to creating the earth-bound edition of the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy; the electronic guide to Life the Universe and everything, based on the ideas from Adam's eroniously named trilogy of books in the Hitchhikers series.

I don't think we want to stress the link to the books too much - it's not a fan site.

Yeah, I agree. It's just tricky when it's one of the best definitions.

But then again, it isn't. The HHGG didn't actually have a community. It had a series of individual Researchers with credit cards, but we certainly don't have that.

So I'll have another re-think when I'm not banging my head against the brick wall that is our internal intranet search facilty. It's worse that our old one...

Tea.

I'll have a think...

While you're waiting, this researcher does it in far less than 100 words: U200269

i dont really have time to get this right so heres my two cents
its an archive, its a poster board, its a place to ask questions and view questions asked by other random people from all over the globe, its a place to deposit knowledge for others to use and view knowledge posted by a huge variety of people from all walks of life. its unique, clean, simple (by which i mean easy to use) and amazingly complex (by which im refering to the huge variety of information available) simultaneously. in a word its beautifull, like tea... or bach

Hootoo is a library, a filing cabinet and a notice board all piled into one, it is a conversation that has travelled off on a thousand different tangents, it's a party that never ends, some drift in and out, some have been here since the beginning and some have turned up fashionably late. it is islands of information in a sea of chatter debate and news.

mini

h2g2 is a place to sit down over a cup of tea with some mates and say it how it is.

h2g2 is the "cheers" of the web, a place where everyone knows your name,we have our Sams, our Woodies our Fraisiers and of course our Norms

How about this in exactly 100 words:

h2g2 is a world-wide community which strives to write a practical guide
to life, the universe, and everything. Through this shared ambition
researchers form strong friendships, develop their writing skills, and
continue a legacy created by the author Douglas Adams.

Encyclopaedias may present cold fact but only h2g2 teaches How to Speak
Brummie, A Motorists' Guide to Tuscan Hilltop Towns, and The Joy of
Socks. It acts as both a guide and companion for surviving on planet
Earth. Recently redesigned to fit better with the current generation of
Web 2.0 technologies, h2g2 continues to expand in entries and
researchers.

I like this bit Silly Willy

>>>Encyclopaedias may present cold fact but only h2g2 teaches How to Speak Brummie, A Motorists' Guide to Tuscan Hilltop Towns, and The Joy of Socks.