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

So, quick disclaimer: I used to be here a lot around 2002-2005, I was around for the whole BBCi/DNA switchover and the place was bustling. I decided, when I randomly saw a h2g2 article listed alongside a Wikipedia article in a Google result page that I would try h2g2 out again (after looking back with rose-tinted spectacles...)

So, here I am, all brand new and un-Aced, and I'm looking at the conversations around the CommunityPages, and it seems as though topics go for weeks around MiscChat and the other talking points between replies.

Since leaving bbc.co.uk, has this place gone a little quiet? I could be entertained for hours on here, and there was always something going on. What does everybody who survived the jump think of the new Hootoo?

I should add, that I've looked at the Who's Online widget and I see about 100+ Researchers online at 5am GMT (9PM MST, here), and there simply must be a place these people are hanging out - where is/are those places?

Hi Chris, and welcome back to h2g2!

Yes, the place has gone very quiet. I'd like to think that researchers are all just waiting in the wings for something exciting to happen, but it's been a long time now without any kind of motivational talk from those who run the project.

Ask h2g2 is still one of the busier places, though.

We've evolved beyond typing in wee boxes and transcended to deep and meaningful conversations using telepathy.



At least, I think that's what the voices in my head are.

I hear you all the time, hunny


lil xx

The 100+ mentioned on post 2 could that be the result of not loging out there is always a large number listed.

Pastey always said it was a known bug. Whenever someone's PS is read, they appear in the online list

(or something)


Clearly the software designer wanted to exaggerate the number. It's the high-tech equivalent of having a box of inflatable researchers.

Actually, we could send a few inflatable ones to the next Field Researchers Ltd committee meeting, to see if anyone notices.

Is there a smiley for that? There should be...

I stay logged in, but I also come here frequently during the day, except when I'm shoveling the tons of snow that seem to keep falling in real life .

[No, no, it does more than *seem* to snow, but after a while my mind goes around the bend and I imagine snowflakes even when, as now, the sun is shining brightly ]

100 researchers online at one time is more than there used be sometimes even when this place was jumping. I remember Sunday mornings when there were fewer than 42 here. Seriously.

Websites go through a sorting out process. There's always some place newer and more sparkly, which often appeals to novelty-seekers. Once the novelty wears off, they will go somewhere else.

So, we need a cunning plan Baldrick

The "Who's Online" thingy is well and truly borked. It was first borked by the BBC when they somehow merged it across several boards. Then it would show thousands and thousands online. Then when they tried to rebuild h2g2, it got further borked and started showing ghosts like U42 and nighthoover online. Then after all that MOT/disposal and our rescue by Not Panicking, LTD that ghost bug remains. There are many theories about what causes it to list a person online. I believe there are more than a few things that will cause it to flag a user online including when someone checks someone else's Uspace. It might also be triggered by web crawlers.

The main thing to know is that it don't work. They should install a SEP field around it instead of putting a link to a broken feature on the front page. Unfortunately, we've seen very little progress toward the next iteration of h2g2 that we've been assured will fix everything. I think the have died of overwork and neglect.

Oh, and to answer your original question, yes many people have left for various reasons. It doesn't just seem quieter here, it is quieter here.

I rarely (it has been years) look at the who's on-line feature. So I did just now and clicked on a researcher at random.

Jenny (and Fred the Cheese) looks as though she is on-line. Her profile suggests that she last visited in 2002. Odd that.

PP.

It *is* quieter. Even places like the Atelier (which I remember routinely getting 40+ posts in any 24 hour period) can now go days without a word. Even 2legs' journal ...

There just doesn't seem as much to say nowadays

Mol

roll on h2g3. that's what i say. as long as it has entry editing and youf.

Dare I dare say the Truth?
So many have been driven off by over-moderation.
Even asking such a question risks expulsion.

~jwf~

Because I don't really expect my last posting above to survive
moderation I post again to point out that it contained the word
Moderation - a subject so Taboo that one gets moderated for
merely suggesting that such a thing could possibly happen
because that triggers debate about why it happens.

I realise that using the Mod word here several times will likely
cause this post to be 'hidden' or 'removed' as well. I really want
to post once more below without using any of the forbidden phrases
but to do so would probably result in Moderation for Flooding.

Terry Pratchett's Auditors have nothing on these people.
The only defense is a good bit of


~jwf~

I haven't looked at "Who's Online" in a long time. If I checked my own onlineness, naturally I would see myself because I was actually here.

Who's Online on the Front Page is even more/less funny than Who's Online in Brunel etc - I know I'm online, but I never see myself in that list, which is rather odd (unless other people can see my name there, I don't know...)

So in terms of who actually is online, there's either an overestimate or an underestimate... Perhaps some average of the two is the true figure

Some average of what two?

0 hikers online.

is what it says here...