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

[No, I don't mean Rod's gazebo. A87785464]

Our Goal at h2g2: To become the #1 Attractive Nuisance on the web.

You know what an Attractive Nuisance is. One of those websites that, once you get there, you don't get out.

You don't get any work done.

You just read and read and read...

Elektra just found this:

http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/

NatGeo pictures. Enjoy.

Oh, you're back already? Now, try this one:

http://www.straightdope.com/

The Straight Dope - Fighting Ignorance Since 1973 (It's taking longer than we thought). The most addictive website I know.

Let me know when you're...oh, okay. Ready? The piece de resistance:

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com/

See you tomorrow...

Do you see what I mean? What these sites have in common is that they are SO sticky. Once you go there, you just keep finding cool stuff to read, wonder over, laugh at...

We can do this. The Edited Guide alone is a treasure trove of fun stuff to read.

How do we trap the unwary internet surfer?

Of course, our technical people are working indefatigably to improve search tools, SEO, di ganze megillah. That helps. But you can help, too.

How?

By making your Guide Entries and journals into internet Venus flytraps.

Note the following desiderata:

1. HOOKS. When you write a Guide Entry, make sure the first paragraph's a real attention-grabber. Fix it so they can no more stop reading than they could stop eating those snack items they're munching on.
2. HUMOUR: When appropraite, of course. But it helps.
3. RELEVANCE: Keep the reader in mind. Keep asking, 'Do they want to know this? Why? Did I tell them that?'
4. LENGTH: We want people to keep reading. If one entry is too long, they'll stop. If one is just short enough that it leaves them hungry for more, they'll read another one. Don't believe me? Go back and look at The Straight Dope again. Or snopes.com. (I'll bet you can't read just one Urban Legend. Betcha.)
5. SNAPPY TITLES: Like a movie marquee. Think about all the times you've clicked on one of those silly 'news' items on yahoo mail, only to find out that it was something you didn't want to know. They made you look, though.

We're getting a great push on this month with our short Entries. If we hone our skills, we could achieve our goal:

To be the roach motel of the internet: readers check in, but they NEVER LEAVE.

this is great stuff Dmitri. I'd also just add that we should write about a subject that is 'needed'. I keep mentioning that our basic factual entries** get loads of readers. Obviously if the subject is covered over and over again - take a look at what else is out there before spending an hour or so on writing up your favourite thing - and if it's well written elsewhere, then think again about your subject matter.


** for instance today people have been reading about how to start a car in very cold weather, A493571 and 'how to sleep in your car' A29176365 ( bearing in mind the freak cold weather these last couple of days here in the UK. So it's not all rocket science and highfalutin stuff we need.

Good luck!

and thanks Dmitri

That's a great point, Lanzababy. It might be nice if, in addition to attracting people and dazzling them with our fancy footwork, we, er, actually provided useful information.

At least some of the time.

That would definitely add to the tendency to hang around h2g2, For instance, if someone found a great way to cook their Easter lamb - sorry, Z - they might want to find some side dishes to go with that. Even better, if they're cooking lamb rather than ham, they might want to know about things in Greece, where roasting a lamb in the backyard on Easter is a very big deal.

And - since we're a global site - while the Brits are starting cars in the snow, down in Florida, people are disappearing into sinkholes. 'What to do in case of golf course subsidence' might be a helpful Guide Entry, FS, hint...

The roach motel of the internet??

That's very William Burroughs, the roach motel of the internet. Will I recover from this? Will I get to leave? No? I am hooked by the antennae.

I love it. .

Lanza, that kind of info is *really* interesting. And, in general it's useful to know which kind of Entries overall get the most hits. Then if we can see a pattern we can start a push for those sorts of things.

Actually, just knowing that we get read at all is a good motivator... Something for Annoucements, every now and then? Most popular new Entry, number of uniqur views of the Post, that sort if things?

That's something our boffins might take on board as a suggestion.

And just so you know,FS, I got ambitious and went for the sinkholes. You could help add a local perspective:

How to Avoid Being Swallowed by a Sinkhole - A87788227

What I like to do is searching for something on google and if I can't find it I know it's time to write about it myself. I did that with my Entry about Christmas in Austria and with my project about North American architecture. They are all quite long but you won't get this information in this form anywhere else on the Internet - as far as I could find out.

But you won't get me to stop writing about games, even if many other people have written about them and if nobody reads it anymore.

That's a good point, Tav - you offer a unique perspective on the games, which is also good.

Remember, our motto isn't 'either/or', but 'both/and'. We're just trying to widen the scope, here.

do people look on h2g2 for food?
how many would i havw to write to make an h2g2 cookbook?

that's true Dmitri
Very often there is a lot of detailed information somewhere out there. What it needs is a person to collect it, summarize it and give people the bigger picture.

Anthea, food Entries are certainly read and some day I really want to make a h2g2 cookbook. At the moment there's too much else to do, but it's one of the projects that I think would really be cool.

I think a cookbook in our inimitable style - with illustrations - might someday even be a money-maker in hardcopy form.

Do people read them? Well, think about this:

The folks studying the statistics are looking beyond the h2g2 community to see who reads what. Say somebody googles (or bings) something they want to know about, like 'how to make a cupcake'.

One of the things that's going to come up is your chocolate cupcake recipe (as soon as it's Edited). See?

Obviously, way more people are going to google (or bing) 'cupcakes' than any of the weird topics I tend to write about. Now, if they want to know about Jesus' underwear or Hutchins Hapgood the anarchist, I've got them covered.

I'm big on giving people the 'bigger picture'. I think it's value added.

We can do that with history. We can do it with ways to start your car on a snowy morning. We can do it with recipes.

From each according to their knowledge, to each according to their curiosity!

re the recipes - I was gobsmacked to discover the thousands of people that are reading our basic food entries. Things like 'how to boil and egg' and 'perfect cheese sauce' are obviously essential out there in the real world. We may not want to compete with the big hitters who have their own tv and book series, but we're plugging a hole where it comes to actual basic kitchen dilemmas.

Aha! That's it!

That's what we have to offer - teh Hitchhiker's Guide version of how-to.

Think about frleon's wonderful instructions for the Westphalian Cheese Sandwich. A87709341 Only the EG brings you microwavified food.

'Southern Living' has pretty pictures in. I know, I saw it at the supermarket on Monday. But when I write about Southern cooking, I use WPA photos and the Artists' imaginations. A87727431

And there's also lots of food from us foreigners, I think you hardly get these instructions in English usually.
we have stuff from Cuba A283439
Italy A765065
France A12939654
New Zealand A425891
Finland A827354
India A1143802
Hungary A87772855
Japan A132265

and that's only a small part.

... and interestingly my own Christmas food Entry is not listed in the Recipes section of the Categories in Pliny.

Ooh, could you send the link to EF, please, ma'am? The Curators can take care of that.

done

Categorisation has to be done by a GE I am afraid Dmitri, not the curators. An entry is categorised either as part of the polishing process or just around the time of final approval/being made 'Edited'.

Ah! You know, I didn't realise they didn't have that button.

Thanks, Lanza - I'm pretty sure h5ringer will take care of it, but I'll give him a heads-up.

They are good recipes too. I made the Christmas pudding one this year and I thought - and other people said - it was among the very best Christmas puddings we'd ever had (I wrote that in the comments). I also look at the pancakes entry all the time to check quantities, as the proportions in that work really really well. You'd think I;d remember by now but somehow I don't, probably because I know I can come here and look it up.

Anyway, I shan't feel bad about working my way through all the Russian recipes I know then.