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

The Pliny Front Page has grown to be far more popular than its Ripley counterpart. This is a positive trend, in light of Ripley's eventual retirement. However a lot of volunteer effort goes into preparing the Ripley Front Page, including its Quote Of The Day feature, for a small and shrinking audience.

In an effort to focus volunteer efforts on building the Guide and to raise the visibility of the labor-intensive QOTD feature, the volunteer Teams will be implementing these Front Page changes:

1) The Quote Of The Day is moving to Pliny's Front Page to be enjoyed by a larger audience,
2) The Pliny Front Page will become the only active Front Page, and
3) The Ripley Front Page will be frozen.

The clause: we are not proposing to remove any Ripley skin. All h2g2 researchers will still be able to use Classic Goo, Alabaster, and Brunel in addition to the Pliny skin.

This proposed change is expected to raise h2g2's visibility across the web and allow the Guide Editorial Team to focus on building the Guide, rather than spending time doing Ripley FP layout.

And speaking of building the Guide, please welcome our ...

New Deputy Guide Editors

Congratulations to new Deputy Guide Editors Matt U168592 and h5ringer U3386111. Matt has had extensive editorial experience with both the Guide and the Underguide. h5ringer brings a wealth of experience as a scout and subeditor.

Ooooh, new people!

Just a question, what does frozen mean in context? Does it mean it will no longer be updated (I know it was a pain in the behind to do as everything had to be done manually) or does it mean that it'll be updated once a week and then no other changes?

Otherwise, fab news, especially that Pliny is pulling in new readers. And deputies! Does that mean that Lanza can take a day off?

Lanza gets a day off? Can I have one of those?

Frozen does indeed mean that the Ripley Front Page will no longer be updated.

, thanks for the clarification. It makes a lot of sense as it was a lot of time and effort that could be better spent.

I've got My Conversations bookmarked in Alabaster, so I'm fine.

You can't have a day off, who would tell us what's going on?

Any indication of when these proposed changes will come into effect?


Geggs

Does this include "THE POST" ? (as in also just showing in pliny)

The Ripley Front Page still exists? I've not been able to access it since Pliny went live.

Actually I tell a lie... I can see it in Plain, but in The One True Skin (Brunel, in case anyone was wondering) I get redirected to Pliny.

Mr D, go into 'preferences' and update for Brunel

You will need to do this everytime you log in, unless you add the Brunel 'My Space' to your favourites list


lil x

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/home

That does it - from my bookmarks/favourites (Safari) - but Reviewing this reply, it takes me to Pliny and 'Unable to find your page'.

Ah, I see... I did update my preferences way back when but thought it'd just stick. I get to my PS using a direct link, so that explains how I get to see that in Brunel every time but not the FP!

Thanks lil!

The brunel link to the Front Page has been broken since the launch of Pliny. I sometimes get the Pliny FP and sometimes an error. But so far the brunel FP still existed.

The front page of The Post will stay as it is. The Post front page is technically just a usual Entry while the Front Page of h2g2 is different from Entries and more difficult to update, which is the reason for the decision freeze the Ripley versions. While changing The Post in Ripley does also automatically change it in Pliny and vice versa, this is not the case for the Front Page of h2g2. If that is what you ask.

Congratulations to Matt and h5ringer - their appointment seems to be a little overshadowed by the loss of the Goo front page, but I'm delighted to hear the news.

<BB<

Good news about the DGE.

>> in light of Ripley's eventual retirement<< very bad news.

Mr. D, bookmark this link to go directly to the brunel FP:

http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/FrontPage

Of course, now that the QotD should be functional on the Pliny FP, I won't need my old bookmark as much as before. It was a bit off-putting to see the QotD stuck on the same quote for weeks at a time. I do like the Pliny front page for its links to new posts and peer review links so I was checking both.

I did put a link on my PS to the brunel "My Conversations" pop-up as that is absolutely integral to how I use h2g2. I'll never fully transition to Pliny until conversation navigation is as good as (or preferably better than) it is in brunel. I need my pop up that auto-refreshes and highlights new posts, and I need links that go to the first UNREAD post in a thread rather than the beginning or the end of it.

Once that's sussed, I'll go Pliny all the way (maybe, almost ).

Bel, Ripley is planned for retirement when Pliny is also retired. The major rebuild we're working on will replace both Ripley and Pliny, but... and here's the good part, not the skins. All current skins will always be available.

"All current skins will always be available."

The One True Skin shall last for all eternity.

Lettuce spry.

and that One True Skin is Goo, Mr D

Noooooooooooooo not Brunel, Yellow on black is the least painful colour combination for my eyes - Blue on white is not good

Congratulations to the new DEs, but did it have to come with such a crime against humanity?

But brunel will not be gone?