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

F15263975?thread=7067441&post=88679281#p88679281

I don't know if this person could be useful for the redesign, but it might be useful ammo to prove that h2g2 needs some help with its navigation etc.

Hi Vip. Thanks for alerting us to that. We'll keep an eye on that thread to see if BayTheMoon comes back with any more observations. And you're right, any feedback - good or bad - is immensely useful when it comes to our plans for redesigning the site, so please keep it coming!

Cheers
h2g2Eds

As far as I can make out this Researcher has only been here a week or so, hasn't spoken to anyone apart from in that one conversation, made critical comments rather than asked for advice, gave no examples to explain their comments and give any of us an opportunity to help and give advice, and, surprisingly to me, no-one in the conversation asked for any examples, so giving much credence to their opinion without engaging them seems a bit previous to me. We know nothing at all about them and next to nothing about their motivation.

I have shown this site to many people and they all given me the same message - it just 'looks too complicated'.


Maybe we need some newbies to trial a new FAQ's list on. Maybe we need to look at introducing new members to various parts of h2g2 on a need to know, selective basis, rather than the charming and eclectic way we seem to do it now.

It's a big place, that's why we have ACEs to help out. On this occasion the new Researcher didn't seem to have the patience to deal with that. We don't know why they came here, what they were expecting, even if they're a HHGTTG fan or not. Since h2g2 became part of the BBC and the BBC expanded the DNA software to run its messageboards we've had a lot of people come to h2g2 who have little or no idea what it's about. If they don't come here as a result of a liking for the works of Douglas Adams, h2g2 is already something of a mystery to them.

There's always room for improvement, tweaks that can be made to make it more obvious where things are as the place changes and evolves, which it has done rather a lot since I joined.

If I'm honest, *I* find the navigation of this place tricky. There's so much stuff - most of it dormant - and aside from the Ask/HowDoI/MiscChat/GamesRoom it's hard to find anything. I still bump into active Researchers who I have never met before and are older than I am, and it turns out there are bits of the place I never even knew about.

Much as I like exploring ramshackle old houses full of interesting rooms, I can see why it's so daunting to new people; there's too much choice.

Being able to pinpoint what h2g2 is for and pointing people, very clearly, towards that is going to help. And that will only end up in the old 'What's h2g2's Purpose?' and 'h2g2 vs Wikipedia' conversations we've had again and again.

People, on average, will wait four seconds for a loading screen before they get annoyed. I think that says a lot about how long people are going to spend learning to navigate a site; a year's learning curve just isn't going to cut it.

well - doesn't it to an extent act as a filter though?
Only those with some determination and patience are going to stay?
Or at least learn how to use the site outside of one or two threads?

It also keeps those without the patience out of the more general areas.
It isn't hard to learn and I don;t think a year is really required to learn it. It's a complicated and interesting site. I wouldn't want it simplified - what would I do when bored then?

I've been here since...errm, hang on a minute

Sorry, I worded that badly. It's not that it's hard to learn, but it is hard to see where any of the action is. It's takes a long time to find ways of finding coversations that are still alive and that tinterest you. Actually, I'm still not sure if I can do that... I just continue in the small niches I'm already in.

yeah, me too I guess although I do use the info page to find out who is talking elsewhere.

I've been here since Oct 27th this year and I'm still finding my way around. I actually find it good fun to randomly wander around seeing what turns up, but I've got a lot of time on my hands. I did find it infuriating at first to spend ages hunting down something that I'd seen recently (I'm obsessive about clearing my browser history - dumb really). I think it might help if you stress to newcomers the use of the bookmark function - I've found it very helpful.

Yes, the info page is handy as well, but it seems to be some sort of secret. The most popular conversations bit on the front page is largely useless unless you are Rafael or bleedin Fabio.

Hmm, yes. The 606 lot do seem to be... talkative.

I'm having a conversation with Pastey* at the moment about this, actually, and one thing we agree on is that there is so much Community these days, that it's hard to see the Guide.





*for those who didn't meet him, Pastey was an old 5 digit h2g2er who drifts in from time to time, but I now know well in RL too.

yes, I think the start of the huge (now closed) 606'ers thread is a good indication of peoples reaction to stumbling in here.
In general, lack of interaction with ace's, found it rather old school and thought it wasn't even really still active. Then some gradually came round to it and the quirky novelties. Still not sure what the dislike of the smiley was about.

And all this discussion whilst not realising that quite a few of the existing denizens (I've noted a few people who said they were lurking) were watching over their shoulders.

And of course it also showed one of our strengths - inclusiveness and patience. I think I have seen more comments by the eds account in that thread (and subsequent ones) than I've ever seen in one place before.

I think the most telling part of the conversation I've just had is about the migration to the BBC.

In essence, the BBC bought h2g2 because it had a community that was passionate about the Guide, and were prepared to put time and work into it. However, in trying to keep the community, the community has now become bigger than the thing that it was originally designed to support; the Guide.
With the focus in the wrong place it's become a glorified chat room - admittedly full of literate and articulate people from all around the world. That in itself, however, is not something that the BBC would (should?) want to keep, and it's making h2g2 a complex place to be. That complexity is driving away new blood needed to keep the Guide going.

How to solve it though, without driving away people that have their online home here? I don't know.

"How to solve it though, without driving away people that have their online home here? I don't know"

As managers the world over are fond of saying -
"Don't being me problems, bring me solutions!"

Yeah, I know. I'm thinking about it.

I've already implemented one (albeit small) change so far - I've changed my ACEing message to explain about the Guide in more detail and include links to PR etc.
I don't like to burden new people with lots of links, so before today I only had one to Alex's New Researchers page. I still don't think I have, but I'm opening the door to PR on my way out.

Hmm, yes, that's not bad at all
A good start I think and 'gets them early' as it were.

Thanks. I've now altered it to have proper links to the named pages too so it's less messy (thanks to the How Do I? forum - thanks, guys!).

I think your message is great Vip - and I especially like the emphasis you put on the Edited Guide and the PR process.

Often we get first time authors, who sign up to h2g2 and dash a personal paragraph off, send it into PR without receiving any welcome or advice from the ACEs. It is a delicate matter to rebut these often strange little 'entries' without losing a potential newbie to the site.


btw - I may not have fully assimilated the fact that you are an ACE Vip - I thought the active ACEs have the letters ACE in their tagline?