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

I seriously thought that h2g2 might not be here when I got back from my week away in New York. The small number of new entries in Peer Review meant there would be nothing to publish.

I see that h2g2 survived but only just. Instead of the normal ten new entries each week, there were only four. That's one a day for four days and there were no new entries at all on Wednesday. If this happens again, I think the site will have to close down as a failed experiment. I'm the BBC doesn't care about the site - the h2g2 Eds can be employed by the BBC in other positions the rest won't even notice.

All through the summer there's been a dearth of new stuff, and it was assumed that with students going back to school in the autumn, there would be a lot of new interest in the site. But this hasn't happened.

I've done all I can to keep the site going, but I've run out of ideas for new entries, and I'm not going to churn out entries that to me are boring. So that leaves sub-editing and helping other people to write their entries. I became a sub-editor and subbed what I consider a large number of entries in a short time. I can certainly help there. But at the rate the entries are coming in, I could easily sub them all and there still wouldn't be enough to fill the front page.

So the only thing I think I can do is venture into Peer Review again. I'll have to tread carefully.

I'll also make sure my back-up copies of all my own entries (unedited versions) are carefully stored off-site, for the day when the site is closed down.

If that was intended as a call to arms ....

I have some ideas, but no self-discipline. Still, I'll try.

TRiG.

Awww, don't say that Gnomon I just got two new badges.

I wish I could finish the entries I've started ..... but I need .... I don't know what inspiration.

Gawd. I'm going to have to knock a few out, aren't I?

Slime Moulds? TE Lawrence? The Baader-Meinhoff Gang? The Revolutionary Socialiist origins of the Home Guard?

Ooh! JEllen42 and I still have one we haven't submitted on The White Rose Group.

Gnomon, you are a better Researcher than I. Well done for staying true to your commitment to the site.

But you're right - every day I expect it to be gone. The problem, however, is that I really don't care much anymore.

I don't realise that there are so few new entries a lot of the time because there are always three on the front page, and I don't necessarily recognise them as old ones.

I have a couple on the go and some more I should be able to do soon.

I do care a lot. I´m here since May and I have been enjoying it a lot. I´m thinking about the entry I started just the first days. I was so excited that I jumped into writing something; later, internet problems and procastination... I think that this place deserves an effort. I´ll try, despite my English and me being an absolute illiterate about editing, I´´ve tried to do something with my PS, but I´m too clumsy, the same with linking, don´t know even how to do that. Anyway, I´ll stop listing my clumsinesses (?) and I´ll try to do something. May be My love affair with the English Language
I´ll try to write something "digestive", I know that It can be a torture to read some entries.

It sure wouldn't hurt if that Douglas Adams fellow would come out with another book. I still suspect that there is more material out their someplace!

Although it would be especially cool and helpful if we got another movie or TV show. Where do I sign a petition?!

The Prof I was working for last week is a major DNA fan. My gift from her for delivering a seminar was a university towel.

I don't think the general malaise is anything new, but the community's reaction to it is. There hardly seems to be anyone saying 'well, let's do something about it' this time. A year ago, a journal like this would've sent shockwaves around the site and launched a few writing/reviewing initiatives. I don't know why, but the enthusiasm and love of the place seems to have dissipated somewhat.

The launch of the Aviators was a case in point; three AV clips made for Entries, a Front Page splash and Jim Lynn saying that an embedding code was being worked on. We'd been waiting years for this, working on it for months and the reaction from the community was... zip.

I still love h2g2. It's still the first place I log on to after my email; the faces and dynamic have changed considerably, but I enjoy being here as much as I ever have.

Without new blood, though, we're always going to have a new loss of Researchers (and therefore contributors). It's hard to stay positive about the site's future when we're powerless to do anything about this, knowing that the BBC won't keep paying for our indulgences.

The decline is surely as much due to proliferation of other newer zingier sites as anything else?

What is the likely scenario in a shut-down? The site would remain available, surely? Such a collection would hardly be binned?

Well, I have one entry in Update Forum that I've largely given up on, as well as two very large (for me) projects that I am working on concurrently, and need a lot of research before writing. I also have a 'Collective Nouns' series set up, but have been told that H2G2 doesn't 'do' lists, despite the 'Everything' tag, so that is sitting there for my own personal entertainment. I have also partially started an entry on Jacques Cousteau, which again is complex.

The two large entries are:
Ramsgate, its history and attractions (with 30 listed sub-entries to date) which has loads of tie-ins as well. Could take me up to my retirement!

The Parrots of the world.

They won't be done by the end of the week.

After those, my next proposed entry will be the Native birds of Great Britain, which could be 400 entries (the magazines and books are out and waiting) or just lumped under species headings... Either way, not ones to be knocked off over a wet weekend.

On top of that, my internet access at work has been restricted to Auntie Beeb at work, and the head is feeling a little fuzzy...

I'll see what I can do... Maybe something short and sweet? Not that I can ever find one of those...

Maybe if everyone could be encouraged to write one entry in a month, or rescue something of interest from the Flea Market?

Well aimed kick though, Gnomon.

MMF

The problem is getting new researchers to a) stick around (surprisingly rare) and b) write something.

At the moment it's mostly the same old faces in PR, and they can't keep the EG going alone.

Maybe some sort of promotion to other BBC websites?

It's also a problem (for me) thinking of a topic, or slant on a topic, that isn't already covered adequately elsewhere on the internet.

Is there any way of assessing where there are gaps in the guide for which an entry might be welcome?

Recumbentman, I daresay if the site was shut down, they'd still keep the entries in a read-only format (though I'd hope they'd keep more than just the EG).

Teasswill, try Challengeh2g2.

It's hard to dismiss an eight-year-old site as a "failed experiment", because as certainly one of the older sites I know of, it can hardly be considered just an "experiment".

Maybe some of the problem could be that most people are disinclined to write entire works of non-fiction themselves. In general, it's a less popular genre - there's a much greater market on the Internet for fiction and creative writing (though you'd think, then, that the AWW would be more active than it is). People may also be disinclined to write entire entries and shepherd them through PR, when the much "lazier" model of Wikipedia awaits.

Teasswill, you could also try going through the categorisation system and seeing if you can spot any obvious gaps.

Or you could let us know what sort of things you're interested in and we could try to challenge you.

I hadn't intended it as a call to arms, just marking the passing of a great site. But I am of course willing to offer any assistance to anyone else who feels they need it on the writing front, if it will get the site out of a hole.

Mad Fiddler, h2g2 may not have done lists in the past, but I feel that they're better than nothing if the alternative is, indeed, nothing. Last Wednesday there were no new entries to publish on the Front Page.

We're not gone yet.

Please pardom me butting in but...

I'm not sure what MMF regards as a 'list' but I certainly regarded these as lists A207442 and A379424

But then again that was before PR.

DK

Thanks for that Gnomon...

These are the entries, but it has been the very to prove them, as I am sure many are fabricated, and they have been taken from half a dozen sources. I just stopped pursuing them when I was told lists were not part of H2G2...

So here they are:
A12586133
A12586692
A12586737
A12588636
A12590561
A12590679
A12590985

They are raw and unpolished, but if they are worth spending time on, I'll do it!

The asterisked entries are the ones I need to check out, as are the (?) listed ones which seem to have some accuracy.

I'd be interested in anyone's feedback... They have been sat there a long time!!!



MMF