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

Most of the bugs and problems people have with the site don't really bother me - either I don't get it happening to me, or it's something that doesn't bother me.

One point that I have noticed though, which may or may not bother others, I have described in a post to "Technical Feedback". There is no way of knowing if this will disappear into Nirvana.

I followed the most obvious route from where I am:

- Click on "Feedback"
- The first line reads: If you have feedback or bug reports to do with the launch of h2g2 since we left the BBC, please go here: New h2g2 Feedback.

My question is not to do with the "launch", but I go there anyway. That takes me to A87706669.

Here I have the choice "General | Editorial | Technical | Post-BBC h2g2 | Pliny"

I choose "Technical" and end up at A388325. That's where I would have gone if I'd clicked on "Technical" in the first place.

Anyway, I've posted my question and I've just noticed that Icy North has already seen it and commented. So it's not quite in Nirvana......

You obviously missed the page that tells you not to report any bugs in the system.

It was when that was pointed out to me that I began to lose faith in the current site management.

The official line is that they don't need anyone to tell them when things are wrong because they already have a long list of bugs which they are working through and a dedicated team of testers looking for new problems.

I believe that they have fixed all the bugs they can and have nobody working on improving the system.

I avoid confusion (mostly) by staying in Brunel.

Pliny is a lot easier to look at than Brunel when you're using a mobile phone.

I find using skin names confusing - and I've been here for yonks. I've no idea how newbies find it

Newbies are supposed to use Pliny and nothing else. That was the intention.

But since Pliny is fatally flawed, the newbies soon discover the bugs and then wander off to a better site.

By the way, TC, I do remember investigating the bug you've just reported a few years back, so I'm pretty sure it is on the official bug list.

It happens to the Most Banal and Boring thread as well. This is another long conversation in Miscellaneous Chat. It seems to only happen to long conversations in Miscellaneous Chat, not short conversations, and not long conversations in other forums.

That sounds like good news to me, but what do I know?

I'm not a newbie so I don't know what happens when you sign up these days
but talk of Ripley, Pliny, Goo and so on would confuse me enough to probably give it all a miss

If Pliny was working properly, newbies would never need to know about the other skins.

Is there a way to make the older skins comprehensible?

We have to make sure that the readers who don't log in use Pliny. If the used the older skins the system would crash. I see no reason why we can't explain to newbies how to switch to say brunel. But I've been told that none of the old skins will attract a newbie because they look like something from the 90s. "Nineties-tastic" is the word used.

So we have to lure the newbie in using Pliny, then explain to them that it doesn't work but that there is a creaky old system that does. A tall order.

I didn't think I was "reporting a bug" - I just wondered whether it just happened to very long threads and if so, how many postings a thread had to have before it happened.

Anyway, I wouldn't know what something would have to look like to have a 90s look about it. If it means "no ads" then I'm quite happy with it. I'd use goo on my phone, but that just shows up as white writing on a white background, so it's a bit difficult to decipher.

I'd say. How do you know there is white writing there? I suppose by selecting it all...

I think I solved three of the bugs in Pliny, and e-mailed the techs with the solution, but 5 days have gone by and I've got no reply, not even a "thank you for your e-mail". So I think there's nobody home.

This explains my slightly negative attitudes in the above postings.

Traveller in Time
""

Thank you for your email, Gnomon. I know I'm not the one designated to do the thanking, but it's downright sick to ignore people who are so obviously helpful as yourself.

Well said, Paul.

Well, as Gnomon said, there's nobody home. I suspect it's been repossessed.