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

I know that the "Infinite Improbability Drive" was a delightful creation of DNA, and should be part of this site. How-ever, I have again recently found cause to question it's focal instrumentation. Specifically the real-world (and a bit quirky) piece that Fizzymouse has written about that catch-all drawer than every home has.

At present, the IID offers up random selections from the Edited Guide, naturally the heart and purpose of the site. How-ever, there are far more gems to be found as submissions to and the UnderGuide. Works that may not meet the stringent limits of the factual content of the Guide. And yet are really very worthy of being seen.

Is there some way to broaden the search scope of the IID? Or perhaps creating something with an appropriate name that would be the variety of the Post and UnderGuide pieces? Most (if not all) bear some little badge-marker as being part of the sub-systems. So perhaps that might be something for a random search engine to look for?

I think it's a good idea: it would certainly help lend a little credibility to non-EG stuff, which doesn't seem to get taken too seriously at the moment (meaning everything from The Post to random entries people write when the mood takes them with no intention of submitting to the EG.)

(This is a reposting from another thread, just in case anyone thinks they're losing it!)

<./>RandomNormalEntry</.> will sort-of do that, though it'd be nice, perhaps, to have a button. There isn't currently a search for <./>ThePost</.> or the <./>UnderGuide</.>. I don't suppose it would be too complicated to create searches or random buttons for them, though the site does seem a but strapped for cash at the moment.

TRiG.

That random-normal can take you to anyone's private thought pages as well. Just "A"-pages that are good for posing head-clearing thoughts and the like. Been there, tried that. That's why I suggest something that might be keyed to edited and run and UnderGuide thingies. Stuff that has met a level of editing and touching-up. And yet creative ...

The technical problem, so far as I can see, is that EG entries are 'tagged' in the system as Edited Entries. Post and UG entries, as community ventures, are just normal entries that happen to say 'edited by' the Post account or the UG account.

I would definitely campaign to have the 'Edited Entry' tag on Post and UG entries, though.

We asked for a "UG" status when we were forming the UnderGuide, back when there were (I think) 4-6 people on the h2g2 staff. We were denied that. Then we considered asking for Edited Status for UG entries as well, but nothing doing. I doubt that the staff would support the idea now.

So what you seem to be saying is that there is no current way for an automated search thingie to differentiate between a quality piece of prose in the Underguide and my personal account of a Saturday of toe-nail trimming, should I choose to write such a thing under my PS?

For the site's search engine, we decided to include the tag (UG) at the end of the title of every UG entry. So if you search for the terms "Sheep (UG)" the first result is the UnderGuide entry A1158662.

UG entries do get included in the category system. See C1233. That's the one remaining sign that the UG is anything more than an h2g2 club/society. The categorisation might work as a key to a search engine.

It's not the same, but we are trialling a h2g2 search engine over at http://h2g2aviators.com/info/?about=search I's not perfect, but I think it's better than the one we have.

And I haven't managed to break it, yet

I now have a job in web design, and am learning a lot. When I get back from holiday, I'll be pulling the Aviators site apart and stitching it back together. I might even get it to do something useful ....

TRiG.

Don't change it too much!

I won't be able to find my way around