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

h2g2 facing some sort of crisis is nothing new. h2g2 was in a terrible crisis, several researchers assured me, when I first opened my account back in 2007. Since then, h2g2 has faced a few crises, including the perilous journey from BBC, across cyberspace, and to its new home.

Recently I've seen a couple of posts bemoaning the lack of activity and/or participation on h2g2. Recently I participated in an h2g2 Participation Brainstorm, hosted by Icy North. On the other hand, Dmitri Gheorgheni’s thread in Praise of the Edited Guide thread brings the news that h2g2 now contains 10,692 EGEs and is ticking over at a rate of around 14 entries per week.

So my questions to you are:

Do you see h2g2 as being in crisis right now?

If so, please define the crisis (or crises) clearly, and include the criteria by which you would judge the crisis to be over.

For example: Yes, I see h2g2 as being in crisis. One of my friends who has written an EGE says it was too much trouble to deal with the editor. And I have to admit it is a lot of bother, especially when you go back to edit something, and then you have to change skins and work in GuideML. When it is as easy to write and edit an entry in h2g2 as it is in wordpress then the crisis will be over.

No, I don't see it as a website, or community in a state of crisis, I have seen it go though some, that is different

I would look at a number of measures to ascertain how it working, thriving, its prospects for sustainability and these give me cause for concern

no, I am not going to write an essay on it, and I'm sure you and everyone will be relieved to hear that and you can just slap me now, if you so wish

or just munch on the that I leave

Let me see if I can summarize what you are saying, Peanut, and you can tell me if I understand you correctly.

Summary: "No, h2g2 is not in crisis as a website or as a community. Some (unspecified) measures give me cause for concern for h2g2's prospects for sustainability."

Is that about right, Peanut?

No you don't, and neither do I understand you correctly

still this I like

Do you think there's an h2g2 crisis? (42 Minutes Ago)

I am sorry I am in your space and can't answer quickly or directly, and also aware that this is your journal

with all those provisos then, some concerns

for capacity building,

for volunteers, individually and in terms for the over dependence the site has on them,



for the amount of work that is being done off site, justifiable sometimes yes,in terms of admin, tech,

but when the community that is spoken of, really kind of exists more off-site than on?

er, then well, where is it?

I don't see any crisis, but I do know that there is odd back-biting and sniping goes on in the background now and again and that causes someone to leave hootoobut as I'm not in that area I can't say anything else, just that when it "does" start - PLEASE stop it ASAP

It doesn't seem a crisis to me - and maybe that is our problem - h2g2 has shown it is good at dealing with those

A slowly declining number of members is not extreme enough to be defined as a crisis - and so perhaps that is the problem?

hootoo, like other social media sites (reminiscent of town pubs) has a regular clientèle and also a "floating" one, so numbers will vary at times

no crisis

hootoo isn't a social media site though, it is a guide

it can stand alone on that, even be moth balled as such and have longevity,

as gathering place?

Yeah. Maybe not a full blown crisis, but there are some issues. The most worrying, I believe, is the inactivity on the front page. There have been only two new entries this month (and I'm not quite sure if they're both new or just updated). That is a very bad thing for any website. If there isn't new content people abandon the site.

I don't know exactly why the FP has been idle. I see there are entries in peer review, but I'm not very active in peer review so I'm not sure if it's several new projects or just a few sitting idle. (Sorry, I'd like to be more involved, but I'm rather deficient on spare time. I am trying to work on an entry though). I'm also led to believe that most of the new articles are being written by just a handful of researchers. I have no ideas on how to get more researchers writing other than a call for writers on the FP. Is peer review the issue? When I was able to participate more, peer review was very active. There have always been a few dust ups, but mostly it seemed like a lot of people were active there and I know when I wrote my entries, I really looked forward to input. I've seen a some people lately get very defensive when peer review input was submitted. Maybe I missed something, but it seemed unwarranted to me. I'm going to try to get more involved myself and not just look at the titles. I've dismissed articles before because I thought I didn't have enough personal knowledge of the subject, but I can always help out with general editing and grammar.

Maybe we need to promote peer review AND call for more entries. The more active the front page is the more reason for folks to check the site more often. But I really don't know what it will take to bring this place back to the activity level it had back in the early noughts.

All I know is that I still love this website and I'm not going anywhere. I do need to start writing more though, so I'm going to try to at least finish a full section on my current entry tonight while I'm at the pub. OK... by the end of the weekend.

I wandered off a few years ago, I find my way back and you're still in crisis! Don't worry, hootoo is an internet phenomenon, it'll always be here.

Kyra- that name rings a bell! Welcome back. Come in and enjoy the crisis.

Wow, I didn't think anyone would remember me . It's crazy how familiar it all is, I feel like I grew up here. Must make sure I don't get lost again.

We are, as far as I can tell, andwithin the restrictions of how the word seems to be used, in these ere parts, almost perminatly in a crisis... Maybe not for the first couple years I was here; internets and stuff was still new, so perhaps then we were not... but ever since, basiclly.... we are... On a slightly more sensible note, it does seem really very quiet, in the forums of late; though Peer review seems to have quite a few entrys going in I think We do seem to need an influx of new people; yeh, it'd be nice if not everyone who has left, had left, but, well, people just move on sometimes, and things change, heck, some of them have left for reasons of being deceased It does seem soemtimes we've reduced down to a loyal if slightly insane set of 'regulars', but there are new people about, who one noticed from time to time, just not so sure that as many of them as we'd perhaps like, then stick about

The only crisis I see is that most of the regulars are so busy behind the scenes, they don't have time for the community aspect.

There's always room for good, hard working volunteers... And writers!

"There's always room for good, hard working volunteers... And writers! " how about those who ain't 'good'.... just prolipheric.... and slightly tangectual I must write more... I keep sayign that... then have a sudeden burst, like the two I did go do of late... then... sort of... get distracted Plenty to work on, though, when the takes my to the page again I'm trying to incubate an idea so cunning as to if not rival, then at least be able to stand within the shadow of, the entry that is the amazingness of the 'joy of socks', only, about folding towels... It'll be... 'so h2g2' if I can just get the angle write (the angle of the entry, text, like, not the angle at which I fold the towels, like)

That's true, even the slow working volunteers (me...) do add up, and help share the work, and the tangentual writing is what makes h2g2 ...well... h2g2.

I didn't mean to exclude - rather to include all who feel like helping the site

Crisis is a strong word. We've got the same problems we've always had.

1) Attracting new users
2) Keeping those new users around
3) Dealing with the occasionally cantankerous attitudes of the regulars
4) Keeping a high level of interaction happening in PR

Once we can start attracting and keeping newbies, get a few more regular reviewers and all calm the F- down, we'll be sorted.

Hello, Everyone. And welcome back, Kyla

NBB, is there a slowly declining number of researchers? It doesn't feel that way, but I have no way of knowing. I keep meeting new and returning people and reading EG and Post articles I've never seen before.

No, or at least I have not noticed a huge drop myself, but there is an increasing amount (beyond the few we have had since I joined, and likely before) of people saying that there are less people around - but my comment was more that *if* (should have been better stated, I agree) there is a slow decline in numbers, it is not perceived as a crisis