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

Hi Cadi.

Welcome to H2G2. Prepare to have all your time hoovered up into a big bag and dumped somewhere out of reach.

Things you need to know about h2g2:

1. How to have a cool user space. Click on my name, just up there ^, look at my user space. All sort of pointless nonsense, including headers, neat paragraphs, bold and italic type, links within H2G2, links to other parts of the internet, and pointless tricks like making things move about. All of this is possible with GuideML, the language of entries. There's a button at the end of my userspace which lets you see the GuideML I used to make the space. Basically you replace the "U" in the address bar in your browser with the letters "testuserpage" - it works for anyone's user page. I've found that copying and changing stuff from other people's home spaces is a good way to learn GuideML fast. Go to a busy conversation, click on someone's name, have a look at their userpage and if there's a trick or feature you like the look of (say, a table), "testuserpage" it and copy it!

2. How to write Entries. There's a button on your space marked "Add Entry". It can be plain text, but GuideML makes it look better. If you've written something you want in the Edited Guide, click that green banner at the top of the page and read the instructions for getting it into "Peer Review". Then prepare for either a deluge of criticism, or worse, deafening silence. Then look forward to the day that you get an email saying "your entry has been selected for the edited guide", it gets passed to sub editor who corrects all your spelling mistakes (you're an engineer, you're not expected to be able to write English AS WELL! ) then your fame is assured and your entry goes on the front page for a day. That's the theory at least.

3. Smileys. There are a bewildering array of smiley things you can put in conversations (like this one) or in entries (your userspace counts as an entry, of course). My favourites, or at least the ones I use most often, are and . Click on either of those to find out how to use them. If you want to put one in an entry, you'll need to use the tag <SMILEY TYPE=> (with a space). Do "testuserpage" on someone who uses them to get ideas.

4. Where are all the civil engineers? Well, in the Yellow Pages under "Boring" it used to say "See Civil Engineering", but you knew that... If you're the first, that means you're the house expert! So you can write entries and say "I know better than you". One point though, which I made to someone else a while back. If you put an entry on, say, bridge construction into Peer Review, and you get a badly spelled withering comment back from someone who's screen ID is (say) "Spangle the magnificent, Keeper of the pointy bit on top of policeman's helmets" don't assume that (a) English is their first language and (b) they're not a professor of civil engineering (possibly *your* professor...).

5. What to write about. Anything you know about. At all. Check first that someone else hasn't already written about it, but there are still plenty of gaps as you know... I do mean ANYthing you know about. I've written on a fairly obscure range of subjects myself, as you'll see if you check out my space.

Anyway, enough blather. Welcome in, get writing, let's get some engineering in the Guide!

Good luck,


H.

Thank you very much. Will have a try.
By the way, you're right about the time-eating. I'm having to be VERY disciplined - and not always suceeding! I think the warning light comes on when you look at something you posted at the start of your session and it says "posted 2 hours ago" OOOOPPS!

Better get on and do something. Thanks again for the help,

Cadi