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

So far only one Frink's Drinks building permit has been awarded (thank you JTG ). Granted, it's only been a few days, but I can't help but wonder if a) no one reads the newsletter b) no one is interested c) everyone is busy with other projects.

Even if you aren't interested in this project, go and visit John-the-gardener's greenhouse, at http://www.h2g2.com/a202654

It's quite relaxing.....

I dunno, Frink, but I can't help thinking the more rooms there are to the Clubhouse the less actual converastion takes place. Granted your membership is big, but it's like a busload of tourists in a large mansion - wandering around, not saying much, trying to find one-another. Then later they go to a small pub and talk their heads off. Do you get my poorly-worded analogy?

PS How goes the plans for the Big Net Softball Game?

Lance.

Hey Lance! sorry i didn't get back to you on the softball game thingy. Since you are the only person that responded to the softball game forum so far, I'd say there aren't any new ideas out there. I have no idea how we could do it in ICQ. Most of my ideas had to do with posting to a specific forum - many variations on the "team with the most posts wins" type thing. Actually, most posts would be a terrible thing for tdv to handle - most reasearchers posting would be better. But I don't know how fun that would really be.

Your point about the many rooms in the clubhouse is well taken - I hadn't even thought about that On the plus side, it should keep the forum threads from getting too long! I'm guessing everyone has varying opinions on this topic.

I've thought about closing membership in the team. How long can I let the roster and Frink's Drinks get? Actually, the only thing that has stopped me is that it would make this an "exclusive club," which isn't very community-friendly. One possibility is to find another volunteer to start a new team, and direct all would-be applicants to that researcher. But that could still cause problems.......

Hmmmmm.....
-TVF

I've only just signed up to Frink's Drinks, so it's a bit rude me giving my opinion now but I hope you'll forgive me...
Instead of stopping new recruits into the team, how about only displaying in your main index the ones who are most active within Frink's Drinks? It might mean more work for you, but it would allow new participants and keep the list down. You could have the entire list on another page.
I've just been vaguely designing the artwork for a possible games/lounge-type room which I could build if you like. Do you want another room?

oops, I've just noticed there's already a very nice lounge.
I could do the toilets if you like?

Well, there are two sides to the "other team" idea. One is that you can't very well have a softball game with just one team. The other is that you'd then have an element of competion that hasn't been prevalent in h2g2 before, and could be slightly antagonistic to the community nature. Of course, most people have some competitive spirit that they need to get out... but shouldn't h2g2 be one team? I don't know. You've probably thought both of those through already. I'm just restating the question, I don't have a solution.

I must admit, I like Peregrin's idea a lot. It'd give people incentive to actually do something, rather than just apply for membership and then slope off. Maybe have the Rambling Misfits, ie the active people, on the front page, and the Reserves, or the others, on another page that is linked from your front page. How many birds does that kill with one stone, eh?
The other solution is of course to make another team somewhere else, but then when people think of H2G2 and softball together, they think of Frink, and that's something you/he (depending on who's reading this) should be justly proud of.

Also, the Big Game: Yahoo has a lot of online games. Maybe one of them is sufficiently like softball to be of use. Is this worth looking into?

Lance.

A lot of the problem with this area of H2G2 is down to size. After rummaging around several forums and then discovering that the only posts are very much out of date one does tend to get a little restless and move elsewhere. I imagine quite a few people read the newsletter but repsonse is a different thing altogether. In fact, that is one of the odd things about H2G2 in general - a distinct lack of feedback. Even with sub-ed "status" I have precious little response to my actions!!

I wouldn't close membership as this goes against what you are / were trying to achivee, but maybe a little more coherance within the clubhouse itself wouldn't go amiss. I am beginning to repeat myself so I'll stop now!

DT.

Hi folks! A long morning of waiting for an oil change gave me the time to think these things over........of course, I think the fact that I'm thinking about this while not sitting at my computer is a prime indicator that I am taking myself just a bit too seriously

Peregrin - your idea of only linking to active members on my front page is a good idea, except that I have no idea how I'd do it without a serious amount of work. If h2g2 could automate it for me.....wow! But otherwise I don't think I could handle it. As far as building another room for the clubhouse goes, go for it! For now at least, every member gets a room if so desired....

IW - it wouldn't be too hard to have a game with only one team....it would just have to be an exhibition game! The left side of the roster vs. the right side is something that keeps sticking in my mind. I think a little friendly competition wouldn't be bad if it was done right.....the question is how to do it.

Lance - I'm sort of stealing one of your thoughts on my main page now. I've called the first sixty members (i.e. the current roster) the "starters", and all future signups will be "reserves." The reserves will be listed in a pull-down menu, shamelessly copied from The Wisest Fool. This may not be fair to new folks, considering that some of the older members don't show up here anymore....but it will mean much less work for me, and it will keep the main page from growing beyond infinity (or something like that). As far as the game goes, maybe we could find something online that would work.....anyone care to take a peek? The post-to-a-forum idea would probably go like this: each team gets a forum thread to post to, and the team with the most participants wins. To make it somewhat like softball, you could assign a value for each researcher (say JTG earns his team a single if he posts, but TWF earns a home run). We could really stretch it out and play one inning every week........as far as another team goes, I certainly wouldn't mind another person starting one, but you are right, I am proud of this, and wouldn't want to just give it up.

DT - as you've no doubt surmised by now, I don't intend to close off membership. That could get ugly, and signing up people is a lot of fun......I can't blame people for not responding, even if I whine every once in a while - h2g2 has gotten so large that there just isn't time to respond to many of the things we would like to. Frankly I feel lucky to have so much attention to begin with......As far as the clubhouse goes, I think I'll still encourage everyone to build a room if they want, while still leaving open the original rooms just in case anyone wants to grab a beer or sing a tune.

Thanks to everyone for sharing your thoughts. Again, considering how much there is to do on h2g2, I appreciate your time

-TV's Frink

*inhales*
*exhales*

Hi TVF, I've drawn up a room at A208009 - Peregrin's Gym. Let me know what you think. 'Peregrin's Gym' sounds a bit egocentric but it sounds good to me.
Regarding the game, how about you find somebody who can program in Java (I can't myself) to draw up a simple one-player game. The overall score per team (or left/right side of the roster) is based on the sum or average of the scores of the individuals.
I don't know if this would work, I'll ask somebody who knows Java.

I HAVE IT! I know exactly how to run the softball game. It'll be a hell of a lot of FUN, too. It'll involve players with REAL positions, ie pitcher, batter etc. Oh, it's a Doozie. But I don't have time to write it now. It's 7:20am here now, and I will post the Game rules at about 4pm, when I get back form my Place of Learning.

Yours in Pride,

Lance.

Peregrin - I love the gym! Especially the Misfit Hat The gym has been added to the directory. However, your link to Frinks Drinks doesn't work. You linked to a researcher instead, because you used the letter "u" instead of "a"

Lance - wow, the excitement builds! I can't wait to see how you do this.........

-TVF

oops...thanks...I'll change it now.

Oh, and I'm glad you like the cap! Feel free to steal it, anyone.

Sorry this is a day late, I tried to get it on last night but the phone was dead. It has now been fixed (obviously).

Here it is then, this idea of mine. It's sorta like Trivial Pursuit in that it involves questions. It's sorta like softball in that there's a batter, a pitcher and bases. Since I can think of no better way to explain it, here's who plays and how it's played.

People involved.
Batter: Answers questions
Pitcher: Asks questions chosen from list given to by referee.
Bases 1 through 3: Challenge the Batter if they feel the answer given is wrong.
Catcher: Same as above with different name
Referee: Compiles questions and gives them to pitchers, and makes sure the game is Kosher.

There are five on each team, taking one position each, and all doubling as batters. The referee does not play on a team, and cannot challenge a wrong answer.

Point System: Right answer: 1 point. Getting to 4th base: 3 points.

1. First team is batting. Batter 1, Frink, is answering the questions.
2. Pitcher chooses question from Ref's list and asks: What is the capital of Peru?
3. Frink answers: Lima and goes to 1st base.
4. Batter 2, Fenchurch, is up. Pitcher chooses... etc and asks: where would you find the Kiwi?
5. Fenchurch answers: Uzbekistan
6. Base 3, Lance, says, Wrong! It's New Zealand.
7. Referee, The Wisest Fool, says, that's right. Fenchurch is out.
***Position so far: Frink on first, team has 1 point (one right question) ***
8. Batter 3, Dancing Tree, answers question, goes to 1st base, Frink goes to second etc.
9. Repeat again until all batters have had 2 questions each (because of small team size) Result: Three home runs (worth 3 each) and five right answers (worth 1 each) result =14 points. Next team up. Repeat from step 1.

Other things: The referee cannot correct a batter because he is not on a team.
Even if an answer is wrong, if that batter gets to second base, he can not be challenged any more. Although he will not get a point for the answer, he can still get the three for the home run.
Points are given at the end of an inning by the referee.

Environment: This could be done in a forum, but it'd be so slllloooww. A better Idea is to get a Yahoo! club and use the private chat room for the game to get speed. Although this'd require people in different time zones doing wierd things like staying up till 4am to play.


Well, what'ja think? Is it an idea? Can I have some feedback?
If there are any questions, feel free to ask 'em.

Lance.

*curls up in a corner and promises to read all the posts sometime after waking up on a not-too-distant future morning/evening/whenever*

That sounds pretty cunning to me! Sounds like it would work.
Though drawing up the questions would be interesting... seeing as we all come from different cultures and stuff... just no questions about softball, ok?!

Thanks, Peregrin! Still changing that name I see. Any more comments?

Wow Lance, most impressive. Sorry it took me so long to get to this. A few points to ponder:

1) How to select teams? At last count there were 63 Misfits.....One solution is to let the first 10 players who sign up play the first game, then the next 10 can play the next time, etc.....
2) I'm on 1st, and you get a question right. You get a point for going to 1st, and I get a point for going to second? Or do I get no more points until I get home, at which point I get three?
3) If no one challenges me but my answer is wrong, do I still get to go to 1st and get a point? If not, why challenge?
4) Instead of everyone getting two questions, the team who is batting could keep going until it got three wrong questions (i.e. gets three outs, just like softball)
5) Problem with quiz game on the internet: say I don't know the capital of France. How hard would it be to pop over to another site and find the answer? CHEATING! Imposing a very short time limit would fix this, but it certainly wouldn't work with the forum format.
6) Time zones could be a serious problem. Everyone would have to agree on a time, which could be tricky......

A good start, however!
-TVF