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

That's possibly a bit of a contentious title. Still, I'm going to use this journal to document any ideas that I have that I think would help h2g2. If anyone else wants to join in, feel free. A lot of these are unlikely to happen as the changes it would mean on the back end are insurmountable.

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1. Amend my ACE welcome message to emphasise the importance of the Guide, PR etc. so that newcomers are drawn to the Guide.

This will hopefully both get more people writing and contributing, but also make it easier for newcomers to have something to focus on and make it more likely that they stick around.

Done.

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2. Make everyone able to pass the ownership of an Entry they created to another Researcher. This would mean that there wouldn't be the problem of having an Edited and a non-Edited version of everything all the time. Possibly it would have a 'Page created by' box so that the original author would be credited.

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3. To make non-Edited Entries that haven't been posted to in a set time period (say a year?) to become dormant and not come up in standard searches. There would need to be an 'Include Dormant Entries' box. I would extend that to the Friend search too.

4. Although I was loath to suggest it because it would look like we were coying Facebook, having a Name box and a seperate sub box for all the things we usually have in our names would be great, both because it would solve the new BBCid thing and any instances of the Viewer tag would only display your name. Much as I dislike the Viewer tag...

5. Make an author automatically subscribed to any page that he creates (including his Space), or any of his Entries that makes it to the Front Page. Too often have I realised I'm only subscribed to the unedited version, and missed the comments on the Edited one.

6. Although in Brunel the 'Challenge h2g2' forum is there, I'd display it as part of the main panel on the Front Page, not as a side bookmark. Ideas are what people lack when they start.
Of course, were it there we'd have to make sure that people used it and posted ideas up there - myself included!

7. From F19585?thread=7100246 - having a way of printing an Entry without all the stuff around the edge. A Printer Friendly button, if you will.

8. A signature box (so I don't have to type each time, and for people who would like to have Ace or whatever in the signature too. It may also solve the 30 character name issues without an extra name box.

9. I've just starting using the Bookmarks function on Brunel, but it's annoying because I have to go to my Space before I can click on the My Bookmarks box. Why not have that grey bar on all pages, or in the sidebar?

Also, why can't I bookmark Peer Review?

10. On the My Conversations pop up, have a link to my Space on the top (like it does in Plain). Not having it is a pain.

Many thanks for these, Vip. We really appreciate anyone taking the time to suggest ways we could improve the h2g2 experience. Particularly during this period of re-evaluation for the site. We'll consider all these points.

Please keep them coming!

Cheers
h2g2Eds

11. Make the new default skin less ugly than Brunel. After several weeks of forcing myself to use it in order to learn the functionality that people keep on talking about, I still hate it. The first thing that Mr Vip said when he saw it was "Wow. That's really ugly". That's not a good introduction to a site.

Modern sites are clean and simple, and Brunel fails quite badly there. Perhaps it was fashionable when it was introduced, though...

If there isn't going to be a new skin, perhaps someone can have a look at Brunel. The actual text boxes are fine, it's the sidebar and headers that are ghastly. Yellow on black, along with the bright, jarring colours make for a headache!

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12. Merge Ask and How Do I?. Nobody really uses the latter and it seems a waste to have two seperate forums. Keeping Ask and Misc Chat apart is still a good idea though.

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13. I know it's been said over and over again, but more people. Aside from the h2g2 branded t-shirts and such (that I still proudly wear, by the way ) I've never seen an h2g2 advert, even in sci-fi magazines like the ZZ9 fan magazine (the official Hitchhiker's Fan Club).
The 'catchy, pity strapline for h2g2' thread made everyone understand how hard it is to sell h2g2, but hopefully you managed to glean one or two ideas.
That being said, I'd probably wait until after the rebrand/new skin/BBCiD etc etc as it would be good to advertise the finished site.

If there was to be an advertising campaign - even if it were a single thing somewhere - keep the ACEs informed as it will create an influx of new people who will need guidance. It might be worth explaining the target audience and making sure that the ACE messages really appealed to that sort of person.

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14. In a similar vein to 13. and 1., making sure that the ACE messages target the people we want to keep. We want people to write and comment on articles, so that should be the main focus of an ACE welcome. It might be worth a conversation on the ACE yahoo group. Some people have had the same welcome message for years and may not have actually read it or thought about it in that time, and some links may be out of date or have been superceded by better ones. Perhaps just a spring clean?

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15. Having one Entry per day rather than three per week (when you capacity allows and we have enough articles coming through PR, of course). One of the highlights of my working day used to be reading a new Entry each day. Now with the Entries staying the same for a whole week, I've lost interest and I almost never look at the Front Page. I was more that happy having one new and two old Entries up there too - nobody has read every article and the good one deserve reposting in glory!

16. The Update procedure. It keep on getting better, but I think it still needs work. I see no reason why it shouldn't go through PR and then through the SubEd process just like a normal Entry. Few people make good Subs, so it seem unfair to make a system that only allows them to Update Entries.

17. The Talking Point, whilst a fantastic idea, doesn't get used nearly enough and never spawns actual conversations. Perhaps posting it in Ask (with the Front Page link, of course) would do more to both stimulate conversation in Ask and draw newcomers to the main conversation point on h2g2.

Again, very good points, Vip. We obviously can't guarantee to enact them all but we have bookmarked this page and we refer to it in discussions - rest assured, your thoughts are very helpful to us so thank you and keep 'em coming.

I understand that you can't do them all - or would even want to! - but it's lovely to know that I might come up with some helpful ideas.

I'll keep writing them down when I think of them.

Great stuff

Some good suggestions there Vip

I'll add StatCounter for Guide Entries. This would be useful in Edited Guide Writing Workshop and Peer Review etc, where Entries go for days without a posting, at least the author would be able to see their Entry had been read, and how many times.

I like suggestion #5 automatically subscribing the author to their Entry when it hits the Front Page. Yesterday I discovered two conversation threads on my last Edited Entry, two years ago. I nearly always forget to subscribe to my Edited Enties.

#8 is a great idea, A signature box. At least you only have three letters in your name and five (plus <&gt in your Vip

I'm so glad I'm no the only one who detests Brunel I have occasionally had to use it, gives me headache after a few mins. I wonder how many potential Reserchers we've lost due to that awful skin.

#15 Having one Entry per day rather than three per week etc

Hmm I actully like the idea of have the new Edited Entries on the Front page for a week, or at least for three days. It's too easy to miss them when there's a different one every day.

Would it be possible to get these suggestions to a wider audience of hootoo, get some more suggestions and opinions? I don't know, possibly the Eds could choose what's feasible and post on h2g2 Announcements asking for comments, you wouldn't be short of replies.

Emmily

Well, I could post a link to Ask - what do you think?

yeah, that would be a good idea Vip

Emmily

18. Emmily's idea of a StatCounter. (see post 16)

19. Being able to have email notifications sent when certain conversations are updated. This would definitely be on an opt-in, per conversation basis only.

I've posted the link on Ask now. Fingers crossed we'll get some fab ideas.

Just subscribing atm. I know I can click on the bit at the bottom but I think there are some good ideas here.