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

It's when someone you don't know starts scratching your ears that you should worry – particularly if they're doing it with their toenails…

<BB<

...training stunt when I was still in training for gymnastics.

Watch those girls on the Chinese olympics team.

I could still do those stunts as late as between my 28th and 29th birthdays.

(Though I'm a male, by the way.)

Kundalini yoga was a good foundation for gymnastics.

I'm willing to try yogurt. I'e already tried yoga.

This was once quite popular
https://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A45911847 QI

I'm going to ask how it is that some of the researchers who have been around awhile didn't know it existed.

It could be revived, but with a scaled-down mandate.

Well, no one ever told me about it.

I expect that so many people were involved during the glory days that no one person could have comprehended the whole site. We seem to be more compact now, which has advantages as well.

Hindsight is 20/20, but I can't help thinking the BBC missed a trick here. This site was Wikipedia before there was Wikipedia AND social media before there was social media. I wonder if it was anything else ending in "edia" before a newer, more successful *edia took the world by storm?

It actually suffered, I think, by being h2g2 - being tied, from the outset, to The Guide. Two reasons:
1. some people felt the focus of the site was on writing entries, when it should perhaps have been obvious early that the true joy of the site was interaction with other people - i.e. social media.
2. the identification with a narrow, geek niche thing. It did a good job of drawing an initial crowd (me included) of fans, but because it wasn't its own thing (like, say, Facebook or Wikipedia) there was an apparent barrier to entry to non-fans.

I can't help wondering if DNA and the rest of the Digital Village folks had branded it as something entirely new it wouldn't have taken a different direction... perhaps even made some money.

Don't come here much any more, but happy to see it's still here, against all odds.

Yeah, and it never became what DNA said he envisioned, where people would instantly upload reviews of cafes or very localized travel tips. Wikipedia comes closer to that ideal, where information is much more fluid and constantly updated.


I think of this place as more of a vast collection of essays than a vast repository of information in general. I think h2g2 has more 'flavor' than wikipedia.

Ditto.

Humor is also one of the things that distguishes h2g2.

Yes, it's a browsy product, closer to the coffee table book that they recently published than to the lookup that is Wikipedia.

It does take some skill to write in that style, but all the support was (is?) here to do just that. I suppose it's inevitable that not that many people will want to be creative writers. Reading it, sharing it and interacting with it is far more fun, and there are much better platforms for doing those things.

I think of this place as an oasis in the middle of a bleak landscape. Those who like the bleak landscape won't be tempted to come here, but there are a few who need us. Whether those few know we're here is another story....

I joined 20 years ago (and stopped writing articles because my high horse was too high) and continued to converse on line with, and latterly meet, others who shared some of my interests. This year I had the wonderful experience of joining some of Amy P's tour and finally meeting some of my (very) old friends, but this wouldn't mean anything to someone who had just joined

Unless I can get tibtig to join, since he first heard about h2g2 as this site that got me over there and on his tour, and over 10% of that day's tour (and more like a third of what he says his typical tour runs) to Manchester on that day, as well... But hey, he let me give him an h2g2 name

My nephews are huge science fiction fans. I'm giving copies of THE BOOK to them for Christmas, and we'll see if it whets their interest.

Honestly I don't even associate the book with the site anymore at this point.

Just be sure to write your review of the book for Amazon USA, Mr. X.

More reviews urgently needed, most coming up so far only in the UK.

I've just submitted a review to Amazon USA.

Well done

My review has been listed:

http://www.amazon.com/Hitchhikers-Guide-Galaxy-Earth-Travel/dp/1978078587/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1512027478&sr=8-1&keywords=hitchhikers+guide+earth+edition