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

You just mentioned in a thread I'm subscribed to that you would need help putting an entry into the correct format (GuideML) and without driving that thread off track, I'd just like to say that if you ever need help with that, there are plenty of people who will help you - myself included. Putting something into GuideML doesn't take long for me at all - it's practically a second language now

And I've often heard it said that sub-editors don't mind getting an entry in plain text. In fact, it's a whole lot less work to put an entry in plain text into GuideML than it is to fix an entry with bad GuideML.

This is all by way of saying, if you need anyone to help with formatting, I'm happy to offer my services Wouldn't want the Guide to miss a potentially interesting voice on account of something stupid like formatting.

What's your vision of the future of the Edited Guide?

Thanks for the offer Jordan I'll take you up on it in the future if that's OK.
Which is not to say I wont have a go at trying it myself but somethings have a hold on my mind and others just slip by frustratingly out of reach.


>>>What's your vision of the future of the Edited Guide?<<<

Well I think it's going to die a slow ignominious death if there isn't more input, more entries, more participation in the whole process.
It's one of the reasons why I've been much more visible in PR and the UG as I was just using the old place as an occasional chatting venue and not paying any attention what so ever to the actual site.
I've voted over at Icy's thread and I hope more people come on board over there but with the count at 17 I wonder just how many people really care?
The site does need a makeover in my opinion, it doesn't have to be all bells and whistles but it needs a good spring clean; it's cumbersome, awkward, labyrinthine in parts, to the newbie it can be daunting and as such they don't stick around or if they do they just chat.

Hopefully some of the measures voted for in the affirmitave will be taken up by the powers that be.

It will be interesting to see how this current push for future change will pan out, I hope it's all for the better

I doubt anything will change. Nothing like that ever changes things. In my experience here, taking part in these sorts of conversations about the future of h2g2 for years, the collective can never change things. When something changes, it's done by either the editors or by one or two committed people acting without permission

One thing I've been mulling over is unofficial advertisement of the site across the internet. Posting the site on popular, intellectual blogs, Douglas Adams fansites, etc. I think we need to rebuild our base here, and I can think of few other ways to do it.

So you think there's been too big of a drift away from it's DNA roots Jordan?

It's an interesting question. I've heard people say that h2g2 needs to move away from DNA. I don't know. I love Adams' writing, but not many people can write like him. I certainly can't. But I'd say DNA inspired me to write my first, oh, about 87 entries. Everything since then has been for the love of writing and for the sake of improving my own writing (slowly but surely).

My point being, DNA can only take us so far. I think he's a huge part of this site, but if we're to grow and find out place in the internet, we need to look beyond his legacy. We need to become a place for the celebration of writing and thinking - something he would have surely loved, I think. We certainly can't define ourselves in terms of the man.

I'll go along with that. If I was asked by someone what is h2g2 it would be a bit difficult to give them a clear short succinct answer.
"Well it was started by the author of h2g2 and it's a compendium of useful stuff that people write about and it's all popped into this thing called the Edited Guide which is kinda like a big book on life the Universe and Everything in between."

How do we define ourselves though?
Would it be easier with a more user friendly interface or at least an updated one?
What do you think the average age of the members would be Jordan? Everyone I know is no spring chicken and does the site need more members of younger years or just more members that contribute?

Yes, but who's paying for a more user friendly interface? Certainly not the BBC.

If I had to guess, I would think the average age would be around 45-50. I don't see why we would need younger people. I think we need members who contribute.