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

Hello.

I've started a document for Engaging the Rest of the Web, to including:

1) Promoting the Guide
2) Attracting and Retaining Researchers
3) Attracting and Retaining Readers

Please discuss.

Thank you,

Happy Nerd

... which can be found at A82589377.

I've just read the document that's at docs.google.com.

It looks already finished. Are we being asked to put the final touches on it, or expand it?

Yesterday I was trying to explain to my sister what h2g2 is and what it does. My sister is a published author who writes in the science fiction and fantasy genres. It took a while, though, to get through to her that we are not a fan site for Douglas Adams. This misconception may be the real reason why our profile is lower than it ought to be. The original work that we do is covered up by the appearance that we are here to promote Douglas Adams.

Good point, paulh.

I've been trying to explain what we are to family and friends for years. Before I retired, I would describe H2G2 as an online encyclopedia because of the Edited Guide, especially when I was at work and needed to emphasize its reference value.

I say we are a writing site, or a creative writing site.

B

We get a lot of hits every year -- maybe 6 or 7 million of them. This doesn't help us turn the hits into new researchers.

What I've been thinking of is maybe having a welcome screen with words like:

"This site is the Earth version of 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." We were founded by Douglas Adams in 1999. Whether you are a traveller from the other side of town or the other side of the galaxy, we are here to help you make sense of this wonderful place we call Earth -- its culture, its history, its science, its music, its tourist sites, ahything at all. Come, help us do our work...."

Or something like that.

Paul, the document's about 2/3rds done, but we've been doing the easy bits first. There are headings and placeholders for the bits that are missing, and some of them have people's names against them...

Engaging the rest of the web:

Make it easy.

Add buttons to entries that you don't need to be signed-in to use
Like this entry
Tweet this entry
Like this entry on FaceBook
Digg this entry
Promote on Reddit
promote on Stumleupon
Like this comment (actually, I think you should be signed in for that one)

Use OpenID so people can post using existing WordPress or Blogger IDs

Host writing competitions, particularly among schools and colleges

Tweet entries

Have a facebook page with regular status updates

Provide opportunities for open source programming

Do something for NaMoWriMo

Do events like Flash Fiction competitions

Sell h2g2 products through a variety of stores and make sure that they provide links to the site

Advertise

There are two direction: h2g2 looking out, and everyone else looking in. There should be share buttons in both direction.

For example if you go to my blog, Intentionally Left Blank http://jannaostoya.blogspot.com/, there are buttons to share things on a number of different sites, but not h2g2. Yet.

~~~~~

People interact with web information in different ways at different times to satisfy different needs. Right now the all time top application is still email, with search engines close behind and Google leading the pack. Of the social media, facebook and twitter dominate but are used differently, per a recent study.

Email is still used to share information. Neither new nor old h2g2 has a share with email button.

Facebook is used to share among a circle of friends and to stay in touch with clients. Smaller businesses that manage this most successfully interact with their facebook fans regularly. This helps to create a feeling of loyalty. New h2g2 has a facebook button.

Twitter is used most commonly as a news service. The news maybe from a news service such as the BBC or it may be news from an avid blogger. There's more on this, but we have been getting a lot of hits on the links we've been posting using @h2g2c2 and @h2g2_Guide, especially when I have been able to find entries that are topical with current news.

h2g2ers sometimes scorn these social media sites as johnny-come-latelies, but it does no good to insist, 'We were here first.' Those of us who use h2g2, twitter, and facebook, do so in different contexts at different times. They each fill different needs. We can attract more readers and researchers if we have more ways to share.

Right now on my browser's dashboard, I have some tools, including one for a well-known link shortening tool. How cool would it be to have a Don't Panic button that opened a sidebar, accepted some terms, and searched h2g2, returning the answer? Purists could select the option to have it return answers under the phrase, "The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about [search term]:"

RSS feeds - the ability to subscribe by RSS and by email to


the Front Page
the Post
the Showcase
specific writers Approved Entries
Approved entries in a specific category
Approved entries with a specific geotag
specific conversations

Maybe this is where we should put the ideas of an automated email to newbies, new default PS messages and more 'standardized' ACE messages?

The automated Email to newbies; This could be covered with the signup confirmation by Email.

We can also include in the Email a reference to the 'Welcome to h2g2' Entry instead of a 'standardized' ACE message. I think the ACE message has to have a few obligatory points but the rest would be up to the ACE to give the message a personal flavour.

Perhaps, in time, we can think of some kind of mechanism that after a couple of weeks reminds the initial greeting ACE to ask a newbie about his/her/its experience with the site so far? Or invite the newbie to take a survey? Or ...

What kind of "new default PS message" are you thinking of?

By 'standardized' ACE message I mean that as you said certain points should be covered by all of them, of course in the ACE's own words. But they all should include some basic information.

Well, when you are a newbie your PS says something like 'This is what your Personal Space looks like to other people, please write something here' we could change that to some more helpful information. Or probably put some basic stuff there instead of the ACE message, whatever works better.

How about:

This is your Personal Space and you are invited to write something here.
In the mean time we have some useful links for you:

Welcome to h2g2
...
Read The Post
Talking Point


hmmm?

I think there are three ways of getting information to a newbie:

Immediate
~~~~~~~~~

Email: This should give basic information about the site, such as logging in, links to Commmunity Central, Peer Review etc. Essentially, this should replace the current ACE welcome message and be sent out immediately upon registration so the new person isn't left floundering for a few hours or longer.

Space default message: This should contain a back-up version of the email.

Within one day
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACEs: Post on the new Researcher's Space and say hi. They now no longer need to regurgitate the links and so on because that is covered in the email/Space. They can offer personalised support and guidance.

Within [??] days/weeks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ACEs: Go through the list a second time (it would need to have some form of ticky-box or something to record this) and check in with new sign ups.
1. If the original ACE is still active and the newbie seems to be getting on OK, no action.
2. If there has been zero activity on the account, check the original ACE welcome is there and then just leave it.
3. If there has been movement since the original ACE post but in other areas, leave a message, track down their conversations and check they are OK.

How about that?

In line with the community-driven hootoo I'd say that inviting newbies to participate in a survey can provide insight into how well h2g2 is recieved and what possibly needs attention.

Oh, and for Vip.