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

Oh, and yes, I agree.

Definitely...

I have a couple more questions:

If we want to reach out to students then allowing under 16s, would be a great way forward. We want to reach out to people who are discovering Douglas's books.

The output of the Edited Guide is material that would be excellent for use as reference material for school students. (Though I would take a very dim view of any University student who references h2g2 or indeed any website in an academic work.)

How would we need to alter the house rules to ensure that under 16s felt safe, or to be more precise that their parents felt safe with them being here?

Ooh and that brings me to communication on h2g2, about how we encourage people to be nice too each other, and make h2g2 a friendly place. 'Hosting' is also part of it as well..?

Peanut - would you like me to start a separate thread for this?

Stone the troll!
Burn the witch!

That would make it lovely.....

Are you being Sarcastic my dear wife

She may be, but I'm not...

Seriously, though I think it's important it should never be prescriptive. A seperate thread might be great be we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we want to keep the feel we already have, so all we really need to do is take note of what we do already and how we envision that continuing.

Z - Yes please. I've been thinking about posting something on Ask, but unsure how to start off. Also been trying to get through the save hootoo stuff which is taking some time.

I'm one of those that am keen to do something but doesn't know what, can't proofread, not technical and really skint. Plucking up courage to do a video, if you haven't got enough already, can't work out if I should say, I'm 'sadly unemployed' or 'a Mum'

But have also thought that I could be really welcoming, be supportive in discussions and generally apply that little extra awareness and emotional intelligence and post.

Love Peanut xx

I think more videos would be great so if you can please do one.

send em to [email protected]

Ok, I'm going to be but will have to wait until my teen gets home goes she is going to have to do the tech stuff.....

Might need a couple of those

Hi I'm Peanut, I'm half cut 'hic'....

One thing that leaped out at me when I saw that "Student Room" link was the prominence of the "Customize" box. If we want to seem welcoming, a significant part of our success may be the degree to which new (or old) researchers can make the site look comfortable to them. Even if we just have one default skin, having a lot of customizing options should help. [Gets off soapbox]

As for limiting/not limiting researchers by age. I wonder if it might just be that 16 is too high but another age (14, perhaps?) might be okay. Most 14-year-olds are in their freshman (or even sophomore) year of high school, when our guide entries might be useful for their papers. I don't know about earlier grades. In any event, the current age restriction of 16 is aimed at those who want to become researchers, not those who want to read the site. Anyone of any age could read or guide articles, couldn't they? Some libraries have filters in their children's rooms, but I don't know if those filters would block H2G2. Even if the filters did that, many libraries allow those 14 and up to use computers in the adult section, where filters would not block H2G2.

My hunch is that the current age limit of 16 has more to do with something else. Has anyone seen Roman Polansky's latest movie?

Bumbles in....

I've been mooching and mulling on engaging the web. To that end I have been trawling through conversations forums to see why peeps don't feel inclined to join but I'll come back to that at a later date

The other thing that has been going through my mind is promoting this site for 14-18 year olds, if that's something we actively choose to do

Firstly our legal requiements, what policies we might want to concider in terms of best practise in absence of legal requirements, and general how we can engage specifically with this age group. I still have much to learn but here is my general direction

We need a child protection policy
Volunteers (ACEs etc) would not have to be crb checked legally.
Could we provide extra saftey nets for younger users of the site, for example when they join a email reminding them of internet saftey, we an open website etc. There's no delete button, so don't just think safety but other consequences. Have copy of this on a page.
A group email address for young peeps to raise any concerns they have onsite in private about 'serious' issues bullying or inappropriate contact, someone asking for personal contact details
Young persons page raising these issues and providing external links for futhur information

Designated volunteers, not necessarily ACEs who either have experience of working with young people or who are prepared to take on a special responsibilty for youger researchers. In terms of best practise would we like these volunteers to be crb checked?

In terms of attracting young people, a section in the post written by young peeps under 19 for young peeps maybe?

Some scenerios I thought through I would yikes a post that said I'm 14-16 years old even if that isn't against house rules. Given that we arrange meets and stuff what if we have peeps that we think are young arranging to meet at a concert? Do nothing, have to assume that they are going to be supervised, maybe an informal reminder for all on the thread, hope you have a fantastic time please consider your personal safety when arranging to meet peeps in RL? Raise with the mods for a generic reminder through the group email if they a registered as under 18?

Handy document and web link I found

http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/SiteCollectionDocuments/sample_child_protection_policy_statement.pdf

http://www.safechild.co.uk/SAFE/

Finally my apologies if this has already been discussed else where but if it hasn't I have come across it yet and can you point in the right direction



Love Peanut xx

No Peanut, none of it has been discussed elsewhere, or not in such detail I think.

The problem is, putting it crudely, paedos were still hanging out in fairgrounds in the days when there was no age restriction on the site. The internet has become far more widely used in the time since the BBC brought in the age restrictions.

Funny that in the late 1990s it was thought to be full of dangerous wierdos, and now it actually IS full of dangerous wierdos...

I think all your ideas are gold-star gems, by the way.

Can anyone remember how much a CRB check costs? And whether they are transferable or not?

Ben

We may be able to get discounted crb checks through safe net as I read it it would be £10. At the moment I was just putting these ideas down and out there, to raise them but I'm happy to do more work on them I wasn't intending to just dumping it on your shoulders cos you've got a shedload resting on them already

Love Peanut xx

A reasonably updated one would be tranferable in this instance,

Sorry to barge in, but would a crb check be UK-centric? And if so, would the requirement to undergo a crb check somehow exclude overseas members of the community from some level of participation or administration?

I suppose my wider point would be that www is pan-galactic. Thus is noohootoo intended to be a UK-based thingite driven by UK's checks and balances or is there some more global law to which it should adhere?

Possibly, I'll put it on my list to look up for sure. As we are discussing a optional check we could consider that if this was the case a similar check from another country as equally as acceptable. If checking is a route we want to go down.

Designated volunteers wouldn't have to be part of the mod team or ACEs. A crb check for me only really becomes an issue if a volunteer is going to be establishing contact a child with regard to the issues they may raise in private on the group email