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

I suppose the thing to do is to write the Entry that needs diagrams, and to make the diagrams. Then I can present it to the Eds. If they don't want it, I can take it somewhere else or put it on my own website (which doesn't have much on it at the moment.

"This reminds me a bit of how, when the BBC closed down the DNA Get Writing site, some of the core members formed their own site, Writers Dock (writersdock.org), supported by donations and a few ads. It's since become a fairly popular and active site in its own right."

That would make an interesting model to follow. Do you know if any of their founders/members are members of h2g2? It would be interesting to hear their journey in creating that site, and what suggestions they would make based on their experiences!

"I suppose the thing to do is to write the Entry that needs diagrams, and to make the diagrams. Then I can present it to the Eds. If they don't want it, I can take it somewhere else or put it on my own website (which doesn't have much on it at the moment."

Yeah. Make the site do what its needed for, and if it wont, make one that will.

Although that sounds quite harsh reading it back... what I mean is... well mostly what I said, but a little less harsh

I honestly have no idea, Terran. I only visit the site occasionally, so I don't really know who the regulars are.

No probs... I'll have to give the site a proper look over myself. The Get Writing site seemed like a really interesting idea, so it'd be interesting to see what the new one is like.

If we had wanted a user-run site, we would have had to start it during Rupert. But everyone stuck with h2g2 and the community came out of Rupert fairly intact - with a few very notable additions even.

It would be nice if h2g2 moved with the times, but we practically implicitly agreed to follow where the BBC took us - on several occasions, in fact. I refer to the fact that a large section of the hard core community is still here after the introduction of moderation, single-sign-on and the tightening up of the house rules regarding language (foreign and offensive) and politics.

Sorry about using the expression Rupert - I know a few people here disapprove of it. However, it seems to be the accepted name and the only unambiguous one I can think of.

I'm not sure a lack of a user run site, is necesarily equatable to not wanting one. If anything its more equatable to not being bothered to set one up, which given my experience of my own and some other members of h2g2's procrastination (the more technically minded ones anyway), is more likely. And to be honest I think the community more slept walked through the changes hoping things would stay roughly the same... they have - but at the same time they haven't. What I mean is the site stayed as it was (minus some important members of staff), but the creativity that guided it... well didn't stay. And thats whats changed.

Though I do appreciate what your saying. And certainly know and appreciate the reference to Rupert (I didn't know anyone was opposed to it actually! ). So yes I see where your coming from, but I don't agree with the reasoning... but then if no one sets another site up OR no one comes if they do - then what I say is largely irrelevant. But part of me does think that this is becoming (if not passed, or at least already reached the point) of make or break for the community - at least for it to recapture its potential - which at the moment is being disgustingly wasted.

Fit the "you're" statements as required above, where I "deliberately" left them out

I haven't slept walked through any of the changes - I may in a unique position because of my brief employment on h2g2, but changes made both before and after that I put up with because what keeps me on h2g2 is the community.

I did make a very long post about why that is, then realised I don't really need to go into it. There are changes I've disliked - not being able to link to external websites from messages was the absolute pits, and there are changes I'd like to see that just aren't happening - the ability to supply our own pictures, sound and video being some of the biggest ones but still, I think it's worth sticking with.

Hmmm, it's interesting.

If you want to write an encyclopaedia entry with pictures and diagrams and graphics and the like, then you could pop over to W*kipedia and knock yourself out. And yes you'd be on the first page of a google search. But who would read it? You would never know.

Whereas on hootoo there's an audience. Yes maybe we're all gazing at our own navels (or gazing at each others navels?). But the audience is built-in. OK, call it community. It's still built-in.

Yep, I wish my journal would behave like a blog, and I too wish I could put photos up at the drop of a hat. But the reason I stay here is because there are folk here that genuinely seem to like some of my stuff. And I genuinely like the fact that they like it. I like their stuff too.

(As my grandmother would say: "We're all in love together" </> )

Paff

I don't agree, Paff. The audience in h2g2 is not the community. It's much bigger than that. For every one of us that looks at an entry, there's a hundred or a thousand outside h2g2 that read it.

I moved over to blogging over a year ago, and certainly the community model is still stronger on H2G2. There is a community of sorts in the blogosphere but generally it revolves around the contacts and friends you already have - "the friends lists" as it were.

It still impresses me that H2 had such a strong glimpse of the future way back in the late 90's.

Gnomon, I wasn't meaning that h2g2 is the _only_ audience, but that we are a visible, audible, committed audience. The hootoo community is like the people at the front at a rock concert who go to all the gigs, have been back stage, and clearly love the show. The remainder of the audience are less committed, but yes they are still turning up to watch.

Do they count the hits on entries? Is it classified information if they do?

Unfortunately it is classified information.

On the other hand, I put a link to a university website about court tombs on one of my entries, and the university contacted me (they should have contacted the eds directly) because they were changing the address of the page. They said they got loads of hits to their website from the link in my entry. If loads of people follow that link, then even more people must be reading the Entry in the first place.

Kind of ditto experience, but what I used was a cheat method to get around not showing pics on h2g2 (no idea asking me, I'm not telling) - I did check with the owner of the site/server the pic was on, and he/she very soon reported back to me that the server was heavily overloaded and could I please remove the pic.

And this was on a user page, of little or no interest but for a very few...

Thinking of thousands of lurkers who never join up or post makes me feel suddenly like a goldfish.

I find things somewhat frustrating in the advancement department I think. Take for example this;

F84634?thread=3273593

which then went nowhere fast.

And this;

F615?thread=4446876

which seems to be gathering dust too.

And as said, where did the Community Artists go?

In fact where is h2g2 going? hmm. For a few months now I've sometimes remarked on the state of Peer Review and the EG, only to be told it's just a phase, it always happens. Perhaps not. If h2g2 is to survive further into the 21s Century the kid gloves must come off and changes be made, otherwise it'll fade away from being progressive to just being a static and stagnant little pool of somewhat useful and unique information.