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

hello, i'm st. broelan, an ace (assistant community editor) and guardian angel. it is my duty in both of these capacities to welcome you to h2g2, the hitch hiker's guide to earth

there are many fun things to do and exciting people to meet (or is that vice-versa ) here at the guide. a few places to get you started:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/a155909 is where you can see all our smilies, and learn how to include them in your entries and posts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/a139501 is the first entry i ever read, on driving etiquette. it's part of the reason i became a researcher
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/a270325 is colonel sellers huge guide to h2g2.
and one of my favorite articles is this one on austrailia: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/a53650

if you have any questions or need any help, please don't hesitate to ask! you can reach me by replying to this message, or by clicking on my name above. if i'm not around at the moment, you can ask any ace or angel, there are lists on my page.

welcome to the guide, we're glad you're here
happy meanderings!


st. b

Thanks for the welcome, I'm ok at the mo but if I get stuck I'll soon shout.

Cheers
MagicDays

Right I've read and re-read the instructions, but still can't seem to discover how to put pics and links on my space, can you help me please? probably me being stupid!

hello sorry for the delay in getting back to you... my online time is rather erratic these days.

in order to display graphics (from the graphics library only--offsite pics are not allowed ) and make your links work, you have to have your page formatted in GuideML (similar to html). on your edit page just below the dialogue box is an option to display your page in plain text or GuideML. in order for the GuideML to work properly, your entire page has to be coded for it.

if you aren't familiar with coding languages, DON'T PANIC i didn't know the first thing about html or any other language when i first got here, and i've learned everything i know about them right here on h2g2! you might first want to take a look at the intro to GuideML here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/a155701 . there is a GuideML clinic here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/a187229 which explains in depth how to use different tags to get the effects you want. but if you are unfamiliar with the concept (as i was) it may be a little confusing.

h2g2 has an entire staff of volunteers who help people with questions about this exact sort of thing called the gurus. you can get assistance from a guru by posting a question to the 'help' page (click on the 'help' button at the top of any page), or you can find a specific guru from their dropdown list which can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/a395688 .

hope i've been of some help, if not, please feel free to clobber me and say 'no, you've been no help at all!' and i will certainly try harder in the future

good luck, and please let me know when you get your pics up so i can come by and see them!


st. broelan

Thanks and I will if I ever get it done

Ok, you can go have a peek now, it's getting there but it's no where near finished, still can't figure out how to put a link in to you and Harlequin, printed out more of the tag pages to study, I'll get there

haven't peeked at your page yet, i've only got a second i promise i will get there tomorrow!!

in the meantime, here's a few helpful hints:

you can add links to other researchers like this:
name
you can add links to h2g2 pages like this:
title

and you can see how almost anyone's page is coded by typing "testuserpage######" on your browser's navigation bar after /h2g2/guide/
i say almost because there are a few pages that cannot be seen in this manner for some reason.

i'll be by here and there during the week, if you have any more questions i'll get to them as soon as i can

hey!
i just checked your page it looks great and thanks for the link!

i saw in your journal that you're going to spend more time exploring the guide. i'm sure you will find hundreds of things to enlighten and entertain here is a link that has just recently been enabled that might make your exploring more adventuresome: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/RandomEditedEntry
it is a random entry gadget, and everytime you click on it, it will take you to a different entry. enjoy!

Wow thanks st. b

Its not finished but it's a start, hope you didn't mind me putting your link in?

Thanks for the link its great, can I put it on my space? it would be easier than scrolling down our messages.

Cheers for all the help, feel like I'm getting somewhere now.

MagicDays

certainly you can put it on your space they've only just recently enabled it, and i've just added it to my own space as well. and you can add any links you think you will use alot on your space. my space includes links to groups i belong to so i can get there easily, and pages i use frequently, like the info page and the smiley page.

i didn't mind you adding my link at all, in fact i'm honored and i've added you to my page as well, you are my very first guardee as an angel! stop by anytime for a look if you like

and as for your page just being a start, i don't think my page is ever done! it's constantly evolving. but i think you're doing a great job, it took me absolutely *months* to get around to learning enough GuideML to take my page out of plain text format.

Hiya St. b

Just stopped by for a browse, having great fun with the random entry gadget, its a great way of browsing and makes moving around the guide more fun too

Hiya,

I need some help please, was that a groan I hear

I noticed on your page that you have smileys moving about, I've spent ages looking in guideml for how to do it and can't figure it out. Please can you tell me how?

Thanks

no problem! it's a marquee tag, and it isn't official GuideML, so that's why you can't find it in the help pages. the fact that it isn't official just means that they don't guarantee that it will work forever, so if you log in one day and find that your smileys aren't moving, they've had to disable the tag for some reason. other than that, it's a simple thing to do:

<SMILEY TYPE="smiley"/>
this will create a smiley that scrolls right to left across the page.

<SMILEY TYPE="smiley"/>
this will create a smiley that scrolls left to right across the page.

you can put any type of smiley in the smiley tag, any number of smileys in the marquee, or you could even scroll text by typing a message in between the marquee tags.

if you have any problems, let me know

Hiya St. b,

Relieved to see all the USA names I know on here are still here and my thoughts are with you all over there.

hi!

thanks for thinking of me fortunately i didn't have any family there, and all of the h2g2 researchers from the area seem to have reported back online. but being so far from the east coast it's hard to help and really feel i am making a contribution. almost everywhere you turn an organization is asking for donations, from churches to neighborhood fire departments, my employer, as well as my son's school. and it's very draining trying to keep up with it all.

i did see that you left me a message in my journal, i'm sorry i didn't respond. after catching up from work this weekend, i lurked in a few of the talking point threads.

i see you have applied to become a guardian angel! that's wonderful have you decided on a patronage yet?

Hiya,

I wish there was more we could do over here, but if we were to collect things to send over I'm not sure we could get them there with all the reduced flights. I had a friend and collegue who worked in the WTC, but thank god we heard yesterday that she is ok. I know the feeling I have to scan the papers in work every day and its getting very depressing, but it's one way of keeping in touch with whats going on, I guess just being here for everyone else is the best way to help now.

As for a patronage I haven't found one yet, any suggestions? I thought it would be a good thing to do, as I seem to be here more and more each night

Hiya St b

Hope your doing ok and as I never said it before "Happy new Year" Better late than never

Have you seen Galaxy Babe lastely? I've not heard anything from her for ages and haven't seen her around, hope she's ok.

thanks! happy new year to you also !

i've seen galaxy babe around some lately. actually i see her mostly on the ace mailing list, i'm not involved in many of her conversations. but i know she makes an effort to be here almost every day when her computer or the servers aren't conspiring against her. in fact she's online right now, but i don't know if she will be when you get back.

i've been meaning to get by here and catch up with you for some time. sorry i hadn't made it before now. i had noticed the name change a few weeks ago. i also missed you at the last sainting. i didn't know if you had changed your mind.

i hope things are going well!

Thanks St b

I hadn't changed my mind, just haven't heard anything for ages, I'll try and catch Galaxy online, maybe it was the name change, had a personality crisis and this is the new me

Glad to hear your ok and don't worry about the time between contact, I'm studying a fair bit at the mo so don't get on here as much as I'd like but I'll do my best to keep dropping in

Take care and keep in touch.