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

Hi there, I'm assuming you are Frankie's Father, or brother? Nice to see you here, I was at the show last night, absolutely fantastic, as I'm sure you'll have seen me mention.

Welcome to the Earth Edition of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. I’m an Assistant Community Editor (ACE) and it’s my pleasure to help you settle in and help out in anyway I can. Click the reply button below this post if you’d like to answer, otherwise, enjoy your stay.

You might like to check out http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A559523. It’s a page I’ve written that has some links you might find useful. If you’d like to visit me, click my name at the top of this post and you’ll come directly to my personal space.

Hi Mina,

Nice to see you too. I was intrigued to find out afterwards that Frankie had invited one of his friends from h2g2 to the show, because most people you chat to are usually hundreds of miles away. That's cool, but I'm interested in finding out what's going on locally.

Yes I'm Frankie's dad. Me and his brother were sitting quite near you as it happens, but of course we'd never even heard of you. That was quite a surprise to me when Frankie walked out from backstage after the show and you jumped up and said "there he is".

So, Assistant Community Editor, can you tell me where the coffee machine is please?

I find that drinks seem to follow researchers about! Chose from or even if you need something stronger.
Clicking on one of the icons will take you to the smiley page, where you can chose from many sorts of food and drink.

Frankie had told me that his dad and brother would be there, I guess he failed to mention me. Strange chap, how can I be unmentionable?? I guessed you were his family, as there's a similarity in looks, especially about the eyes. Although I wasn't sitting there staring at you, honest. I jumped up quickly as I knew I didn't want to go up to him when he had family with him, I wanted to say I enjoyed it, but had to rush off as my son is very small to be out that late.

I've made some good friend via h2g2, but as you say, most are a fair way away. There is an East Anglia/Essex page somewhere here, that has a list of locals, but it's not very full. I only live about half an hours drive from Ilford, so it wasn't far to come. It was well worth the trip.

That's better, thanks.

Some questions for you.

Since URL's get moderated out of conversations, where should I put the link to the guitar picture?
[URL removed by moderator]

Are there any forums for East London perhaps, or can I start up a blank page and see what happens ?

Where is this conversation we're in now?

I'm like a visitor from another planet here, but I think I shall try to make my way back to the conversation I originally joined. Are you still there?

I just wrote a really long reply to this, and then the pc ate it, so excuse me if I am a bit brief.
Conversations can be found (if you are alabaster, the default white skin) down the left hand side of your page, which is where you'll find the one you originally came in to. If you click the time you last posted, it will take you directly to where you left it, so you don't have to scroll around to find where you got to. This conversation is on your page, and you should have found it underneath your intro. Everyone will stay in the conversations unless they unsubcribe. In this way we can chat to people in other time zones, as what they say will be there forever. Or as long as the BBC lasts.
When you reply to other messages, you don't have to answer each one individually - although you can if you want to. Put it all in one reply if you want to, and if you are 'talking' to a few different people then simply use their names on the bit you are directing to them.

You are allowed internal links in conversations, so the best place is to put the picture link on your intro (external links are allowed in entries), and then tell people that it's on your user space.

I can't find an East London community page, so you can start one. There are plenty of places you can advertise it. Including in your nickname. I'm the wrong side of the M25 to join really, but I'll give you any help that you want.

(Not so brief after all.)

Oh dear, it's such a pain to lose stuff that you've written. It's a shame you can't save messages in draft form and then add to them later.
I suppose that's one reason why most people keep it short.

Thanks for the tips.

It took me 1 hour to get to Seven Kings as well, even though it's only 3 miles away.

If I am writing entries I write them off site, so I can save them as I write. I don't normally expect to write so much, and didn't expect my browser to pack in.

It took you longer to get there than it did me! And I'm further away!

Hey, look who's found their way onto h2g2... It's strange to see you two talking to each other, but thanks for giving my dad the introduction Mina. He's used to usenet, so using a web-based interface is quite new (and probably seems a bit clunky in comparison).

I didn't tell anyone you were going because I wasn't sure if you were going and on what night until just before. I've met Mina once before dad, at the summer meetup, though we didn't talk much. She was also planning on going on the alton towers weekend meetup, but couldn't make it in the end.

I've posted more about Grease in the other thread, so I'll not repeat myself here too much. Tonight was a good night though...

I think you switched to the Goo interface didn't you dad? Which do you think is better? I'm a secret Alabaster user, but I don't tell many people that...

Oh you can travel along way by car in an hour, against the flow. Maybe you came all the way from Colchester or Southend. More likely Chelmsford or Braintree, or not in Essex at all.

For us, we have to take two busses. The first one up the Romford just crawls along in the heavy traffic, with the occasional spurt up the bus lane until it reaches the next illegaly parked car. Then you never know how long the wait is going to be for the second one. So me and Evan set off quite early, and arriced even earlier due to Frankie telling us to arrive at quarter to Seven :-o

Good morning,

I have a couple of new questions after reading about a bit.

Is there any special system for posting internal links, like how would I refer to a particular reply in a conversation somewhere else, or a section of my space?

How do send an email or private message to someone?

Apart from that I think I'm working most of it out for myself, some of the concepts just take a bit of getting used to.

Ooh, more questions! I love questions, they make me feel important and useful.
If you want to refer to another conversation, you can copy the URL from the address bar, and paste that in, and mention the post number. (top right hand corner of all posts.) Or another trick is to go to the post before (if there is one) and copy the link at the bottom of it that says 'Read the first reply to this message' and post that, or go to the message after (if there is one) and copy the link that says 'This is a reply to this Posting' and paste that.
Not being able to post external links in conversations is a pain. And we can't even get round it by describing things. They count any info that could lead to a URL, as a URL. eg if I said go to blah blah site, it's a dotcom site. That would be removed as 'directions'. But you can say search in google for blah blah, and you'll find it easily. Or just tell people the link is on your user space. It's a bloody nuisance to be honest, but there you go.

Being able to click to different section of your user page involves a little bit of GuideMl that I'm not too used to explaining. I'll go away and look it up and come back to you on it.

You can't send private messages on h2g2, and to send an email to someone you'd have to check their user space for an email address, or just ask them for it. There's no automatic way of contacting someone except through postings.

I have no idea what usenet it, so have no idea how different h2g2 is, but it is fairly easy to pick up once you have the basics. And take it a piece at a time.

Frankie, it might be strange seeing us chatting, but I won't *be* strange. Not for a while anyway.

". If you click the time you last posted, it will take you directly to where you left it, so you don't have to scroll around to find where you got to. "

Hehe, using this method I just replied to something you wrote on 4th August by mistake ! But it said last message posted 4 days ago ?

That's one of the privileges of being a newbie

But that's the nice thing about h2g2, everything we post is left there for new people to find and answer. Don't let them being old put you off!

What do you think of the site so far?

I think it's great thanks Frankie.

The dynamic linking is interesting, but the whole experience is a bit slow. And the moderation system probably distorts the conversation style a bit. I'll have to try and find some more of the places where people are talking about real things.

Andy,

Saw the pic of the archtop, if you want, I suggest sending a pic to Guitarist magazine, along with all th details you know - the serial number and - or anything else written or stamped on it. Have a look inside through the F-Holes, any stickers?



Bassman