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

Hello HeavenSent/ Anna! I must say, your English is incredibly good for someone your age whose native language isn't English. I'm terrible at my best second language... And I know people whose English is far worse than yours.

But anyway... I'm an 'ACE', which stands for Assistant Community Editor, and means that I have volunteered to do various things, which includes helping new users, like yourself, to find their feet in h2g2. However, I can't do this if you don't reply to me!

To help you find a few places, <./>ThePost</.>, h2g2s online newspaper (which comes out weekly on a Thursday), has set up several pages which can be found here: A660304. There you can look through clubs and societies, regional researcher groups, virtual 'worlds', and other things as well.

There are also some 'official' help pages, which can be found here: <./>DontPanic</.>, and here: <./>Welcome-Newcomers</.>

A very helpful and completely unofficial page explaining any and all jargon used on h2g2 can be found here: A632431 .

Anyway, don't worry if it takes you a while to get back to me, I have a plentiful supply of and and , which you can help yourself to as well if you like.
And don't forget to enjoy yourself on h2g2, whatever you do!

¦M¦

PS I am not automated.
PS I am not automated.
PS I am not automated.
PPS I think my record just got stuck...

*smile* Thank you for all the information. I ended up stumbling onto most of it last night while looking through the place. I guess I was being way too curios, but i wanted to see how like or unlike Douglas's (es??) work it was. Some of the entries do look like the real Hitch hikers guide. I've never seen anything like this place. It's very unique!

I was very frustrated last night while trying to find the fiction forum...took me a while to figure out that I could just post at the bottom. Oops. I guess it was odd that for every information page there were comments from people; I wasnt sure if it was real information or something else.

Thank you a ton for the page explaining what some of the words mean. It made a great deal of sense. What's your second language??

Anna *love and light*

PS. Being new feels like trying to swim without knowing how to.

Well done for finding it all!
Yeah the Guide is unique. It's brilliant!

Ahh. At the bottom of absolutely every article is a forum in which conversations like this can take place. Sometimes they do contain real information, and sometimes they are just chat. Often, conversations which begin on topic and then drift away from the topic and also become general chat.
For your story to be included in Ficiton Central, you need to put it in an article, not post it to the page. To do this, find and press the 'Add Guide Entry' button on your page, and put your story in it. Then go to the Fiction page and post a link to your story.

That's OK! I'm glad you found it useful! If you need any other words explained, don't be afraid to ask.
I think referring to it as a 'second langauge' is pushing it a bit, I really am terrible. It's German.

I can just remember being new, so I almost know exactly what you mean. It's overwhelming and complicated and generally scary... that's how I remember it, anyway.

¦M¦

Thank you a great deal for the information and i will go try it in a little while.

Any language, be it English, German, or Japanese, is hard to learn and harder still to use without frustration. Mostly it's a matter of trying again and again until you remember it. Never give up on a new language because with it comes culture that is very unique.

Anna *trying not to hurt her computer*

PS. how do you put the little faces into the text??

Ah! I see you managed it! That's exactly how it should be done.

Yeah. Definitely frustrating.

Ahh, the smileys. Have a look at <./>Smileys</.>, it tells you all about them - though the page does take a while to load, so be patient with it.

¦M¦

Oh wow, the whole smiley thing is pretty complicated.

Thank you for the information. I'm going to go think on it. (some of this stuff reminds me of Father's computer code...especially the <___> and the <___/> in the GuideML.)

Anna

You'll get used to it, don't worry. I see a smiley in your post now, though.

Well, that's what it is, really. Code to tell the computer what to do. I'm guessing you've found all the GuideML stuff then?
What does your father do?

¦M¦

The smileys are really cute. The GuideML was one of the choices for making an entry so i became curious. ("curiosity killed the cat...")

My father...um...makes programs. He writes them, i think. I know there is an emglish name for the job, but i dont want to take out the dictionary.

GuideML is weird! It doesn't add lines unless there is a "" there and so the text comes out as one long paragragh. (I guess it saves space.)

Anna

(still trying to get over reading "Macbeth" in English...and i thought modern English is hard to learn)

A computer programmer, I think.

Well, that's so that you can sort out your code so you can read it easily without it making lines in the page where you don't want them. When the coding gets very complicated it really helps!

Oh, yeesh... I can't really understand Shakespearean English either! I studied Macbeth for my English GCSE, so I might be able to help you with some of it if you need... but you've finished it, so I doubt you'll want to go back to it!

¦M¦

Repeat that torture? I sure hope not, but Shakespeare has been translated into Russian. Actually in my native language it sounds pretty modern and easy to understand. And bloody. (much like in modern movies a lot of people die and forests walk)

Does everyone HAVE to read Shakespeare?? I mean He isn't (wasn't??) an American author and his English is far from easy. No one says "thou" anymore.

I'm going to be gone for a little while for school exams. (have to study for them) but I promise to come back as soon as I get free time.

Anna

"Joined together, hand in hand, our circle gathers round,
To work our magic, weave the web, and dance on sacred ground,
By the Goddess we are called, witch to witch and friend to friend,
To merry meet, and merry part, and merry meet again."

Translated into Russian? Is no one safe??
Yeah, over here we have to study one of Shakespeare's plays for our English Literature GCSE, which is compulsory...

Ah, OK then. Good luck in them!

¦M¦

*taking a short but needed break* Thank you, but I think even luck can't save me from testing in Biology.

Actually, pretty much NO. Most anything classical was translated into Russian at one point or another. Same goes for Russian authors into English. I think in part it has to do with the fact that until the end of communism (sp?) English was not a course at school at all. And when it became one, it taught poems rather than grammar rules.

Back to plants and their ways of creating food. (photosynthesis...i think that might be right)

Anna

And h2g2 is the best place to take a break!

Ahh, OK.

Yep, that's it! Correctly spelt as well, well done. Photosynthesis is a word lots of people have trouble with.

¦M¦

Yep. There's an entry on it in the Guide. I'm impressed by the depth of it. Reminds me of a text book, but takes up much less space than a text book and makes more sense.

Anna

Only three days to go after Monday.

h2g2 is, er, brilliant! The authors of entries know they have to explain tings to people who have absolutely no idea, and as entries are looked at by other people before going into the Edited Guide, they make sure it is easy to understand, and any experts in the field - for there are experts here - make sure it is mostly right.
But good luck!

¦M¦

Definitely brilliant, but also way crazy. Sorry, no creative comments today. I'm too tired. Got the Hitchikers guide out again. Reading it again sounds fun.
Anna

HitchHikers is brilliant! Have you heard the original radio version?

¦M¦

No, i have not. I didn't even know there was such a thing? It sounds interesting.

Anna *falls asleep at the computer*

Ahh.
Brief HitchHiker history lessons starts here: ()
I believe Douglas Adams was a script-writer for radio, and occasionally something for TV. One day he remembered an idea he'd had years ago whilst lying drunk in a field in the dark in the middle of nowhere - a HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy. He'd fallen asleep and forgotten the idea until then. However, he thought it would be a good idea for a radio series. He settled down to write it. The BBC decided they'd give it a go, and after a few months, it went on air. It was an almost-instant success. Eventually Douglas was persuaded to write a book of it. And then some more. And then a TV version was made.

That's about it, I think.

¦M¦

A movie version? So, a movie exists that is made from the books?? *drools* That I really want to see. The radio show is cool, too. If it was anything liek the books, people would enjoy it for being funny. Was it anything like "war of the worlds" ??

Is Douglas Adams dead or still alive? The books I have say that he is still alive but they are a few years old, so not too recent.

Anna

*falls asleep again* Studying is bad for your health!