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

I've been tossing this around my head for a while, but I'm not quite sure what to do with it, so a Journal seems like the most obvious place to let it out.

I've been thinking that there needs to be a fresh initiative with the sole aim of bringing in new people to h2g2. It seems to me that when we talk about advertising the site, we're talking about T-shirts and side links from BBC articles. I think it makes more sense to put the process of recruiting more people into the site into the hands of all of the site's users.

What I'm envisioning is people crawling across the web to drop links where interested people might be. Obviously, there's a very specific group of people who are strange enough to want to participate in the h2g2 project, so we would want to focus on that. I mean, a facebook group about Douglas Adams, or some kind of intellectual blog or whatever - dropping a link there could bring a few more curious people in. But there's more than those general interest . There are tons of political blogs out there where I could post links to my political entries in the comments. There are dog websites and blogs where we could post or submit links to Mina's fantastic dog entries. Cooking websites where we could link an unusual recipe found in the Guide. There are all kinds of topics which are in the Guide which would be interesting to outside observers - and some of those people might stick around.

I remember a thread in askh2g2, I think, where people were asked how they found h2g2. Most seemed to have the same answers - Salmon of Doubt, sheer coincidence, a friend mentioned it, etc. Those are fine, but I'd like to see in a few years a similar thread, but with entirely different answers and many more responses.

So this is just an idea which I decided to post about late on a Tuesday night (or early on a Wednesday morning). Is it worth pursuing further? Would other people have the enthusiasm to take the time to post relevant links around the rest of the internet?

I kind of do that already, as in the Facebook thing, tell friends, and sometimes drop a link onto a website I'm visiting (if possible). I haven't gone as far as dropping direct related links to individual EG Entries though, that's a good idea, I think I'll do some of that when I have the chance

Good stuff.
Do you think the community would respond if a more direct effort was made, challenging them to bring more people in? I tend to think it wouldn't. Or else it would, temporarily, and then fizzle out as these things tend to do.

I think the 'community', unfortunately, is but a mere handful now, and disconsolate at that - so any kind of pro action may fall on deaf ears at the current time. A Post article may spur some on, but anything bigger than that will probably just peter out in the long run.

We really do need something though to spark some life into h2g2 if it's going to grow out of it's 3-man band stage that it's stuck in at the moment.

Yeah. Well, this started off as an email to someone I trust in order to get their opinion. But I figured I'd journal it, to see if there was any amount of enthusiasm left in the community. After all, I wouldn't want to try to start something and see it fall on its face.

Finding a spark is the hard part I guess. It could come tomorrow without anyone's bidding, or it might never come unless we try something.

I think I've asked this before, but why don't I ever see any entries appear in google?

Coz the little computer bots that are embedded in html code are left out of EG Entries in most cases to enable quicker loading etc. So little search engine bots looking for these don't find them, thus EG Entries don't rank high in google searches.

I think.

Crap explanation, and probably very wring as far as the technology is concerned, but that's sort of how I understand it...

I have emailed all my contacts with the h2g2 link - several times. And I extoll the virtues of this place regularly.

I have no idea how much influence I've had, because we all operate under pseudonyms. So I don't know if they've ventured into the site

Fb

I think there may be many people who frequent the site, but have not registered as a contributor...

I think you're right, Matt. I know of people who drop in and read conversations and Guide Entries, but who don't sign up.

How can we persuade people that we're not scary?

Um, stop with the scary faces raar!

Seriously though, I think it's not just h2g2 that's the underlying problem. The Beeb website in general is behind he pace of other 'community' based websites and perhaps needs to do a little catching up. h2g2 is perhaps seen as a kind of antique now I feel, and not any good for using, just putting up on the shelf and gazing at lovingly...

Actually, when I was shocked - *shocked* I say! - when I was researching my most recent entry for clarification on a minor point and saw an EG entry as the second or third search result.

h2g2 may be antique, but there are only a few parts of it that aren't user-friendly. I don't get frustrated with the interface very often (and when I do, it's with the ing search engine).

I've recommended hootoo to dozens of people, but I can think of four I really expected to stick. None did. They had similar sorts of reasons for finding it unsatisfying, centring around not really getting what it was about, cliquishness and a stuffy "old" feel.

I also find a lot of people know about it and even enjoy browsing it, but wouldn't contemplate actually joining it. (When I say I'm active, they tend to say "that figures" )

"I also find a lot of people know about it and even enjoy browsing it, but wouldn't contemplate actually joining it."

That's my experience too. Though not so many now. I've tried to get some friends on site, but none have made the leap (Or they did and didn't tell me!). Some have read my stories (or bits of them at least - because they're long and weird :p ), and via that have read some post stuff, which they thought was interesting, but based on one comment from a RL friend it looks like a dying community... which I guess is a little worrying. Maybe we need to look happy or something... :p But then you can't force something

Apparently it's also awkward to navigate, which I don't really think myself, but then I've been using it for years so I wouldn't necessarily know if I've just got used to it.

Anyway just my two-penneth worth

None of my RL friends are into computers at all, and have resisted the lure of hootoo, despite knowing that I spend a lot of time here. It is worrying to me that most of the new people on my friends list have stopped posting here in the last six months or so. Old timers like myself stick around, but several of my friends are branching out and trying other places. One of the few things I don't like about h2g2 is always feeling vaguely guilty because I'm not writing for the Guide. H2g2 doesn't have many bells and whistles compared to some other sites. You can't add your own photos, much less videos. I'm hoping that things pick back up here, but I am awfully worried that they won't.

Okay.
Well, I'm not that interested (to be blunt) in what hasn't worked in the past. I think that telling friends about the site is fine, but it doesn't work on the mass scale that other things might. I'm more interested in what *might* work.

And frankly, it's the defeatist attitude that the community is dying that is one of the reasons we are where we are. Certainly the BBC's neglect plays a large part as well, but I think that a community dedicated not just to the survival, but to the thriving of h2g2, is far more valuable than anything the Beeb can give us. The ship hasn't sailed, not yet - I think we can still control our own destiny. I'd hate to see h2g2 go the way of the dodo, but I think it depends entirely on what *we* do.

I know a lot of people mention all of the "bells and whistles" that other sites offer and hootoo doesn't. I'll have to chime in and say that it's solely because of the lack of bells and whistles that I can use hootoo at all.

I don't have time to get online from home very often, but frequently find myself with down time to kill at the office. We're not allowed access to any photo hosting or social networking sites, nor any streaming media, for various reasons. If hootoo implemented all of these things, I'd be able to visit so seldom it might not be worth sticking around at all. I realize that technology can't be held back on my account, but I just wanted to point out that there are possibly a number of people who don't mind the "lack of technology".

While I have found myself checking out other sites, I have yet to find any that I'd prefer to h2g2. I do visit another message board with some frequency, because it's a special interest board and I haven't managed to stimulate much interest here. If we could resuscitate some of the old Societies and special interest groups, that might be helpful?

I also find myself feeling guilty for not writing for the guide, but I don't particularly enjoy writing and would hate to churn out uninteresting stuff because I felt I had to. I have thought about volunteering again, perhaps as a Scout instead of an ACE this time. But I also think that if we rely solely on the EG, we're in trouble. Other places might not be doing it "better", per se, but they're doing it in a way that draws more readers.

Honestly, the only thing that has *ever* put me off and made me consider leaving h2g2, has been moderation (actually lack thereof) issues. I don't know as that there's anything the community can do about that, so I agree that rather than focus on what isn't working we should enhance the experiences that make this place great.


Not sure how to do that, but I'm open to ideas and willing to help if I can.

I found h2g2 through a search engine when I was researching a topic for a library program. So I think Taralome's point is well taken.

As to bringing in our friends, I have never been interested in that. It's time for me to be blunt. I enjoy having h2g2 as an escape from my RL friends. I don't want them on h2g2. I don't mind them knowing about it - and many of them do, like my book club ladies - but it's nice to have this as something I do that they don't. I recruited my sister, but that was as much to keep her from worrying about me and my internet weirdo friends as anything. And I thought she'd enjoy it, which she did for a while.

Jordan, I'm assuming that the sort of new members you want to attract are those who will write for the EG and UG. Is there any way we could sponsor an annual or semi-annual writing contest for new members? I would be willing to promote something like that at the library. I could also easily promote it on a statewide level. I would be willing to help pay for prizes.

Sorry, but that's the only idea I have right now.

"And frankly, it's the defeatist attitude that the community is dying that is one of the reasons we are where we are. Certainly the BBC's neglect plays a large part as well, but I think that a community dedicated not just to the survival, but to the thriving of h2g2, is far more valuable than anything the Beeb can give us. The ship hasn't sailed, not yet - I think we can still control our own destiny. I'd hate to see h2g2 go the way of the dodo, but I think it depends entirely on what *we* do. "


I've certainly unintentionally done a little bit of doom-mongering in the past, but there is stuff that we can do. Things like the Aviators, using offsite content in connection with this site, making use of the community that still exists and external sources is a good way of keeping it alive. I do agree though that "Certainly the BBC's neglect plays a large part as well", because if you haven't got a good system above you, we're a little like the 3D man trying to live in a 2D world, with one arm tied behind his back.

I also think the term guilt is bandied around quite a lot, which is interesting. I've felt it too, but I've come to the conclusion that it shouldn't (at least for me) be about guilt it should be about fun, and new people wont want to stay somewhere they feel guilty about - they'll go somewhere easier. New people want fun (or at least a sense of achievement), which the community has been, and can be again.

But I'm convinced that a hybrid of onsite and offsite material, reaching out to the world wide web in general is the key to the website's survival.

This is going to sound like a whinge, but I have to say it anyway.

There are lots of people in all sorts of ways who try to make something new of h2g2, things that will generally broaden its appeal. They're not encouraged though, not by the Slants (when there were any), nor by a gaggle of crusty old low-numbers who like things frozen. Quite often, the objection is based on perceptions of elitism. Apparently the narrow strictures of h2g2's mainstreams are there to preserve inclusivity. Bit ironic with the current numbers though, innit? We're getting to be an elite by default.

Told you it was a whinge