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

What happened to DNA messages?

We just changed the name, people found the DNA bit confusing.

Please, change it back. Who found it confusing? People from other message boards? To be honest, I couldn't care less about them. I mean, all hootooers who write for the EG have known the DNA messages for years. This development is scary. I'm not the only one who's disturbed by this change.

DNA - Is special to Hootoo.

Sorry the BBC just looks too official..

Hear, hear.

But you changed the name to a big machine ...

I much prefered it when it was h2g2 Messages.

Well, that was wayyy before my time, so I didn't know they had been h2g2 messages.

Care to add this to your tagline, Mina?

Well even that is better than a BBC auto message .....

DNA messages was my friend - I just need to know he's alright and hasn't been eaten by the machine.

Wow, I'm really surprised by your attitudes. When did h2g2 users become inconsiderate to the needs of other people?

It's hardly a major change, to call it 'scary' is rather over-dramatic isn't it? Come on!

The message system works across all boards not just h2g2; the new name is more comprehensible to new users, both on the boards and on h2g2, which is why we changed it.

I was here on h2g2 when it was first created, and it'll be weird to have it say something different for us too - but I'm sure we'll all get used to it really quickly.

Well, let me just get this right: the users join DNA message boards (or is it only Jim Lynn calling them so?), but they are confused by DNA messages?
And I had no idea it was used throughout all message boards, I've never left h2g2 - apart from the occasional post on the DNA Hub - will that be the BBC Hub now?

Isn't it more like a de-DNAing of the site.

....and it really doesn't seem so personal somehow .... automated messages seem so .... harsh.

Hi Fizzymouse

It always was an automated message system, it was never a person, it's just a cog in a wheel - a bit like the mythical 'h2g2 ghost in the machine'!

Does this mean the DNA in the URL is confusing other BBC boards?

No thanks B'el - all my time is taken up campaigning for bring back 'Don't Panic' instead of h2g2 help.

Jim and I (and the rest of the team here) refer to the platform as DNA internally, and we sometimes use it when we post to the boards to talk about the platform as a whole, but the boards are called BBC message boards, they're not DNA message boards.

The Hub *might* change at some point; the name is built into the skin though, so it would need reskinning if it were to be changed, so it would take quite a bit or work and redesign.

That's not in your tagline, though

So will the DNA in the URL vanish then?

Sometimes people ask why there's a DNA in the URL - and I'm always happy to explain the history behind the name of the platform.

I was the person who suggesting calling the whole thing DNA in the first place - it seemed a fitting tribute to Douglas.

No, the DNA in the URL will stay.

How many dna sites are there? I know of three: h2g2, Hub, Action network (aka Ican)