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

Rob asks good questions and I am not able to answer in full. Might The Post be able to help?

"What's the official birthday of h2g2? Is it the first day it went online? Is it the first day it was announced to the public? Is it the first day an entry was published by someone other than the "old writing team"?

We should be getting close to h2g2's 19th birthday and we should be preparing for next year's 20th."

I answered:

"I believe the day it was launched - 28 april 1999 - is the official birthday."

But that just led to these questions:

"So, what, precisely, did the launch entail? Was that simply when the folks at TDV flipped a switch and connected their little website to the World Wide Web? I understand there was some period of time where the entries were written by staff before it was opened up to the greater public. And even then, it was a small group of early users before the gates were opened to the masses with the announcement on Tomorrow's World.

I, apparently, got here the same day as all those unwashed masses that watched Tomorrow's World after I got a cryptic email from registering (or maybe just anticipating) Starship Titanic. That was the great onrush of 9.9.1999."

This was the closest I got, but it doesn't answer all of Rob's questions:

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A943184

I think your date is right, Pierce. At least, that's what I always thought it was.

Any number of people will threaten me with cybermurder for mentioning this, but W*k*p*d** has a good entry on us:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H2g2

Then there's the Guide Entry you mentioned: A943184

If you're really nosy and want even more info, you might leave a message with Researcher5 (Robbie). He was there, and knows where the computers are buried...

The current Post Editor (me) really hates all those anniversaries, and is hard-put to keep up with the flow of exciting Stuff that's coming in right this minute. I've sent out an enquiry, and when the Core Team tells me something about dates, I will post it here in this thread. I suspect they're all at work now.

I'm pretty sure there is - or used to be - a Youtube video showing the BBC announcement on the launch day. I can't find it right now. If you do, let us know.

I think people brainstorming for the 20th anniversary would be a great idea, myself! For maximum impact, send your suggestions to Robbie. If you have suggestions for , be prepared to volunteer to do some of the work involved.

I will forward this excellent query to the Core Team, and let some of them respond.

This would come close, yeah?
http://www.tdv.com/html/news/19990430-0-n.html

to both of you. I believe this is most helpful and I will show this to Rob.

Whether we want to make more out of it is anybody's guess at this moment.
In short: We'll see



PS: I know what you mean, Dmitri and I agree. In particular because there are so many dates to remember in this particular case. Like I said: First radio show, tv show, book etc. ...

What's the inverse of ?

Hmm... According to that TDV page, I was mistaken about the day I logged on. I created "My Space" on 10 October, 1999, but I believe I first logged on, created my account U69725 on 9.9.1999. As reckoned by SEF on this page A1157997 .

You see that bright magenta box 35248? That was his calculation for how many new users registered on that particular Thursday. Something happened to get that huge spike in registrations. As I mentioned elsewhere, I was invited by an email (long lost sadly). I thought I'd been told that was the day or day after the Tomorrow's World announcement, but obviously I was mistaken.

And why were there 9980 new users on the 27th of April?

The inverse of is probably the likes of 2Legs and Prof Animal Chaos and me. And a number of others, of course, and what we have in common (or uncommon) is that we will have to be dragged kicking and creaming from this site some day, which cannot possibly be any time soon.

I meant in the sense of leaving a conversation, as I was entering this one.

And I ain't going anywhere neither.

of course

Oh yeah! I forgot about .

Once leaves the building, it's easy to forget about him.

But he'll remember us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ8V3YZFyjE

In 2001 I wrote a little something for the post about the Tomorrows World launch day: A587892

And the launch photo is here: U34439

Thanks!

That's brilliant, by the way!

yes it is!

But who are the people in the picture?

The original .

Did they see their own shadows?