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

I don't know if this is the right place to bug you about this. I'm sure if there's a better place you'll let me know.

I have been trying to manually save internal h2g2 links for easy access later. I create a user page and attempt to manually save the links on pages like this:

http://www.h2g2.com/A54604
http://www.h2g2.com/A54622
http://www.h2g2.com/A54578
etc etc..

It's not working well. I mean I come across some user's page that I like and I have to save that URL, go BACK to my page and find the appropriate user page I left for just that kinda user, then I usually discover I don't have a category for that kind of user so I have to create yet another page and then link that page manually to my main page.

Most recently I've taken to just making bookmarks for my own purposes, but that doesn't let me show off all the links and suggest to others keen places to go from my user page. If you've looked at my Zachsmind page at...

http://www.h2g2.com/U36004

..you'll see I've become rather link happy. I'm rambling all this to you so you know I'm not just coming out of left field with the requests that I'm about to type out. I've been trying to use my user pages the way they're set up for several weeks now and I'm doing okay, but it's becoming a bit of a chore admittedly. And I'm trying to help others at the yahoo club by leaving suggestions on how they can link on their pages too and it's helping some people but I must admit my brain is mush at this point.

Might I suggest the following be put at the bottom of that long list of things you're working on and someday maybe you'll get a chance to do it.

1. Some way to put a button in the goo so whenever a user finds a neato h2g2 page that they'd like easy access to in the future, it automatically becomes a link on or near their main homepage? Like say I like your page and want easy access to it. Granted I could memorize that you're user 6, but if you're user 34957 that's a bit more difficult. I could just push a button in the goo, and a link to your page would automatically appear inside a user page accessible from my main homepage. This would not only be easy for me to get to in the future, but the list of links would also be accessible by anyone arriving at my main homepage, so I could show off a list of links to fellow researchers, or specific guide entries or soon-to-be-rejected possibly future guide entires that other people have written.
2. Some way to be able to easily organize said collected links without having to know html. I do know how to do it manually, but it would be nice to have an easier way to do it, and those who don't know html could create their own links to other places in h2g2 as well.
3. A reuben. I could really use a reuben sandwich right now.

Also this is slightly off topic but just occurred to me. It would be nice to have an option to choose whether I want to search for accepted guide entries, or just skip the guide entries and search only user pages. I have learned that if you type something into the "Search the Guide" option and nothing comes up, you get a second link and the URL is something like this:

http://www.h2g2.com/search.cgi?search=kabloomey&stage2=1

"kabloomey" above can be replaced with just about anything, and even if there's a guide entry that has it, using that URL let's you skip searching guide entries so you can look automatically for forum posts or user pages that have that word. However unfortunately there's no button in the goo that offers that. That would make it easier for field researchers to find each other.

Oh and finally while I have your ear, Mr. Lynn. How do I go about getting down on my knees and pleading with you to appear formally at a preselected time and date at the h2g2 yahoo club as a guest so the members of the yahoo club can drill- er, I mean politely ask you questions about h2g2.com and stuff? I did an informal survey among the regulars at the yahoo club and you come in a close second to Douglas Adams himself for who the members would like as our first guest speaker at the h2g2 yahoo club chat thingy. And that was a pretty long sentence.

I would have preferred to beg via email but I can't find your email address, so I'll just beg here, unless there's a better place for me to beg.

If it's begging you're after, you've come to the right place.

First, bookmarks. Or favourites. Take a look at this:

http://www.h2g2.com/images/side_clip.jpg

It's a button that should appear in the goo. It is to allow you to 'clip' interesting user pages and homepages (and forum postings too). We've had the button from day one, we just haven't got around to doing all of the other stuff. And we don't like the name, either - it's not obvious enough.

The ability to mark pages in your favourites list would then allow us to give you the ability to easily put in links to those people or pages. That requires changes to the page editing (which is being worked on now). It would also probably require a javascript enabled browser.

Favourite forums would mean you wouldn't have to post in a forum to have it appear in the list on your homepage, and you'd also be able to ignore forums when they get boring.

I've pretty-much finished fixing the search page. I've removed 'Power Search' and made the search show all results by default. Clicking on the 'Search the guide' button with nothing in the edit box gives you the power search options by default. Also, the search will now find word forms (like verb endings or plurals) as well as the basic word. The only thing the search lacks is the ability to be broken up into multiple pages.

I've also fixed the really stupid bug that meant searching for users would only return one username, instead of all the matches.

Finally, inevitably, live chat. There's actually two distinct things here. User-based chatrooms, and what's usually called celebrity chat, but which is actually a semi-live Q&A. You couldn't run a celeb chat on the yahoo chat system because all it would take is one or two bozos posting profanity to ruin the whole thing. That's why celeb chats are so heavily moderated there's actually very little point making them live events.

So, point one: We will put in a chat system on h2g2. But we want to do it in such a way that it doesn't divert people from the point of the site, which is creating the Guide. So long as the chatroom doesn't become the raison d'etre for people on the site, then it will be OK. It's my job to make sure that can happen.

Point two: Douglas' or other TDV folk's appearance on the yahoo chat. To be frank, that's not going to happen, partly for the logistical reasons outlined above, and partly because we wouldn't want to have an event which was expressly designed to force our users to use someone else's site. We'd much rather host that here, and we definitely will in the future.

And anyway, who needs a live chat when you can ask us anything here, and have as much chance of being answered as you would on a moderated chat?

...and furthermore, no wandering through dreary chat logs afterward. Anyone can just happen by later (as I just did) and see exactly what you two have been talking about, with one thread per topic. Okay, that's unlikely, but you know what I mean. So Jim, does this mean that nifty search thing you showed off to me is up?

Oh--here's a thought--how about a 'what's new' page, showing the site updates from, say, the last week or so. You guys are adding new features like mad, particularly this week, and it's hard to keep track of everything.

What I was thinking, to elaborate, is just to have a page linked from the home page to alert us all of new stuff.

Well, then again, that's mostly what your page consists of anyway, so maybe it's superfluous. But people that don't check your page regularly may miss out on all this new stuff.

Non technical computer incompetent number 34880 here.

I tried to add a picture to my homepage but now I have a blip. And when I click edit page all I get is a blank blue screen saying document:done so I can't erase it.. Can you help me??
Just another small demand to help overfill your day. I hope your cup don't runneth over too much.

You'd forgotten the quote mark after the SRC attribute in the IMG tag, so everything up to the next quote mark was interpreted as being part of the tag. I've fixed it, but your link still doesn't work, so check the URL. Try finding the image in a web browser first, then cut and paste the URL into the user page edit field (careful with those quotes).

Chat: Understood regarding the use of Yahoo Club chat. Others had asked me to ask I figured it couldn't hurt. Sorry to hear about the addition of chat to h2g2.com. Granted there is a large call for it, but I agree there is a concern it might throw off the use of h2g2 as an actual developmental guide thingy, which I think I talked about at length elsewhere so I won't bore you with it here. Well, maybe a bit. As you know, if chat was available in here 24 hours a day, people would go there to ramble and wouldn't ramble on actual pages which help to expand the guide. So perhaps a chat system that you only had up at certain times or for specific reasons. Since there's usually at least a dozen or two users logged in at any particular time in h2g2, you'd have better success getting a real chat going for brief periods than the lack of success I've been having at Yahoo.

But to use less words as an answer, I'm entirely satisfied with your reasons for not participating in the Yahoo Chat thing and thank you kindly for the quick and frank response to my original query.

I agree that 'clip' as a button in the goo isn't an obvious enough word for the button, but I am at a loss for a helpful suggestion. "Link" would better describe it, but is an overused word on the Web and you're probably looking for something less passe'.

Thank you for the improvements and explanation of the Search Page. If I had ever gotten around to clicking on the words "search the guide" without putting something in the field, I would have been able to figure that out myself eventually. Sorry about that. I usually just type in the field and press enter, so I missed that useful page entirely.

And finally, I guess asking for the reuben sandwich was a bit out of line? That's alright. I'm supposed to be on a low cholesterol diet anyway.

thank you, your holiness. sir. etc....

much more careful with quotes in future!

Okay - I have been trying to sell my soul to TDV for ages, as you well know Jim. I think your 'clip' should be called 'The thumb' - it's relevant to H2G2, you stop when someone sticks out there thumb (or not!), and good books or websites are 'well-thumbed'. Now can I have the job.

Wrong their. D'oh!!

...and... one thumbs down the corner of the page... before people could write you had to put your thumbprint down..I can't quite put my thumb on it...but think thumb's up to this idea!
Could you do a thumb coming over the edge and turning the corner of the the page? Would you like me to do a thumbnail sketch of this?

I agree. Good Idea!!

Linking to pages using the thumb can be a way of voting for the guide entries you like. Then maybe those votes can be kept somewhere in h2g2 for you Powers That Be Guys to look over and use as a partial deciding factor in which entries get accepted eventually and which get the axe.

I like the idea of a vote affecting a person's front page. Where the voting is connected to something like a list appearing accessible via someone's homepage. This way it might be less like a popularity contest.

The THEORY is, since every time a vote is made it affects your front page, you won't bookmark just everything - you'll only bookmark pages you like in order to help encourage others to come to your page to see your links. You'd be saying, "I think the following pages are as good or better than anything I can come up with, and these links make my page look good."

I could be completely wrong about that mindset. I got a C in college psychology. Sounds good though.

And you can't give 'thumbs up' to your own articles...only other people's

I think it would be easier to implement proper voting, since then we can introduce multiple criteria (how inaccurate, how interesting, how funny, etc). A simple 'thumbs up' would not give us the ability to filter entries based on different criteria.

And the favourites list would be an ever changing thing, since you might want to temporarily remember a group of articles because you want to reference them in an article you're writing, but when you've done that you don't want them hanging around your page.

None of this is really fixed in stone yet, so keep the suggestions coming.

I would like to be able to literally thumb the top corner of the page down, and then be able unmark it later. This is what you mean isn't it. What do you think of The Thumb as name for your clip? Usable? Passable? Dodgy?

I agree that 'thumb' would be a suitable word to use in the ooze for linking and bookmarking. =)

It may not be any more or less descriptive or functional than "clip" but it's certainly more DNAish (pronounced 'dee in AY ish').

I just found a very good example for a reason why we need 'thumbing' or bookmark linking as soon as is conveniently possible.

http://www.h2g2.com/A74800

Ooh. Ahh. Impressive.

The voting thing is a good idea also. It does sound a bit difficult to institute into the website however. Be careful not to spread yourself too thin, Mr. Lynn.

[bad Foghorn Leghorn impersonation] Ah mean ah say ah mean if'n y'cain't git both thumbin' n' votin', which one's easier t'do? Don't put all yer eggs in one basket, boy! Ah say I mean ah say LISTEN t'me when ah'm talkin' t'you! Ya gotta keep yer WITS aboutcha, son! Y'gotta stay SHARP! Keep yer aheyes peeled! Open, that is! Y'mahght MISS somethin' irrelevent! Sleep is over-rated! Ah mean ah say ah mean-- [mercifully the tape runs out]

I saw that map a long time ago. Clever but ultimately doomed, since (for example) searching for the words 'south west' turns up matches to South West London.

We'll have a better solution for this problem in due course.

And Favourites would definitely be implemented before voting as it's more useful to researchers.

Okay. I tried. I sat down and tried to think of a good name for the clip. I did a 'Tony Buzan' mind map. In my lunch-hour. Why bother.

Who is 'Tony Buzan' ?

No really. I vote for thumb, if nothing more than the fact that the word "thumb" belongs on every page of h2g2.com almost as much as the words "don't panic" do.

In fact if there was room, "my home" should actually read "my home which is about to be destroyed by a bulldozer in order to make room for a bypass just before my planet is destroyed by the Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass."

Unfortunately, if you did that, the button would take up most of the screen and you'd run out of goo.

So I'll settle for the use of "thumb" in replace of "clips". Just a suggestion.