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

Welcome to h2g2, an interactive, community-written collection of reference, non-fiction and fiction articles!
I'm one of the official h2g2 <./>ACES</.>, who try to welcome every new user personally.

There's a number of ways to <./>contribute</.> to h2g2, and to <./>read</.> h2g2. One of the simplest is to have conversations about the topics you see. Converation threads (like this one) allow you to leave messages almost anywhere on the site. Most pages have a 'start a new conversation' button at the bottom which allows you to start a discussion about whatever you want.

To help you get started have a look at our newspaper, <./>ThePost</.> , especially the links page where you can find all the groups and meetings places. If you want to find out about something specific try a <./>Search</.>.

Personnally I like to hang out in the H2G2 Café where anyone is welcome (A202924). One useful page is 'Spicing up your User Page' (A690518), which will help you start creating a space to call your own. Feisor, another <./>ace</.>, has created a page of hints and links for new researchers at A719840.

Another good resource is the <./>DontPanic</.> Help Centre which can be reached via the 'Help!' button on the toolbar at the top. To find the busiest places on hootoo you can look at the list of busiest conversations on the <./>FrontPage</.>, but <./>Askh2g2</.> is usually always busy. If you want to see what other people are writing, have a look in PeerReview. Everyday at least two articles are published as being 'edited' by the editors, and you can see what has been edited in the past at Month.

A cool thing about h2g2 is the large collection of smilies that you can put into conversations . The full list is at <./>smiley</.>, but most normal ones like ; - ) are accepted .

h2g2 also has a small number of <./>HouseRules</.>. If you see anything which you find offensive you can use the 'yikes' button, a small '!', to alert the BBC's moderation team.

If you want any help or advice just reply to this post (there's a link at the bottom) and I'll do my best!

Good Luck!

Spelugx -- <./>ACE</.>, Guru