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

Inspired by Jodans remarks here : F113808?thread=4797077 , I am making my own Journal entry. I'll let you read that if you're so moved to do so, but I would like to lift one quote from that :

"This journal is not an effort to convince people in my vision, which has been fairly well belabored and unsubscribed from elsewhere. It is a call to action. If you have an inkling that the direction of the Edited Guide is wrong, if you've ever felt excluded by a certain set of standards in the Edited Guide, if you've ever been too intimidated to confront the less logical aspects of Peer Review and its process, if you feel that h2g2 has to be its own site, then I am calling for you to take arms and make a difference."


And with that I am making a stand to try and change the way things work around here. I don't know what kind of crowd I'm pulling to this gig these days, but I feel it is at least my duty to pass on my own thoughts.

H2G2 is in trouble and I think in order to get it out we all need to make a stand and make the Guide what we want it to be. As a community we need to change the way Peer Review works, and in my book that partly means getting more unconventional Scouts, opening up the Guidelines to allow more stylised entries.

I have already entered something to Peer Review which I consider to be a bit more "out-there" in an effort to stretch the Guide, and hope to add more. But I'm now writing this in a hope that others will take Jodan's and others lead (I've seen at least two other similar Journals to this other than mine and Jodans), and we see a general kind of spread of these grow like rabbits across the whole of H2G2.

But as Jodan has said I would recommend you do whatever you feel your strengths give best. Whether that be writing something about this for the Post, The UnderGuide, in your conversations, and just generally get it about. Because as much as we may have had issues with the Edited Guide before, this is our opportunity to say we truely own our own Edited Guide, and that it represents us as a community.

Thanks for reading.

Still waiting for a Sub Ed to contact me about my Knitted Socks piece.

To be honest I think the Guide has gone as far as it's able to go, unless h2g2 gets a HUGE overhaul so it can compete with Wiki it's going to die

Why the hell do people feel the need to define their contributions to this site in terms of whatever Wikipedia are doing? So, we can't surpass them, who knows? They're getting a lot of stick for the vandalism, factual inaccuracies and plagiarism that's endemic to their system. They're not perfect either.
We're not as all-encompassing as wiki, and in all probability might never be as all-encompassing, that means we can't enjoy the guide, write for it, read it or even admit that it's still an admirable goal to strive for does it?

The fact we're not competing with Wiki is the reason the Guide is dying on it's feet, I'm not going to argue the toss with you but fact's have to be faced, Wiki is the first place people turn to, me included, it's the first thing that comes up in a serch engine and it's more encompassing, it's about time the guide expanded otherwise it's bye bye everybody, bye bye

"The fact we're not competing with Wiki is the reason the Guide is dying on it's feet, I'm not going to argue the toss with you but fact's have to be faced, Wiki is the first place people turn to, me included, it's the first thing that comes up in a serch engine and it's more encompassing, it's about time the guide expanded otherwise it's bye bye everybody, bye bye"


I seriously think its gone beyond that now. We need to be different, and not wiki. And the point is now I think as I said before to make the Guide itself something that represents us as a community. Yes we need investment, but there are things as a community we can do without investment, and that essentially is take over the Guide. It is possible to make the Edited Guide what we want it to be, and I think that in itself would attract more people.

Ultimately if this site goes down, I would hope (and I would certainly want to be one of the prime movers) that the community would just set up elsewhere because when it comes down to it - when it isn't being held back - we have a very strong bond. But now is not the time for that. We need to think what we can do as opposed to what we can't do. Now is the time for ideas - so what ideas do you have? How would you like to change the Edited Guide. Would you allow entries about h2g2 itself? Would you allow personal accounts of events - eg. 11th Sept 2001? What would you want to see in there - and write about it.

We have to be positive while we have something to work for - and we do still have something unless you decide to give up now in which case all is lost unless we do something now.

We are not Wikipedia - and it never should be. It would be a cold day in hell before I let that happen.

Geesh, how many more negative threads/journals are we going to get?Carry on like this you'll kill the site regardless.Frankly if you don't like what's here, bearing in mind that ALL forms of writing are catered for here, then I politely suggest clear off and find another site like it. {I'll bet you can't}
There hasn't been a day go by this week when someone hasn't published a journal or message slagging off the site yet offering nothing in return.


ST.

ps. I'm not staying subbed to yet another negative thread.

I've replied to your post with more respect than you have given this.

Yep and I'm not surprised at ST's comment.

What you said Terran is just what we need, to break from the BBC and set up on our own, but can we? if we are going to compete, not just with Wiki but with the likes of Facebook, MySpace and Live Journal we need to update EVERYTHING, not just the Guide but servers and so on. I can't say I'm surprised if the BBC want to pull the plug, we could write 100 EG's each to try and save it but let's face facts, the BBC need to make cuts to save money, the best way to do that is to cut down on 'non essential' services. Sorry to be a realist but you can't deny it's been coming for sometime, no new servers, no server updates, the italic's being reduced to one, or is it two now, if the BBC want to close down h2g2, nothing is going to stop them

Oh, you guys...
*glum*

I have had a few ideas for new things to suggest. But... I don't exactly have the coding knowledge or the finances to put my money where my mouth is.

Watching movies in the Guide? Youtube is one of the unfriendliest sites I've ever been on. They have a serious problem with flaming and trolls.

Maybe some more software that has Guide-friendly applications like that one open-source ML editor someone had been going on about a few months ago??


Yeah, an editing revamp would probably be more feasible.