It was the Reg what won it: Online Hitchhiker's Guide thriving

A cheering tale of triumph over adversity reached Vulture Central this week to warm the heart of even the frostiest soul. The online encyclopaedia h2g2 - after the famous Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy books - launched by author Douglas Adams in 1999 has survived its amputation from the BBC and is doing well. The Beeb cut …

[Anomalous Cowturd]

+1 for Pan Yan pickle

Why can't anyone find the recipe?

:o(

[jake]

@Anomalous Cowturd (was: Re: +1 for Pan Yan pickle)

The only copy of the original recipe was lost in a fire a couple years after the product was discontinued, from what I remember it was 2002 for the discontinuation & 2004 for the fire?? Something like that. Metacrawl it, if it matters to you.

Last time I went looking, there are several recipes scattered around TehIntraWebTubes, but none produce the substance I remember fondly. For one thing, they all call for malt vinegar, but surely it was made with white?

Anybody have a clue? This Californian is all earseyes.

[Icy North]

Re: +1 for Pan Yan pickle

Hi Anomalous,

I wrote that HP Sauce entry, but you've identified a serious black hole in the h2g2 Edited Guide regarding Pan Yan Pickle. I'll take a look and see if there's any mileage in it (or indeed if there's any horse in it).

Cheers - Icy

[Tommy Pock]

The online game

The BBC killed that too ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game_nolan.shtml )

Can it be rescued?

[Adrian Jones]

Re: The online game

How about by going here:

http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocom.php

[Tommy Pock]

Re: The online game

But I had a game saved on the bridge of The Heart Of Gold on the BBC one!

Thanks very much for that though, Mr Jones

/takes analgesic

[Anonymous Coward]

Beware of the Leopard

A holy relic saved!

Blessed are the cheese-makers!

[Jon Green]

Damn!

I wish I could remember my login - I'd done some of the earliest articles!

[Pastey]

Re: Damn!

If you email [e-mail] they'll try and get you reunited with your old account

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost, but not quite, totally unlike Wikipedia

I respect several things about HG2G:

1) No deletionistas

2) No drama-kiddies and flamewars

3) None of this faux-posh "We are an encyclopedia and must be written like one."

However, I fear that, should HG2G ever get to the popularity of Wikipedia, it will suffer the same "September that never ended" that all online communities suffer (cf. Slashdot, Reddit, and to some extent El Reg here) as the mass of children descend.

[SonofRojBlake]

Re: Almost, but not quite, totally unlike Wikipedia

"No drama-kiddies and flamewars"

It had those... years ago. It's settled down a lot since.

"should HG2G ever get to the popularity of Wikipedia, it will suffer the same "September that never ended" that all online communities suffer "

It had those too... there used to be a highly predictable silly season once a year as the new intake of undergrads got internet access uncontrolled by mum and dad and joined en masse, got rapidly bored by the relatively sedate pace of the place and scarpered, usually leaving behind three or four productive, useful remnants.

There was also a sudden influx of people who used a set-top box to access the internet in about 2002.

Hootoo survived all of this, and I wouldn't bet against it making it to 42...

Why isn't EVERYONE using this icon?

[Will Godfrey]

Shocked! Shocked, I am.

I was totally unaware of this till now. How could that have happened?

[GBL Initialiser]

Too busy reading El Reg?

[Steve Davies 3]

Hah, he's been too busy on the Pan-Galactic highway

n/t

[Anonymous Dutch Coward]

Re: Hah, he's been too busy on the Pan-Galactic highway

Or downing Pan-Galactic Gargleblasters, more likely ;)

[Will Godfrey]

Re: Hah, he's been too busy on the Pan-Galactic highway

Hic!

[Francis Boyle]

I'm off there now

to write a wildly innacurate yet somehow entirely appropriate article about how the marketing department of Google. . .

Well, you know the rest.

[Anonymous Dutch Coward]

Re: I'm off there now

As long as you file your expenses for reimbursement ;)

[Neil Hoskins]

Mobile

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a wholly remarkable book, was, of course, primarily a mobile device. Douglas Adams foretold the popularity of smartphones and connected tablets while we still thought digital watches were a pretty neat idea. Which is why I've always been puzzled about the H2G2 site being aimed primarily at desktops. There does, in fact, seem to be some content at h2g2.mobi, but this looks really cut-down: text-only, in fact. What is needed is something aimed primarily at 4" and 7" devices.

[Pastey]

Re: Mobile

The current front end was written to be part of the overall BBC "Barlesque" skin. We're dumping it as soon as we can, and have rewritten it from scratch so that it does actually work well on anything smaller than a desktop.

[R Cox]

too literal

I tend to think taking writers vision of the future too literally is a dangerous thing. Like thinking one has to do everything exactly as it says in the christian bible. Douglas Adams has his book through internet in general, and wikipedia specifically. Both are standard "though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects...it is slightly cheaper." We have mobile devices that can access the encyclopedia anywhere. The advantage of this, of couse, is we have multiple corporations controlling it, so no one needs to be first against the wall when the revolution comes. They can all go at once.

I also see this Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Fahrenheit 451. In one, a complex machine was needed to moderate the peoples boredom and angst, in the other a wall full of screens shouted our all the trivia of the world. In fact, one tiny screen, carried with us all the time, does the job through an endless supply of cat videos.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: too literal

It's Sunday. Thank you for the sermon, but the holy day of H2G2 is in fact Wednesday, at 10:30 in the evening.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: too literal

Is it! Great, just before thursday. I never could get my head around thursdays.

[J. Cook]

Oh hey...

Looks like I ought to resurrect my account over there.

[Camilla Smythe]

Yeah.. Sorry, Fuck That.

I register. I receive the e-mail to confirm.

"Hi there PooTurd!

Thank you for for registering with h2g2.com

Your Researcher Number is: 14998353

In order to activate your account, we need to confirm your email address..

This is a simple process, please go to vogons.h2g2.com/activateemail and enter in your email address and Researcher Number."

I get this,

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2233/screenshotthehitchhiker.png

Not only is it a recursive load of bollocks with 'Simon Cowell TrouserFont' I am asked to submit this information over a non-secure connection... FFS

Can you ask the 'lovvies' to delete my account, if they can find it, and sort their Smeg Out.

Tah.

[Pastey]

Re: Yeah.. Sorry, Fuck That.

Can you please email this to [e-mail] ?

I can assure you that this is nothing to do with us at the Guide, we don't use imageshack at all, never have, don't think we'll ever need to. I can only guess that there's something gone wrong with either your computer, your mail client or your ISP.

But please contact us so that we can see if we can figure out how to help you.

[Pastey]

Re: Yeah.. Sorry, Fuck That.

Right, sorry, I see what you mean. You're using imageshack to post a screenshot.

This sign up method was used when the Guide first launched, and meant that all accounts are definitely associated with a verified account.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Camilla Smythe

They don't like your OS, that's why.

[Camilla Smythe]

Re: @Camilla Smythe

Hmm. OS problem?

..as in not Computer, Email Client or ISP problems.

Maybe I should try,

sudo apt-get install commondialog.dll

or somesuch.

Perhaps the Vogons are rubbing their pudgy thumbs across the experience known as TIFKAM 8 or trying to find us using Apple Maps. I'll pretend to put it back in its cardboard box and send it back to the shop ;-)

Ode to The Interspace Highway Location I could not find.. etc

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Yeah.. Sorry, Fuck That.

Sorry, can't take you seriously when you're using frigging Imageshack.

[Blitheringeejit]

I'll upvote you...

...purely for "Simon Cowell TrouserFont".

[Camilla Smythe]

No Probs

Thanks for...

"Hi There, Knob.

Sorry you didn't enjoy your h2g2 experience. Both of your accounts have now been deleted from our system.

Regards,

h2g2 Gurus."

Perhaps you can include.... 'We Take Our Users Security and Privacy Very Seriously'

I'll leave you with,

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/2233/screenshotthehitchhiker.png

Barring the Smegged information delivered this is exactly what I saw when trying to sign up 'properly'.

[Ian Johnston]

Finding out the h2g2 is still around

is a bit like finding out that friendsreunited is still around. It's vaguely comforting, but you wonder what the point is.

[fishdog]

not 'wildly' inaccurate, but ...

"h2g2 *boosts* 10,000 peer reviewed entries on everything from the HP sauce story to how to cope with a tomato ketchup shortage."

It may indeed be quite accurate that appearing at h2g2 boosts these articles, but I am fairly sure the author intended to say that h2g2 boAsts 10,000 articles ...

[unitron]

So HP sauce...

...has nothing to do with whatever the Hewlett-Packard board of directors have been drunk on these past several years?