Index | About h2g2 | Registering | Exploring | Preferences | Personal Space | Conversations | Guide Entries | Journal | Contributing | Moderation | Editorial Process | Review Forums | Technical | GuideML | Cool Things | Legal | Miscellaneous

Welcome to the h2g2 FAQ¹, where we've collected your most frequently asked questions and tried to answer them. This is where we try to answer all your queries, from What is h2g2? through to What is the Unifying Theory of Physics?. You can get to this FAQ at any time from the Don't Panic Help Centre, just by clicking on the 'Help!' button on any page.

Because we're friendly people, we've split up all the questions you might want to ask into categories. Simply click on the question to find the answer, and if by any chance we don't answer your problem below, just ask your question in the Feedback Forum, where the h2g2 Editors and Researchers will be only too happy to help.

There. Told you we were friendly people.

NB: If you have a question that has arisen as a result of the Single Sign-On system and are a digibox user then please click here.

All About h2g2

• What is h2g2?
• Why is the site called h2g2?
• What can h2g2 do for me?
• What can I do for h2g2?
• What's The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy?
• How are h2g2 and The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy related?
• Who's responsible for h2g2?
• Is h2g2 anything to do with Douglas Adams?
• Why does h2g2 exist and how does it fit into the BBC?
• How can I give feedback, or ask questions about the site?

Registration and Membership

• Why should I register?
• What will h2g2 do with my personal details?
• How do I register?
• How do I log on to h2g2 after I've registered?
• What if I want to use my h2g2 account on a different computer?
• I've registered on this computer, but h2g2's not recognising me. Why?
• How do I change my password?
• I've lost my password. How can I retrieve it?
• It's given me a name of 'Researcher' plus a long number. That's a bit dull, isn't it?
• I'm changing my email address. How do I change my h2g2 account to reflect that?
• How do I cancel my account?

Exploring h2g2

• What is there to look at on h2g2?
• What's the difference between h2g2 and the Guide?
• What do the navigation buttons do?
• How can I search the Guide?
• I'm not looking for anything in particular other than to be entertained. How can I browse around?
• Where can I find an alphabetical index of Guide Entries?

Your Personal Preferences

• What are Personal Preferences, and how do I find mine?
• What Personal Preferences are there for me to change?
• What are skins and what can I do with them?
• Why does it call me 'Researcher' plus a long number?
• Is my Nickname exclusive?
• Why are some Nicknames in bold italics?

Your Personal Space

• What's my Personal Space for?
• What's in my Personal Space?
• What's the Journal section all about?
• What's the Conversations section all about?
• What's the Guide Entries section all about?
• What's the Edited Guide Entries section all about?
• How can I edit or delete things I've written?
• What do the extra buttons in my Personal Space do?
• What's so good about an h2g2 Personal Space?

Conversations on h2g2

• What's a Conversation Forum?
• I'm looking at a Conversation, and it looks really complicated. How can I navigate it and read the stuff I want to read?
• I hear there's something called a 'Tree Gadget' to help me move around Forums really quickly. How do I use it?
• How can I post a new message to a Conversation?
• Are there any rules I should keep in mind when posting to Conversations?
• Can I use GuideML in Conversations?
• I've posted lots of messages to lots of Conversations. How can I keep track of replies?
• How can I subscribe and unsubscribe to Conversations?
• Help! I've posted something I shouldn't have! How can I delete or change it?
• I really don't like the way Conversations are displayed. Can I make them look different so that they're easier for me to browse?
• Can you recommend some interesting Conversations for me to look at?
• I want to publicise a Conversation so that other people join in. How can I do that?

Guide Entries

• What are Guide Entries?
• How do I create, edit and delete Guide Entries?
• Do I need to know HTML to write pages?
• Can I use HTML?
• What's GuideML? Why would I want to use it?
• I edited an entry but it's not displaying the way I want it to. What do I do?
• Can I include images and other objects in my entries?
• What are Edited Guide Entries?

Your Journal

• What is my Journal?
• How do I create, edit and delete entries in my Journal?
• Can I use GuideML in my Journal?

Contributing to h2g2

• I want to contribute stuff to the Guide. How can I do it?
• What's all this about Edited Guide Entries?
• What's the copyright situation with stuff I put on h2g2?

Moderation

• What is moderation and how does it work?
• How does moderation affect Researchers?
• How does the complaints button work?
• What do the Moderators do with content that breaks the House Rules?
• What happens to non-English content?
• What if I disagree with a Moderator's judgement or editing?
• What is pre-moderation?

The Editorial Process

• What's the Edited Guide all about?
• Who decides what's going to be an Edited Guide Entry and what isn't?
• I want my entry to be edited. What should I do?
• You say you don't want fiction or silly stuff, but that's what I want to write! Can't I write it anyway?
• How will I know if my entry has been edited?
• I've created some entries that I don't want in the Edited Guide, but I still want to tell people about. How can I publicise them?
• Can I become a Sub-editor or a Scout?

Review Forums

• What are Review Forums and why would I want to use them?
• What is Peer Review?
• What is the Writing Workshop?
• What is the Alternative Writing Workshop?
• What is the Flea Market?
• How do I see what's in each Review Forum?
• How do I comment on entries in a Review Forum?
• What does the information in the Review Forum Data box mean?
• How do I put an entry into a Review Forum?
• How do I stop people putting my entries into Review Forums?
• How do I remove an entry from a Review Forum?
• How do I move an entry from one Review Forum to another?

Technical Questions

• What are cookies and why do I need them?
• How can I write GuideML?
• How do h2g2 URLs work?
• How can I link to parts of h2g2?
• How can I make my own h2g2 search form for another web site?
• How can I put links to h2g2 on my own web site?

GuideML

• What is GuideML and how can I find out how to use it?
• How do I create an entry in GuideML?
• How do I put pictures in my GuideML entries?
• Can I upload pictures to h2g2?
• What's 'Approved GuideML'?
• What's this 'GuideML parser' I keep hearing about?
• Can I include JavaScript in my GuideML entries?
• Can I include HTML in my GuideML entries?
• Why doesn't the <LINK> tag work properly with URLs that have & in them?
• My entry/Personal Space has suddenly become wider than my screen. What has happened?

Cool Little Things

• How do I make those nice yellow smiley faces and pictures in Conversation Postings?
• How do I find out who else is online?
• What other cool secret stuff is there?

Heavy Legal Stuff

• What's h2g2's policy on privacy?
• What are your Terms and Conditions? And are they scary?
• Where's your copyright notice for the site?
• Can I contribute material that I haven't written myself, or include things like quotations from other people?
• What's the copyright situation with entries that are written by more than one person, like Edited Entries?
• What's the copyright situation with 'derivative' entries, like those produced in the Flea Market?
• I can't post defamatory material to h2g2, but what on earth does 'defamatory' mean?

Miscellaneous Questions

• Someone's posting really nasty/obscene stuff on the site. Can you stop them?
• I've found an entry with some major mistakes in it. How do I get them fixed?
• Isn't this where the silly questions are meant to go? I want silly questions!

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¹ FAQ is short for Frequently Asked Questions.