http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/syn/rss/dna_h2g2/-/dna/h2g2/F77636 h2g2 - Forum - h2g2 Announcements 2009-11-28T11:13:45 http://www.bbc.co.uk/images/logo042.gifhttp://www.bbc.co.uk This is another important message from Nick Reynolds, BBC's Social Media Executive. Please take the time to read it as it may affect you. This time we have decided to keep this conversation thread open so please do direct all your comments here. Many thanks indeed:"In my last announcement I introduced you to the BBC's new sign on system BBC iD. And I'm pleased that some of you have upgraded your accounts without mishap. I also perhaps rashly said that unforeseen events might happen and that I would tell you about them if they did.So I'm now telling you about one change that is happening to BBC iD this week which will affect some of the h2g2 community.From Thursday the number of characters allowed in a BBC iD display name will be limited to 30.If you've already upgraded to BBC iD and have a name which is over 30 characters long, the next time you try to change it, you'll need to make sure it’s under 30 characters.This change will only affect a small percentage of users. The vast majority of people of BBC Online have names which are comfortably under 30 characters. We're making this change to get better consistency in terms of look, feel and experience across the BBC's websites. People will still be able to change their display name when they want.However I know that some people in h2g2 use very long names to tell others of their mood, status and history on the site. So we're working on a technical solution which will hopefully allow them to have a longer name when they are in h2g2 but a shorter one when they're on the rest of BBC Online. And we hope to introduce this before we move all of h2g2 over to the new system.However if you have already moved your account over to BBC iD you will have to bring your name down to under thirty characters the next time you change your display name.If you haven't upgraded your account yet, and it's vital to you to keep a long name I've got two suggestions.1. Don't upgrade, stay on h2g2 and don't go on a BBC blog to leave a comment - as you'll be prompted to upgrade. Your account will still work on h2g2 until such time as we move h2g2 completely on to the new system and by then we hope to have a fix.1. If you upgrade but leave the name field blank it will automatically pull in your name in h2g2 - whatever length it is. This is a temporary fix which we will reverse when we have found a better answer.Of course if having a long name isn't that important, or you can find a creative way to express your status in under thirty characters, do please upgrade your current account to BBC iD.My apologies for the inconvenience this will cause some of you. As an experiment we are going to leave comments open on this announcement and I will try and answer your questions, although as I’m very busy today I may not be able to talk until this evening." - Nick Reynolds is Social Media Executive, BBC Online http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=7070303&latest=1#p89055196 2009-11-26T20:36:43 Today we're delighted to announce a new member of staff to the h2g2 team, Chris (U14201516), who will be working on all aspects of running the site and helping us ensure a better and brighter future for h2g2. Please drop by and make him feel welcome. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=7053048&latest=1#p88020415 2009-11-04T14:30:03 This is an important message from Nick Reynolds, BBC's Social Media Executive. Please take the time to read it as it will affect you all:"Hello, I wasn’t involved with h2g2 the last time the BBC changed its signing in system. But I’ve heard that for some of the h2g2 community it was a tricky experience and that a few of you have the scars (and the badges) to prove it.Some of you may have noticed that the BBC is changing its signing in system again. There’s a useful blog post about this and some help pages: - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/10/welcome_to_bbc_id.html - http://id.bbc.co.uk/users/help/This seemed like a good point to update you about h2g2 in general and reassure you about the new sign in system.Firstly the mood around h2g2 is good. Sam has done some sterling work on the new designs. Hopefully we should be able to tell you very soon about the new person who will be filling in for Natalie while she works in another part of the BBC. Next: the new sign in system. It’s called BBC iD and it replaces the current sign-in system (SSO). It’s already being used in places like the iPlayer message board, and from Monday it will be switched on for all BBC blogs.It is one of things driving the new design for h2g2. At some point before March we have to switch BBC iD on for h2g2. And to do that the site has to be in new format called 'Barlesque'.But we won’t be implementing the new designs (which are in Barlesque) until after Xmas so for the moment h2g2 will not be directly affected by the changes as it will still be using the pre-existing sign-in system (SSO). But – and there’s always a but – if you sometimes venture outside h2g2 to leave a comment on, for example, a BBC blog, from Monday your SSO log in won’t work, because the blogs will now be on the new system. You will have to upgrade your current sign-in account (SSO) to the new system if you want to comment.There’s a lot of work involved to get h2g2 ready to switch on the new system. At the moment we’re estimating that we won’t be able to do that until the New Year. And so that means for a while you’ll potentially have two accounts and two log-ins.There is a simple solution to this:Upgrade your current BBC membership account, the pre-existing sign-in system (SSO), to BBC iD. You can only upgrade one account per email address – although you can have more than one account as long as it has a different email address. The intention behind BBC iD though is that users only have one account which they use for all BBC services so we’re trying to discourage users from having lots of different accounts with different emails. So try and avoid this if you can.Choose which account you migrate carefully as all the data, comments and content you’ve created should follow you into the new system.If you have lots of different accounts but they all have the same email address then you won’t be able to bring them all together. We’ve had to take a decision for the whole BBC about this, and try as we might we weren’t able to find a simple and cost-effective way of doing it.For me personally all this was relatively easy. I upgraded my account a while ago and all seems fine. All I did was use exactly the same name, email address and password as I used for my pre-existing account (SSO). This so far, touch wood, has worked fine for me.So my tip would be while the pre-existing sign-in system (SSO) is still on h2g2 but not elsewhere, upgrade your current account using exactly the same name, and password. That way you’ll end up with two separate accounts during the transition but at least you won’t have to remember two different sets of information. Incidentally, because I know this is important to h2g2 people, you should be able to change your display name when you want to under the new system.Once h2g2 is safely in the new system then it will be linked up better with the rest of the BBC. This will enable us to hopefully improve the site and promote it more. We have some quite interesting ideas as we’ll be able to use some of the tools and services being developed for the whole BBC.I’ve knocked around the BBC long enough to know that the best-laid plans sometimes go awry. So, although I’m confident everything will go smoothly, events can always intervene in unexpected ways. But I will talk to you about what’s going on when I need to, and I know that Sam is going to start a thread about this on Ask h2g2, so I will respond to any questions you have. And we do have a fair amount of time to talk about it." - Nick Reynolds (Social Media Executive, BBC Online) http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=7038665&latest=1#p87773542 2009-10-30T09:17:54 For the next month or so, h2g2 welcomes 'GarudaJones' (real name Chris) who will be helping out around the site, trying to figure it all out, doing some proofing here, some subbing there, bits of writing and also generally breathing some extra new life in to Peer Review. If you've got a spare minute, please go over to Chris's Personal Space (U14130322) and say hello. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6914374&latest=1#p85520610 2009-09-09T13:55:00 As we have mentioned on the site elsewhere (F47997?thread=6849976&skip=20#pi29), we've been having a think about the h2g2 Front Page recently.A couple of factors have influenced this. There is a headcount issue at the moment which means that h2g2 will, at least temporarily, have just one member of staff at the helm. As well as running the site, Sam will have to oversee a lot of off-site stuff in order to ensure h2g2's long-term survival - in addition to training up a new member of staff. It is simply not possible to do all this and publish a new front page every day.Secondly, the new designs - as sketched on the basic positional layout (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/blobs/new_design_wireframe_1.jpg) feature four large promos (which appear if you click on the tabs beneath the main promo picture – it's a bit like an index card system). We envisage using these to promote new Entries, but also other areas of the site, including the Post and the Underguide. Although we won't be shifting to the new designs for a while, it's now time to change the focus of the page.As a result, from 7 September, 2009 we will be having a front page that changes weekly, rather than daily. Obviously there'll be more Entries on that page than there are currently - however, it'll mean that they (and the art) will get a longer exposure time. The redesigned version of the homepage is such an improvement in terms of general dynamism that we believe that the overall effect on h2g2 will be extremely positive. However, as with all periods of adjustment, it might be difficult to begin with.Above all, we would like to stress again that this not any indication of our own Powers That Be making any decisions to scale back h2g2. As we have stated, the redesign process is ongoing and our MOT went extremely well: and we are expecting to see positive things coming from both in the future. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6880890&latest=1#p84940681 2009-08-27T15:05:30 Change is afoot! On 4 September Natalie is leaving h2g2 after seven years at the helm of the site. She is going to work elsewhere in the BBC on a project in the Navigation and Services division. She would like to thank everyone who has done so much marvellous work for h2g2 over the past seven years and made this time so enjoyable. Though she may return at some point, from 7 September h2g2 will be left in the very capable hands of Sam Semple. Sam first worked on the site back in the Digital Village days, so he is an extremely experienced member of staff - however, while serious headcount issues are dealt with, h2g2 is going to be a staff-member short. Sam will have a lot of extra BBC/technical issues to deal with, on top of being a staff member short. So please do give him all the support you can, the same sort of support you've so generously given the other h2g2 team-members over the years.We would like to stress at this point that this temporary shortage is not a sign of things to come – the MOT process went even better than we could have expected and the h2g2 redesign process is well underway. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6855990&latest=1#p84530800 2009-08-19T13:50:53 We've also posted this message in Ask h2g2 (apologies for the duplication), but we're also putting it here to ensure that as many people as possible see it.In line with a wider editorial review of BBC Online as a whole, h2g2 is to go through an 'MOT process' next week. This involves assessing h2g2 while bearing broad themes in mind, in order to assess what is and isn't working. As the site owners, we'll be answering questions put to us by the MOT team.Seetha Kumar, the Controller of BBC online, has made a post about it on the BBC Internet Blog. She's inviting users of BBC Online to make comments about h2g2, to include as part of the review.So - if there are any comments you'd like to make, please do visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/08/mots_putting_h2g2_though_its_p.html and share your thoughts. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6821762&latest=1#p83980402 2009-08-07T14:13:15 There will be a period of scheduled downtime on Tuesday, 16 June, 2009 in order to apply some changes to the DNA service. The downtime will begin at 0300GMT and should be complete by 0700GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6680373&latest=1#p81572483 2009-06-15T14:03:45 We're delighted to officially welcome back a new, permanent member of the h2g2 team, who may be familiar to those of you who have been on the site for a few years.Sam Semple originally worked on h2g2 when it was part of the Digital Village, a company set up by h2g2's founder Douglas Adams alongside Richard Creasey and Robbie Stamp.More recently he returned to the BBC, working on h2g2 and other sites, and so used the Derek account - an account that was originally set up for temporary/part-time/casual staff to use. Increasingly he's been doing more and more h2g2 stuff and is now back full-time helping Natalie with the general running of the site, the redesign, and generally working with her on how we can best position h2g2 within the BBC and the Future Media and Technology department.We hope you'll join us in welcoming back Sam to h2g2! His PS is at U14032254. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6673689&latest=1#p81459055 2009-06-12T14:22:04 Please note that in line with the political parties and other UK broadcasters, the BBC will not be reporting the election campaigns or offering discussion about them while the polls are open on 4 June on any of its outlets. Our messageboards will remain open on Polling Day; we're just asking all users to refrain from discussing the elections while the polls are open. Usual BBC House Rules will resume once the polls are closed after 10pm.For more information please see http://www.bbc.co.uk/messageboards/newguide/elections.shtml http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6643909&latest=1#p81020686 2009-06-04T07:52:11 As we mentioned last month, h2g2 is going to be given a sympathetic refresh. The process has already begun and we have been given a positional layout by our designers (NB this is not a design!). We especially like the fact that the new proposed layout gives new front page prominence to active Community areas such as Ask h2g2 - but we'd like to know what you think. Please do give us your feedback at this week's Talking Point at A51277773. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6575685&latest=1#p80013474 2009-05-14T15:10:02 Thanks to the DNA team and the work of our amazing h2g2 Aviators, we're delighted to announce that we now have embedded video on some h2g2 Entries.Currently, you can see it in action on the following Entries:A Beginner's Guide to Cricketing Terminology A5168063A New Forest Walk - Ashurst to Brockenhurst A30560979Attaya - West African Green Tea A19773552Games You Can Play in the Office A848658How to Draw a Cartoon Bird A3913427How to Use Rubber Gloves Properly A30924687The Great Bacon Sandwich A310906The South West Coast Path: Sidmouth to Beer A16062941Due to moderation issues, so far it can only be added in actual Edited Entries or Help Pages by the h2g2 Editors in actual Entries. However, this may change - we have to get past a few problems, first.Secondly, some graphics may have disappeared - we can reinstate them later, we just wanted to see what everyone thought of this format first.Finally, this also means that if an Edited Entry has an accompanying clip, then we can make the large main promo link on the front page an embedded link. So...if you wish to make a clip for future consideration for an Edited Entry or even a forthcoming one, then please do join the h2g2 Aviators now!Special thanks to Skankyrich and TRiG. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6554370&latest=1#p79665399 2009-05-07T13:45:13 Elections for the European Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and local government in England will take place on Thursday, 4 June, 2009. The standard election guidelines are now in force.In order to enable balanced and interesting debates, messageboards and discussion forums across the BBC will be operating under the BBC's agreed policies. This means there will be additional guidelines for members to abide by if they intend to discuss election issues.In addition to the existing House Rules you must:Declare if you are a candidateDiscuss the issues, not the personalitiesAvoid sloganeeringAvoid campaigningFrom time to time during the campaign it may be necessary to restrict or close certain discussions. More information on the BBC's guidelines during local elections can be found in the BBC Editorial Guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/If you wish to discuss the election guidelines with other Researchers, please use the 2009 Elections Forum at A50870199. More information on the elections can be found on the BBC News Website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6546062&latest=1#p79531140 2009-05-05T08:53:00 Now that the other ones are up and running (mainly), the search is on for the Secret Smiley... We've got some h2g2 merchandise for the first person who guesses what it is and uses it in this thread: F19585?thread=6528090We don't expect that search to last too long, so we'll also send a little parcel of h2g2 merchandise (Woolly hat! Shopping Bag! Bookmark! Badges!) to any Reseacher creating an Entry dated today, 28 April, 2009 (did we mention that it was our tenth birthday?) that makes its way into the Edited Guide. (Just in case this takes off, we're limiting it to the first 50 Researchers whose '28 April 2009'-dated Entries make it to the front page *when they make it to the front page*!)Good luck! http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6528107&latest=1#p79237952 2009-04-28T13:49:51 We can't believe it...ten years! Ten years! How did it go so fast? Happy Birthday, h2g2!First of all, we want to thank you all for making this the fantastic and special place it is. We really do appreciate everything you do for h2g2 - your Entries, your chatting, your subbing, your Scouting, all the people you welcome and help and the artwork you provide - but regrettably we can't always show it. We're especially indebted to our incredible volunteer groups who work so hard, purely for the love of h2g2. Thank you!...which brings us onto our new smileys. Yes - the eagerly-awaited new smileys are here. You can see them at our smiley page. At this point, we'd like to thank our tremendous Community Artists, who made the smileys possible. Special mentions must go to Dr Anthea, King Bomba, Fluffy Lump, but most of all, to Malabarista, who really has pulled out all the stops in order to create the most incredible new smileys under great pressure. They're brilliant! So, if you get a minute today, please do say thanks to them!(And expect a bit more news about smileys today, once we get our initial technical difficulties sorted out...)Secondly: at one stage this year, as evidenced by the 1-2-1 with Antelia in the Post this year, things seemed to be looking up.As ever, I'm not able to say anything definite but it genuinely does feel as if things are picking up a bit for h2g2 in terms of how we are perceived by those who make decisions regarding funding.At that stage, we'd been promised resources for a redesign of h2g2. Great, we thought. Pirate games! Text speak!1 but we held back on making any sort of announcement. We ended up being quite glad that we did...Sadly, shortly after that, the funding we had been allocated (that had encouraged the optimism of that statement) failed to materialise. It looked as if we were going to have to send you all a slightly risqué novelty card come April.More happily, later some funding was confirmed. The brief is for a 'sympathetic refresh' of h2g2. This will bring h2g2 more in line with other BBC sites visually, while ensuring that h2g2 still has the widest functionality of all the DNA websites and that the character of the Community is respected - as well as enabling us to be at the forefront of any new technology developed by DNA. We don't have any more details than that, currently, but we hope you will share our optimism about the changes. We will be consulting you all as we get to know more.We'd also like you to reminisce about the past ten years on h2g2 in an unashamedly nostalgic Talking Point.Finally...did we say thank you? I'm not sure we did! Thank you, h2g2 Researchers, past and present. You really do mean the world to us. Here's to the next decade! Happy Birthday to all of us! http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6527213&latest=1#p79222510 2009-04-28T10:13:23 You may have noticed that we've altered the front page a bit. We're very pleased that we can now offer direct links to sites hosting content by the AViators and we've done so in one of the main promo boxes. They have produced lots of great content enhancing h2g2 Entries, and we look forward to promoting it much more often and directly (especially their extensive collection of audio clips) in future.Some of the links, however, may be more controversial - especially the 'External Links' and 'h2g2 on the Web' section, further down the page. Here, we've linked to non-BBC sites that may be of interest to users of h2g2, in addition to sites which feature h2g2 in one way or another, such as Wikipedia, or newer social networking sites.Ever since the 2004 Graf report, BBC sites have been encouraged to provide hypertext linking to other external, non-BBC, websites and content, and this policy has moved on a bit with the increased popularity of other social networking sites. However, importantly, these links strengthen us all. Although we can't give out detailed statistical information, we can say that Wikipedia, for example, is one of our biggest referrers in terms of web traffic. So it's in the interests of all sites to link freely to one another.If you have any suggestions for links of this type we might feature in future, then they would be greatly appreciated. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6463167&latest=1#p78177163 2009-04-06T09:51:50 There will be a period of scheduled downtime on Tuesday, 17 March, 2009 in order to apply some 'under-the-bonnet' changes to the DNA service. The downtime will begin at 0400GMT and should be complete by 0700GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6411115&latest=1#p77302548 2009-03-16T17:32:34 There will be a very brief period of scheduled downtime on Thursday, 12 February, 2009 in order to complete an essential DNA maintenance. The downtime will begin at 0630GMT and should be complete by 0730GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6319689&latest=1#p75784758 2009-02-11T16:58:22 As usual, the h2g2 offices will be closed over the festive period, from 23 December - 2 January. We'll still be able to monitor the site and help out where possible, but messages sent to any of our feedback addresses may not be answered until 2 January.Moderation will continue as normal, but if you email us directly during this time we'll get back to you on our return.All that's left to say is thank you for all your help during 2008. Your continued enthusiasm and feedback is h2g2's special magical ingredient and we don't take it for granted! Hope you all have the most amazing 2009 - we're sure it's going to be a belter! http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6174338&latest=1#p73447312 2008-12-22T11:42:56 There will be a period of scheduled downtime on Thursday, 4 December, 2008 in order to complete an essential update to the DNA servers. The downtime will begin at 0400GMT and should be complete by 0600GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6121814&latest=1#p72573342 2008-12-03T14:52:35 There will be a period of scheduled downtime on Friday, 5 December, 2008 in order to enable DNA maintenance work to be carried out. The downtime will begin at 0700GMT and should be complete by 0730GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6117285&latest=1#p72484641 2008-12-01T16:39:52 There will be a period of scheduled downtime on Tuesday, 18 November, 2008 (tomorrow) in order to enable DNA maintenance work to be carried out. The downtime will begin at 0700GMT and should be complete by 1000GMT.We apologise for any inconvenience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=6077500&latest=1#p71809032 2008-11-17T16:58:56 It has been confirmed that the Glenrothes By-Election will take place on Thursday, 6 November, 2008. The standard election guidelines are now in force.In order to enable balanced and interesting debates, messageboards and discussion forums across the BBC will be operating under the BBC's agreed policies. This means there will be additional guidelines for members to abide by if they intend to discuss election issues.In addition to the existing House Rules you must:Declare if you are a candidateDiscuss the issues, not the personalitiesAvoid sloganeeringAvoid campaigningFrom time to time during the campaign it may be necessary to restrict or close certain discussions. More information on the BBC's guidelines during local elections can be found in the BBC Editorial Guidelines.If you wish to discuss the election guidelines with other Researchers, please use the 2008 Elections Forum. More information on the by-election can be found on the BBC News Website. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=5986442&latest=1#p70287445 2008-10-16T10:32:24 We'd like to apologise for the fact that, for a period of about an hour today, DNA services were inaccessible.This was caused by the failure of a server that DNA relies upon. The problem is now resolved.We're sorry for any inconvenience caused. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=5985084&latest=1#p70262141 2008-10-15T16:27:49 The boards are currently experiencing problems with threads closing unexpectedly. This is not being done by the mods or hosts - there was a major software upgrade this morning and we are working hard to rectify the thread closure problem and hope to resolve it as soon as possible.We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F77636?thread=5968477&latest=1#p69988385 2008-10-09T10:09:18