H2g2: Difference between revisions

Back in 1999, [[Douglas Adams]] - who was always quite a technophile - decided it was about time to make a website for the ''[[HitchThe HikersHitchhiker's Guide to Thethe Galaxy]]''. He didn't want it to be a fan site, a mostly-static place with information about the ''Hitchhiker's'' series; he had [http://h2g2.com/A550955 something much bigger] in mind. What he wanted was, in essence, the "Earth Edition" of the Guide, somewhere where internet users could write and post their own articles about Life, the Universe and Everything, share information, create an online community; all those wonderful things that the World Wide Web made possible (and some things that he imagined would be possible in the near future, such as the use of "devices [...] that combine palmtop computers with cellphones with Internet devices with GPS systems"). So that's what he did.

If it had been created today, it would have been called [[Web Two Point Oh2.0]]. Back then, it was called h2g2. It can be found [http://h2g2.com here].

The site almost went down when the dot-com bubble burst, but was acquired by [[The BBC]], who kept it going for another decade or so, until a reorganization of the BBC sites left h2g2 out of the picture. It is currently (as of 2018) being run by the Community Consortium, who bought it from BBC.

* [[Cargo Cult]]: Many years ago, one user writing under the nickname "nighthoover" inquired in one of the main forums [http://h2g2.com/F19585?thread=143046#p1338267 how he might be able to cancel his account]{{Broken link}} . Said user had posted once more, and then left the site. The thread, however, has been hijacked by some of the resident [[Cloudcuckoolander]] folks, who hailed him as a lost prophet, and eventually spurred the Religion of Nighthoover ([[It Makes Sense in Context]]<ref>...Actually, it probably doesn't. It's madness. But It's funny.</ref>). Lettuce spry!

* [[Nostalgia Filter]]: During the BBC days, barely a day went by without someone lamenting how much better things were before [[Evil, Inc.]] took over. The first signs of 'why can't we go back the golden days when the BBC ran the place' have already started to appear.

* [[Saving the Orphanage]]: In 2010, BBC announced they were reorganizing their sites, and h2g2 was going to be "disposed of". Much consternation arisedarose, but the community banded together, created a Consortium, found some investors, and managed to buy the site and move it to an independent domain.

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