PLEASE NOTE: This page is now out-of-date and had been replaced. For up-to-date information please see the latest H2G2 FAQs.
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 'Exploring h2g2' section of the h2g2 FAQ. This is where you can find information on searching and browsing the Guide.
If you want to see a complete list of questions answered by the h2g2 FAQ, you can go to the h2g2 FAQ Index at any time.
Contents of this Section
What is there to look at on h2g2?
Lots and lots. We find that most of our Researchers pop into h2g2 on a regular basis just to do something quick like check their Conversation Postings or do a search for something in the Guide, and end up staying for ages. That's because h2g2 isn't a static website, it's a living, breathing Community.
To get you started, you might like to try the following things:
Check out the Front Page
For registered Researchers, the Front Page changes many times a day, as it is updated to reflect new additions to the Guide, new sections on the site and places that you might find of interest. Get into the habit of popping over to h2g2 on a daily basis so you don't miss out on the fun. You can find out more about the Front Page here.
Hang around on the Conversation Forums
Most pages on h2g2 have Conversation Forums hanging off them (the Front Page being a notable exception). This is where you can post your comments and corrections relating to that entry, and it's a great way to meet people, get involved in some great Conversations, and make friends on h2g2.
Visit other Researchers' Personal Spaces
The best way to get people to visit your Personal Space and comment on your musings is to visit other Researchers' Personal Spaces and let them know what you think by posting to their Conversations. Every Conversation Posting contains the poster's name, and clicking on that name will take you to their Personal Space: this is a great way to get to know the Community and to meet people online.
Search the Guide
The core of the site is the Guide, which you can search for any topic under the sun (see the section on searching the Guide below). You can also write your own Guide Entries; there's lots more on contributing to the Guide in the section on Contributing to h2g2.
There's plenty more you can do on h2g2, but that's more than enough to be going on with...
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
What's the difference between h2g2 and the Guide?
The Guide is just one part of h2g2, even though it's one of the most important parts. The Guide is central to the Community and every entry that you write becomes part of the Guide, but h2g2 is much more than just the Guide: it's a community built round the Guide, it's a collection of Forums and Journals as well as Guide Entries, and it's a place to meet like-minded - or totally different - people.
If h2g2 were a peach - and we very much hope that it is - then the Guide is the stone at the middle and the Community is the fleshy bit. Or something like that...
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
What do the navigation buttons do?
We hope they're pretty obvious, but here are some important buttons that you'll find yourself using all the time:
The bbc.co.uk toolbar
This is how you can visit the rest of the BBC's websites.
The h2g2 logo
Clicking the swirly h2g2 logo in the top-left hand corner of the screen will always take you to the h2g2 Front Fage, as will the 'Front Page' button1.
Search the Guide
You can do a simple search in the Guide by typing your search text into the 'Search h2g2' and clicking on the button, but if you want a more powerful search tool, click on the 'Advanced Search' link. Another way to search the Guide is through the categorisation system, which you can see on the Front Page. You can find more about searching the Guide here.
The 'Front Page' button
Clicking on the 'Front Page' button2 will take you to h2g2's Front Page where you'll find details of all current h2g2 activity.
The 'My Space' button
Clicking on the 'My Space' button will take you to your Personal Space (when you are registered). This is the nerve centre of your h2g2 experience and is described in much more detail here.
The 'My Conversations' button
Clicking on the 'My Conversations' button pops up a small window that lets you keeps track of your Conversations3. The ^^ symbol next to each Posting is effectively an 'I've read up to here' button to mark all later Postings as read. The >> link marks only the relevant Posting as read. In addition, there's a 'Mark all read' link at the top, which marks all the recent Postings as read. At the bottom of the window are 'Older' and 'Newer' links, in case you haven't read your Conversations for a while, and it remembers the 'last read' date as you page back through the list.
The 'Who's Online' button
The 'Who's Online' button is a brilliant way to keep track of your friends on h2g2. You can order the list by User ID (the unique U123456 number every Researcher has, as found in the URL of your Personal Space) or by Nickname.
The 'Add Entry' button
The 'Add Entry' button allows you to add a Guide Entry to the Guide. To do this you need to be logged in; if you click this button when you're not logged in, it will simply ask for your details.
The 'Peer Review' button
This button4 takes you to the Peer Review Forum, where you can comment on the entries in review or even submit your own.
The 'Preferences' button
There are lots of Personal Preferences you can change on h2g2 - you can find details of them all here.
The 'h2g2 Help' button
Clicking on the 'h2g2 Help' button5 will take you to the Don't Panic Help Centre, where hopefully you can find the answer to your questions. The 'Help' button appears on every page, so help is never more than a click away.
The 'Feedback' button
This button takes you to the h2g2 Feedback Forums, where you can ask us any questions you like, or help to answer other people's questions.
The 'Register'/'Login'/'Logout' buttons
If you have not yet registered, then the 'Register' button will take you to the registration page, where you can enter your details to register. If you are registered and currently logged on, then the 'Register' button is replaced by the 'Logout' button, which will be useful if you have multiple h2g2 Researchers using one computer, or you are accessing h2g2 from a public place like an Internet café. In Brunel, the 'Login' button allows you to log in; in the other skins, you can access the Login page via the Register page.
The 'Start a New Conversation' button6
All Guide Entries on h2g2 have Conversation Forums associated with them. Forums are simply collections of Conversations, and you can view those Conversations by scrolling to the bottom of the page; the 'Start a New Conversation' button enables you to start a new Conversation in that entry's Forum.
The 'Read'/'Talk'/'Contribute' buttons
These buttons7 take you to the pages that describe how to read the Guide, talk about the Guide and contribute to the Guide. These pages are updated with the latest information, and extend the range of activites you can find on the Front Page.
There are various other buttons you will come across, but these are described in the relevant sections on Personal Spaces and Conversation Forums.
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
How can I search the Guide?
There are four ways you can use the Guide to answer your questions: the Simple Search, the Advanced Search, Browsing and Asking the Community.
Please note that it can take up to 24 hours for new entries and Postings to show up in search results, as we only index the Guide once a day, to prevent the servers from being tied up for too long.
Simple Search
The Simple Search is available at the top of every h2g2 page. To perform a Simple Search, which will look at all entries for matches, just type your search word(s) in the box and press the Enter key on your keyboard, or click the 'Search h2g2' button. The results will list the most likely match at the top, followed by other, related entries, each with a percentage score8 shown. It's that simple!
A note on search words: the h2g2 search engine will produce matches on each of the words you enter, so for example entering English beer will match entries containing the words 'English' or 'beer' (or both). If you only wanted entries with the phrase 'English beer' in them, you would use double quotation marks and enter "English beer". The search is case insensitive, too.
If there are any matches for your search term on other DNA sites, then the matches will be shown after all the results for h2g2.
Advanced Search
The Advanced Search is more sophisticated; you can get to the Advanced Search page by clicking on the 'Advanced Search' link. In the top section of the Advanced Search page you can enter your search word(s) as before, but you can restrict your search to the three different areas of the Guide: Edited Guide Entries, Recommended Guide Entries or Guide Entries. This can help to cut down the time taken to perform a search, especially if it's on a popular subject.
Just below the main search section you can access the alphabetical index of Guide Entries - you can find more information on this here.
In the second section you can search the Conversation Forums; just enter your search word(s) and click on the button.
Finally, you can search for other Researchers in the bottom section of the Advanced Search page. To find a particular Researcher either type in their email address or their Nickname, and click on the 'Search for a Friend' button. Note that you cannot discover other Researchers' email addresses in any way; you will need to know their email addresses in advance to use the Advanced Search. Conversely nobody can find you on h2g2 unless they know your Nickname or your email address.
Browsing the Guide
The Guide Browser provides an easy way of wandering through the contents of the Edited Guide, and it's really easy to use. To make life easy, logical and worth living, we've divided the Guide into three sections: Life, The Universe and Everything. The way it breaks down is like this:
| Life | This is where you can find entries about living, things like Food & Drink, Human Behaviour, Humour and Music. |
| The Universe | Search the whole universe, from Travel through to North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and more. |
| Everything | This is where everything else lives, such as Languages & Linguistics, Science & Technology, History & Politics, Cultures, Etiquette, Mythology & Folklore and All About h2g2. |
Just click on one of the categories to start browsing - you can get to the categories from the Front Page. In the browser, entries are shown in normal text (and you can click on them to read them). Subjects, which will contain entries and possibly other subjects, are shown in bold, with the number of further entries and subjects shown afterwards in square brackets. Subjects which are shown in bold italic are links to other areas of the category system, and they behave just like normal subjects, except they take you to a different area of the category system.
Asking the Community
If you want to tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience that is the h2g2 Community, there's a special place where you can go to post your questions called Ask the h2g2 Community. This is also a great place to hang out if you reckon you might be able to help answer other Researchers' questions.
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
I'm not looking for anything in particular other than to be entertained. How can I browse around?
If you just want to browse around h2g2, the best place to start is the Front Page (you can always get to the Front Page by clicking the h2g2 logo in the top-left corner of every page or by clicking on the 'Front Page' button on the navigation bar). There you'll find a whole load of links which will take you to a variety of interesting, popular and just plain random Guide Entries.
On the Front Page are three little lists that you might find useful. There's the list of the latest entries to be added to the Edited Guide: we're adding entries all the time, and there's also a page available showing the last month's worth of new Edited Entries. Then we have two more lists, showing the five most overlooked entries - entries that haven't got much activity, so you might not have spotted them in the activity - and finally the five busiest Conversation Forums. If you're looking for action, pick one of the latter links and join in the Conversations.
Also on the Front Page is a link that will take you to a random Edited Entry. It's called the Infinite Improbability Drive, and is a great way to search through the ever-growing Edited Guide.
The Front Page is also where you can also find the Guide Browser, as described in the previous question. This is the best way to explore the Edited Guide if you don't have anything specific in mind.
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
Where can I find an alphabetical index of Guide Entries?
There's an alphabetical index of the Guide available from the Advanced Search (click the 'Advanced Search' link at the top of the page to get there). The index can display Edited Guide Entries, Recommended Guide Entries and normal Guide Entries depending on the settings of the relevant buttons.
To move between letters of the alphabet, simply click on the letters at the top of the page. To change which types of entries are displayed, change the settings of the buttons on the right-hand side and click on 'Refresh'.
[Back to top of section]
[Back to the main h2g2 FAQ Index]
