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Author's profile photo Audrey Stevenson

Introducing a serious mission with a fun twist: Hitchhiker

If you saw any SAP Community members out and about this past Saturday carrying towels, it was likely because Saturday was Towel Day. Once a year, on May 25, serious fans of the author Douglas Adams and his iconic work of science fiction, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,”  honor the author and his oeuvre by carrying a towel around with them.

Here in the SAP Community, we celebrated Towel Day by launching a new mission involving another icon of Doug Adams fame: the number 42. (In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 42 is the answer given by the supercomputer to “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.”)

It all started a while back, with an off-hand comment by community member Joachim Rees, who noted that he had recently seen the number of answers he’d provided in the community reach 42 in his profile. Here’s a screen shot of the comments between Joachim, Steffi Warnecke, and Simone Milese, as they did some “thinking out loud” about missions they could imagine around this:

Their exchange sparked the idea in our team. How could we take this creative spark and turn it into a flame, design a real mission around it? Well, good things come to those who wait, and after some time had passed, we found ourselves in a position to actually create a mission that would be worthy of inclusion in our mission set on SAP Community, and be fun and motivating at the same time.

And so, the Hitchhiker mission was born.

To achieve this mission and earn this badge, you need to answer a lot of questions correctly–meaning: you need your answers to be accepted. 42 answers, to be specific. And that means 42 answers accepted from the time the mission appears in your Available Missions list in your profile. (Answers accepted before the mission appeared in your Available Missions list do not count.)

Can’t see the Hitchhiker mission in your profile? Take any of the following actions in the SAP Community, and the mission will be automatically assigned to you:

  • Upload a profile photo
  • Like some content
  • Vote on some content
  • Ask a question
  • Answer a question
  • Comment on some content
  • Publish a blogpost
  • Follow a member, a tag, or a content item
  • Update the “About me” text, spoken languages, or Elsewhere links in your profile

Now, “Don’t Panic!” There’s no time limit on this mission; whenever you reach the magical number of 42 answers being accepted, you too can display your intergalactic badge with pride.

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      Author's profile photo Nigel James
      Nigel James

      DON'T PANIC!

      It would seem that this is a mostly harmless mission but I can tell that someone who makes it to 42 accepted answers would be a really hoopy frood who really knows where their towel is.

      I all hope you share and enjoy beverages not entirely unlike tea and don't treat improving the universe as someone else's problem.

       

      Author's profile photo Dell Stinnett-Christy
      Dell Stinnett-Christy

      Oooooo!!!! And 42 correct answers should put me within about 4 answers of getting “Grand Master Solver” too!  Yay!!!

      -Dell

      Author's profile photo Simone Milesi
      Simone Milesi

      Cool!

      I do not remember if i read something from Svea Becker on the topic, but we should remember why 42 is so fitting for our jobs!
      42 on ASCII table is *, wildcard and the meaning of life is... anything you want and feel right!

      https://timeguide.wordpress.com/2015/02/05/42-the-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything/

      Author's profile photo Svea Becker
      Svea Becker

      No, Simone, I don't think it was me. But I always loved the 42 as it is the question to everything 😉 Maybe I mentioned it sometime we met at sitBERN...

      Author's profile photo Simone Milesi
      Simone Milesi

      Maybe!
      I do not remember, but this isn't a great news, right? I do not remember what I ate for breakfast!

      Author's profile photo Svea Becker
      Svea Becker

      LOL

      Author's profile photo Ervin Szolke
      Ervin Szolke

      Very Nice !! 😀 I love this new badge, we need more FUN badges.

       

      Author's profile photo Audrey Stevenson
      Audrey Stevenson
      Blog Post Author

      I couldn't agree more, Ervin (on the need for more fun!). Stay tuned...

      Author's profile photo Audrey Stevenson
      Audrey Stevenson
      Blog Post Author

      Oh, Ervin, it looks like you missed our recent "just for fun" badge, the Random Day Surprise. Hint for the future: there will be more coming eventually. Check out Jerry's comments on this Coffee Corner post.

      Author's profile photo Ervin Szolke
      Ervin Szolke

      Oh I was not working yesterday, bad timing ?

      Thanks Audry for drawing my attention to this, I will take a look at Jerry’s post.

      Cheers

      Ervin

      Author's profile photo Phil Cooley
      Phil Cooley

      Really like this - and seriously cool badge to get!!! Actually good to see how many of my Answers have been accepted as I did not know where to look for this before.

      Looks like I have a bit to go to get this but will give it a shot!

      Thanks!

      Author's profile photo Audrey Stevenson
      Audrey Stevenson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Phil,

      It's great to see you've already had 23 answers accepted! Unfortunately, acceptances that took place before the mission appeared in your Available Missions list won't count towards the mission itself.

      Author's profile photo Phil Cooley
      Phil Cooley

      Hi Audrey Stevenson

      OK - Challenge Accepted! Will just have to up the ante on the questions I answer. Will take me some time though! 🙂

      Author's profile photo Steffi Warnecke
      Steffi Warnecke

      Love it! 😀

      Getting 42 accepted answers is a mighty task, but if I achieve it, I'll finally have a badge matching my "42" shirt. ^^

      Author's profile photo Joachim Rees
      Joachim Rees

      Hey Audrey Stevenson ,

      thanks for the shoutout!

      When I got it, I was in "Elternzeit", so i couldn't fully appreciate it (I didn't even remember making such a suggestion - good thing you took a screenshot! 😉 )

      Only now, when I was browsing my available missions, I remembered your blog, so that's why I came back here! 😉

      best

      Joachim

      PS: not too much progress on my site yet: 😉

      Author's profile photo Audrey Stevenson
      Audrey Stevenson
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Joachim Rees , lots of things inspire the missions we create, and we like to give credit where it's due. 🙂