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|   | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Number Six
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I'd imagine it's something quite close to an Italic.
Myself, I think I'd rather be a 'Bold'.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by BobTheFarmer
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Me, I dont know what puts people off posting.
When I came to the site, I posted before I even knew what was going on. Some very opinionated posts followed before I sort of felt myself integrated into h2g2, and realised what it was all about.
I still posted some nice opinionated stuff after I felt part of the site, but after a long gap of not really being here for a year or two Im back now. But I dont go looking for arguements, people like JtP to bait, or anything.
In fact these days Im so much more of a lurker then I ever was, which is wierd, as my confidense in RL has grown the less outspoken I have been on the internet.
Not sure if thats me changing within h2g2, or just me changing...
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by aka Bel
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"What in Earth is an "underline"?"
Good question, I'm relieved I'm not the only one who doesn't know 
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Mrs Zen
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Bob, why did you leave, and why did you come back? Was it RL or H2G2 or both?
"Underline" was slang used by Hoo and some of the SBVM to refer to people who were percievable as some kind of teachers' pet or friend-of-the-italics. It referred to researchers who were thought to be receiving favourable treatment from the Italics, or to have access to the ear or the email address of the Italics. It originated from a small town in Denver.
B
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by JulesK
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*Jumping back into the thread in the middle of someone's convo - but I have just read the entire backlog*
Going back a few pages, when I said I hadn't liked being passed over by folk in a thread - I can truly say that I don't believe I ever just pushed in and changed the subject in the 'hi there' mode - I always read backlogs and contemplated my posts for a long time before hitting 'post' (far more than I do now!). So I disagree with a few folk about this...but it's hootoo so I can and hopefully you'll still love me in the morning
Crikey this thread moves fast.
I went to the shops and when I came back three whole dots. Mayby that puts people off
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by BobTheFarmer
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It wasnt h2g2 that made me leave, it was the simpler reason of moving out of the family home, and losing contact with the family internet connection.
These days Im living in a place where Ive finally sorted out some Broadband for myself, hence being back here...
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/topicdrift/
Z, I have just asked my two daughters (6 and 8) what they do in "Litrussy Hour".
6 can't remember, but she has it tomorrow and will try to pay attention and tell me after school. Reading, she thinks, but to be honest Mummy's boring internet life cannot compare to the SpongeBob Scarepants DVD which came with today's breakfast cereal.
8 was more forthcoming. She does spellings, sometimes. Reading. Copying an extract from a book. And then "We have a sheet, and it has a paragraph on it, maybe with too many adjectives, and we have to re-write it". Have to admit this last bit sounds almost impressive.
/topicdrift/
I have rarely posted something that in retrospect made me cringe (note to self: revisit old convos to check this, esp the Robbie Williams one), although possibly other people have cringed for me  .
Mol
I've just read this entire thread in one go, popped back to the beginning to remind myself what Ben's questions were (darn topic drift ), and now I'll tell you how I came to be a permanent hootoo resident.
I signed up pre-opening day via the Starship Titanic website because I'd thought it would be interesting to see the concept develop. I'd stop by several times a week to read the new EG entries. I'm pretty sure that this went on for at least six months. It never occurred to me that I had the skills to contribute a viable guide entry. One day I noticed that the 5 busiest conversations were posted on the front page. Day after day the same batch of conversations would appear on that list.
So, I started lurking the conversations. I realized that many of these conversations were not attached to EG entries, in fact, they were taking place in a virtual bar, a donut stand, a beach and such.
I started clicking on the nicknames and reading personal spaces. From there, I clicked on other conversations that lead to other places. I spent a couple of weeks bleary-eyed from following this trail and I came to know the meaning of addiction.
I was still too shy to post for quite a while. I had never posted to any other internet site before and wasn't about to rush into anything. The internet is full of weirdos, you know! So I lurked for about a year between registration and first post.
The things that put me off are avoidable and the things that I like are fulfilling. So I've carved out my niche where there are places where I post and places where I lurk. I've had postings ignored, but I figured that at least nobody told me to get my unworthy self out of the thread.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Mrs Zen
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| | Post: 150
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Re cringeing - I've posted things that I wouldn't have posted if my blood had not been awash with adrenelin at the time, but mostly I stand by what I said in those posts, even if I could have been more tactful.
And then of course there are the times when I inadvertantly say something dumb and Master B or Hoo take the p**s out of me. I don't count the times I do it advertantly, it amuses them and it amuses me, so what's the harm. And since I dish it out, I have to take it.
B
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Whisky
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| | Post: 151
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Ok, yet again, b**ger the backlog, I'll just answer the original question...
What puts people off posting to hootoo?
Here's where I carry out a character assassination of my favourite website...
Using quite a bit of exageration in an attempt to highlight what the site might look like to an outsider...
The purpose of the site is to produce a serious guide/encyclopaedia...
The articles are written by people with the wierdest names possible - half a dozen Tony Curtises, a handful of badgers, Jesus, Guardian Angels, keepers of wierd and wonderful miscellany and various other unpronouncable sets of syllables.
We're a serious source of information
The whole site is based upon the comedic writings of a science fiction novelist
We're not a cult site
There are a multitude of conversations going on where the subjects are be an attempt to re-name the days of the week or deify a missing researcher.
It's a simple site for new users
The software has been developped over the last six or seven years to take into account the needs of its users and now has facilities that are virtually unheard of elsewhere on the net. There are a number of interlinking communities and messageboards and the whole thing can be viewed in a dozen different formats with different buttons in different places doing different things.
We're welcoming to new visitors
We're a very insular community where in-jokes abound and a multitude of small, fragmented groups of people who may or may not cross over from one area of the site to another.
And that's just the shortlist...
The beauty of this site, and sometimes it's downfall, is its multi-faceted (some might say schitzophrenic) character - it's at the same time complex and simple, it's not a cult site yet is home to numerous cults, it's serious and extremely silly, it welcomes newbies yet has a long, complex and oft-referenced history...
When taken as a whole the site is full of contradictions and complexities, developed naturally over time... Now to me (and I'm sure to many of you) this is what keeps me here, but when seen from the outside as a whole you've got to admit, it could well be a little intimidating.
 Does that actually make any sense to anyone apart from me And have I now gone and insulted every single person on the site?
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by  U94986
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| | Post: 152
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Spelling - my ten year old isn't vrey good at spelling, but at the moment I'm concentrating in encouraging him to write whenever and wherever I can, just to get him writing. I also like him to try to spell words, although he mostly gets them wrong. So I could be setting him up to be a terrible speller, but as long as he writes, I'm happy. His schoolteacher gets him to use computers for writing a hell of a lot, but I think that's because then he does actually do some work, and it's quicker for him (spelling better, but still not perfect!)
Underlines - I can't remember what it was that happened either, I just remember it happened. Happens elsewhere as well, people think others get special treatment. On my new site they say it, and I don't know how the hell anyone is! So how they think I can be biased so quickly I don't know.
Orr-topic drift might put newbies off posting - a thread starts out as one thing, and ends up another. It's why the message boards were so hot on removing off topic messages.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Hoovooloo
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Re: Underlines. "It originated from a small town in Denver." No it didn't. It originated in a small town in Shropshire.
H.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Teasswill
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| | Post: 154
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Although I like to see correct spelling, it's probably correct use of vocabulary & grammar that are more important for accuracy of meaning.
Do you think h2g2 should have a feedback questionnaire for visitors, so we can find out what really puts people off?
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Alfster
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| | Post: 155
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<<Orr-topic drift might put newbies off posting - a thread starts out as one thing, and ends up another. It's why the message boards were so hot on removing off topic messages.>>
Which is why this should never become anything like a message board.
Listen to a group of people in a pub over an hour and see how that conversaton drifts and comes back to the same subject via agreements, disagreements, arguments, threats of strange physical violence and you will see that is what we do here.
And as I write this I look up at what it says at the top of this page "Post to a conversation".
Whose round is it? Mine's a pint of Large.
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<<2) Cliques. And massively judgemental cliques at that.
3) A community that seems almost entirely self-contained and concerned only with itself.
For my own part, i think the community is overly aggressive, judgemental and entirely too fond of it's cleverness. If I'd joined last week and found most of the community calling themselves Tony Curtis, I'd not have bothered coming back.>>
Yes!
Oh, BTW Hoo, of course I know of people not directly related to me who've never been back. But I am not going to play your silly game and keep arguing with you in yet another thread.
B, email me at the address on my PS. (As you used to do in 2001-3!) That is, if you are the woman who used to be 'a girl called ben.' O/wise, no, your behaviour is anything but mature! If you are so "irritated and annoyed at my stupidity" tell me to my face!
And that it's for me in this thread.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by Hoovooloo
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| | Post: 158
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"of course I know of people not directly related to me who've never been back. But I am not going to play your silly game and keep arguing with you in yet another thread."
<shakes head>
OK - there were two options here, if you believe Della's assertion (that she knows people who have left) at all.
Option 1: simply answer the question. One name would have done it. Result: I look a dick for calling her statement into question. Argument over. Della wins.
Option 2: repeat the statement, and be evasive about answering the question. Argument, if any, extended. Della looks bad, I look like I'm hounding her, everyone else yawns and asks us to take it outside. Nobody wins.
And of course Della (assuming she isn't lying), selects Option 2. I can only conclude she's doing it on purpose.
H.
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Having ploughed through the backlog, I can answer the original question with a comment from my friend, whom I directed here. (Some of you have met her, she was at the Brit Eng meet, and was with me when we met up at the National Gallery back in January)
She says she finds it confusing and she never knows how to find the conversations she was reading the last time she was here.
I doubt if someone who drops out because of "technical difficulties" even gets as far as being intimidated or scared off by arguments, rudeness or flaming.
Personally, I had had no experience of any other site either before or since I joined here. Mind you, when I started, we were still standing around in wellingtons and macs and had to bring our own thermos flasks because there wasn't any  provided. So in those days there wasn't so much to get lost in. Not since joining (May 2000) have I felt left out or ignored. Or lost. I found everything self-explanatory even for the complete internet novice that I was then.
And I am almost certain I haven't regretted any post I ever wrote. Not even ones that have been yikesed.
I don't think that anyone who comes here for the first time wonders why everyone is called Tony Curtis, or what the badger thing is about. Wherever you go, people have "in" jokes and start their own silly and short-lived cults, these are just the same, but elsewhere they may be called "ferrets" or "John Wayne".
When I was younger, people called each other "Bruce" or "Luigi". And back in my parents' day, it was considered very trendy to reply to everything with "Well oi think the answer loys in the soil".
And most of the disputes have passed me by, too. If I have read them, I usually wonder what everyone is getting so up tight about.
What is upsetting - and probably more so to a newbie - is when yours is the last post on the thread for days on end - you think you've killed it. And getting a dreaded e-mail that your well-meaning post has been yikesed. You feel soiled.
I agree with Mina that there is not enough information on the front page. And I seriously think a disclaimer is required, -- especially now that we're back in google -- saying that the content of the entries is not verified. As much as I would like to think - and I am sure that in most cases it is so - that the edited entries contain true and valid information, who is to vouch for this? The subeds don't actually correct the content, the editors probably don't have the time. Other researchers may comment when the entry is in PR, but when two opposing opinions are presented - which one is right? The disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads
"Most of the content on h2g2 is created by h2g2's Researchers, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. "
It just mentions "views" and the contents of linked sites.
Or is it just assumed that because someone has written something on the web, it is to be taken with a pinch of salt?
Please don't think I'm belittling anyone's efforts - I've written enough entries myself to know how insulting that would be. It's just that I wouldn't like to think that people rely on what I have written as a definitive source of information. As far as I know it is all true, and I have checked my facts where possible, but who's to stop me writing a convincing entry in beautiful prose, but full of invented facts?
I hadn't realised that the italics' e-mail adresses were secret except to insiders. They used to be common knowledge, and were probably quite frequently used in the h2g2.com days.
sorry I've rambled on so much. Lots of interesting topics touched on in this thread.
| | Subject: What puts people off posting on h2g2?
Posted Mar 3, 2005 by JulesK
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| | Post: 160
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'but who's to stop me writing a convincing entry in beautiful prose, but full of invented facts?'
Hopefully the Scouts! 
Please note that Not Panicking Ltd is not responsible for the content of any external sites listed. The content on h2g2 is created by h2g2's Researchers, who are members of the public. Unlike Edited Guide Entries, the content on this page has not necessarily been checked by a h2g2 editor. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please
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