h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How do you use the Askh2g2 forum?

Do you use Askh2g2 to find out information in order to accomplish a task or complete a research project?

Why do you use Askh2g2 and are your purposes for using Askh2g2 met?

There has to be a purpose when we post here? Why were we not informed of this radical change of policy?

Looking at my recent posts in Askh2g2 I seem to be using it to make snarky allusions to people who are annoying me - should probably do something about that.

Well, the theory behind Ask is that it's used to ask those burning questions you want answers to but either cannot get elsewhere in the interweb, or just feel that the answers will be cleverer and wittier than they are elsewhere.

That's pretty much how I use it. If I start a thread it's to ask a question. Sometimes the way I phrase these questions seems to make people really angry.

It's the only forum that a significant section of the community are still subscribed to.

What are you planning to do with it?

Well, for one thing, obviously HN is planning on changing the name of it, but I won't have it!!

More often than not, I find that I use it to share something I've found interesting with a wider audience. Though, knowing the niceties of Ask, I always share it in the manner of a question.

I did actually use it to genuinely ask questions I wanted an answer to when I was a newbie. That was a long time ago though.


Geggs

Seems so British Geggs.

People go too far in one direction and find themselves back where they came from... [smiles]

I read Ask quite a lot but don't contribute a lot and hardly ever start a thread myself (I can remember only one question I asked). I am reluctant of really getting involved in threads because the discussions often make me too angry or upset. I can't quite deal with how people like to discuss things so I try to stay away.

Unfortunately I sometimes get bored at work and then I post on Ask and most of the time I regret it later because it tends to end in me not having a good time at all and wanting to scream. All in all it would be better for me to just go on making pictures and writing entries and not try to get engaged in Ask.

Ummm.

Why do we talk about people treading "gingerly"?

I just got back from researching ginger and gingerly and now I have forgotten why. My initial theory is that when you tread on ginger it puts out a very strong aroma of, yes, ginger. So if you are trying to not be noticed, treading on ginger is not the way to do it. One must thread oneself through ginger to go unnoticed.

So, anyway, I WILL go through the ginger patch rather than tread on eggshells! But the effect is the same. Unknowns are offputting especially if you do not know WHAT you are treading on!

rotten eggs or ginger or both?

I read it every day. For a dozen years I have both asked and answered questions. It's the sticky bit for me. It's what keeps me here.

I don't start many "Ask H2G2" threads, but I enjoy posting in the ones that do get started. It's nice to be able to get a feel for what's on people's minds.

I'm also getting to know where some of the researchers are coming from. Sometimes I discover this during arguments, some of which are quite lucid. There are some amazing people at this site.

"It's the only forum that a significant section of the community are still subscribed to.

What are you planning to do with it?"

Icy, I think your post deserved repetition. The first part of it is concerning, because of what it implies about the state of health of the others. And the question you ask is probably worth an answer.

I enjoy the discussions. Often posts are interesting and informative and I like just hanging around here because I like the people who come here

I don't start many threads. The ones that I do start are usually about a community issue and I do that here because as has been said it is the place where the most people are subbed to

As discussion about community and community is being curtailed by closing threads or removing them(it appears, I have not checked my email but I can't find a thread I started last night) in this respect it is not meeting my needs

Ask is the only place here I'm subscribed to, and I'm subscribed because it's entertaining and I don't want to miss the gem of a conversation which crops up from time to time.

I have started threads here myself. I find it a more "human" way of finding an answer. You can google your question and get technical answers but sometimes someone coming along and saying "But why do you want to do that at all? You'd be much better off doing this..." is inspiring. The real life experience of a researcher is sometimes much better than an instruction manual.

And topic drift can be a wonderful thing It's fascinating to see where a theme can end up, like chinese whispers.

To me Ask is the community and heart of h2g2. As Wand'rin Star said in post 12 "It's the sticky bit for me. It's what keeps me here." That sums it up for me.

Deb

'It's the only forum that a significant section of the community are still subscribed to.

What are you planning to do with it?'


Icy, you are part of *them*. You are a volunteer and still you are talking like the volunteers are the 'big enemy', the stranger who invades h2g2 and tries to change everything and destroys things.

I - also a volunteer - find this really mean. Would you do this in so-called real life? Would you go and tell everyone in the street how awful your friends or your colleagues at work are? Just like your friends in real life or your colleagues we are real people, although we are all on the internet. Talk like this really hurts some of us.

I have rarely seen volunteers being treated 'as the enemy' by anyone and certainly not by Icy

Where is this coming from Tav? I don't like to see you hurt and upset

I have some concerns about the way in which this site is being run and the way is which some policies are being implemented

I would like to be able to discuss them here in a mature and reasonable manner. Making no referances to individual cases, policy only

Do I have permission to proceed?