To Whom It May Concern
Created | Updated Dec 2, 2004
Earth, December 2nd, 2004
Dear Sir or Madam,
It has come to my attention that an anniversary of great importance is upon us, the celebration of five years of successful publication of The h2g2 Post.
No doubt there is great reason to celebrate the occasion and offer the heartiest congratulations and thanx to all who have contributed.
But into the midst of the anticipated cyber-rollicking and cyber-carousing and cyber-merriment and cyber-joy I must fling a few hard facts and ugly truths. Well, OK then, just one hard fact, one ugly truth.
Nobdoy has worked harder, sweated more bullets, suffered more abuse or been more committed and dedicated to the vision of a fair and open press at h2g2 than our good Lady Shazz.
She has cared for struggling writers, been patient with newbies and suffered the loonies, the trolls and the foibles of the site's management. She has given hope and support to dozens, no, to hundreds of new writers who came to h2g2 and wanted to 'join in' the fun. Often at the expense of her own fun and pleasures.
No I will not make her out to be a saint. To do so would be to miss the point of her humanity, her honesty, her compassion and her hard work these past five years.
On a personal note it was Shazz who responded favourably to my earliest contributions to h2g2 and who gave support to AggGag and the subsequent Committee for Alien Content and its latest incarnation as the CAC-Continuum .
She also provided space and encouragment for my own regular column To Whom It May Concern of which this is the first-in-some-time because I had determined only to speak up when it was really, really important. Maybe not all the famous people on this site owe their fame to Shazz and The Post, but I can't think of any. And I think it's important that we all realise that fact.
And the ugly truth is that she has done it without any financial reward or support and often without even the philosophical support of the site managers1. She may not be a saint, but she is my hero.
I remain your most loyal and least dutiful savant,
peace,
~jwf~
To Whom It May Concern
Archive
1I would like to say that the 'italics' have mostly been very helpful and I certainly couldn't have made it through the early days without vegiman and Pastey and, latterly, Greebo, Awix and Titania - and all our contributors both occasional and regular... ed
