'Once upon a time h2g2 was a small dotcom and like the way of most dotcoms it was running perilously close to becoming extinct. But spotting a good thing when they see one, The BBC stepped in and stumped up the cash; all mostly everything came back (offsite pictures now the only last remaining absentee from the good ol' days).'

Anyway, The Italics, life inmates of Hootoo Towers, set up a Yahoo Usergroup as a temporary substitute for lost and lonely researchers while these delicate negotiations were taking place - anyone attempting to find h2g2.com would instead be taking to a page that bore a hauntingly similarity to the alabaster skin advising people not to panic and the normal service would be resuming shortly as soon as anyone could work out what normal was anyhow.

This Yahoo group became our home for the period of time later known as Rupert, amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth. And it was here in the trenchs of dispair that Thingism was born¹.

Somebody said: 'I don't like Thursdays'

I said: 'I've always had an ambition to re-name Thursday "Thing"'
Acidbath said: 'Cool! in this glorious campaign I should want to be a Grand Vizier.'

I said: 'Okay you can be my Grand Vizier if I can be Warlord.'

AB: 'Alright!'

It wasn't quite storming The Winter Palace as Revolutions go but it was still pretty significant.

There was some discussion about naming the days (M**day/Sodit - coming in for particular attack, 'Tedium' and 'boredem' being banded about).

Shea the Sarcastic² came up with Wimpy I think.
There was no real direction (never! they say mockingly) and we didn't have all the names. F**day and the weekend remained outstanding when h2g2 came back on-line.

As an ACE, I'd been invited back to test run the beeb'ed up h2g2 before it went live again. I'd been spending some time sticking some idle bits to The Manifesto page³.It very quickly attracted the attention of a researcher called Inkwash who, protesting vehemently, started a conversation setting out in a calm and reasonable fashion his reasons for opposing our new World Order. 'No No No!!' he started, promising to defend the common weeknames and yada yada yada - anyone who's interested, our resident armourer The Gook - turned up with the s in post 29.

Truly they are most desireable and were accepted with great relish by myself and the rest of the First Generation Thingites who by now included Acidbath, ParrFerris and Amy. Inkwash turns by post 35.

So s have been part of the Campaign for a long, lo-o-o-ng time. Shea arrives and Mike - who in the incident involving the Strand Underpass volunteered to light the fuses on the dynamites himself. So I inducted him into our Suicide Squad (fantastic zeal followers of Thingism hold this position, naturally, for only a strictly temporary time).

Thus the informal Thingite High Council came into being and converged on London in 2001 for the summer meet up. Informal because few other than myself have gabbling rights and Shea is our honourary spork 'giver-er-out-er-er' until the Gook finds his way back on to h2g2 permanantly.

The Summer meet up was a huge boost for us; we got talked about in Abi's write-up after we won the pub quiz and kidnapped Mark Moxon. This got our names out into the public arena and the 'no no no!!' forum was regularly on the 5 busiest list. 'No no no' has grown (oh my has it grown!) from the first humble couple of hundred posts to a staggering behemoth of gargantuan proportions⁴. We are still occasionally on the 5 busiest list - there's a lot more competition these days and we are regularly invoked as the standard of sillyness that a web community can generate. A lot of our members now sign up, I think, simply to know what all the fuss is about.

Clive the flying ostrich

Intrigued by the popularity of 'The Thingites' and having nothing better to do one cold and wet Sunday afternoon, we dispatched a reporter into the heart of Thingite Country to ask some irrelevant and banale questions. Here are the results of those probings and some of the best quotes.

1. What made you join h2g2?
   
   Members of The Thingites joined h2g2 for a variety of reasons. These range from boredom and links from other websites to being introduced by friends or relatives. Only one appears to have joined after seeing a tv show about the new h2g2 site.
   

   • I was bored: 2
   • No idea: 2
   • Via Babel Fish: 2
   • Led by a friend/joined on a whim: 2
   • Through Tomorrow's World: 1
   • Via The Deeper Meaning of Liff and Digital Village: 1
   • At work - found link in favourites: 1
   • Through kids: 1
   • Via SciFi Channel e-letter: 1
   • After casual searching of Hitchhiker links: 1
   • After reading the books: 1
   • Linked to via the BBC Hitchhikers Guide page: 1

2. What made you join the Thingites?
   
   Some interesting answers here, especially from Sir Evil Roy who seems to have been attacked by a spork and never quite recovered.
   

   • My kids/friends were Thingites: 4
   • I was still bored/Iwas bored + alcohol: 2
   • I wanted another title: 1
   • Poor judgement: 1
   • The Sporks: 1
   • An aneurism: 1
   • Seemed like a good idea: 1
   • It looked like fun: 1
   • Sucked in via N3: 1
   • I haven't officially joined yet!: 1

3. How did you hear about the Thingites?
   
   Publicity seems to be working well for this group although Ekki doesn't appear to know anything about it!
   

   • Word of mouth/postings: 6
   • Busiest conversation link: 3
   • Can't remember: 2
   • Through the founder: 1
   • Attracted by Thingite titles: 1
   • Hit over the head by a spork: 1
   • The Who?: 1

4. Do you use Thingite names of days of the week outside h2g2?
   
   The cult of Thingite seems to be spreading quietly out there in the real world. One intrepid researcher Shea has even changed the names of the days on work schedules and calendars - her workmate hasn't noticed yet!
   

   • Yes: 5
   • Occasionally: 5
   • Only to those who know what I'm talking about/fellow Thingites: 3
   • No: 2
   • No recollection: 1

5. Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
   
   This question proved quite a problem - one or two thought it may be a trick, others hazzarded a guess and U187788 was diplomatic. Perhaps this is one question which will never be fully answered.
   

   • A lot: 7
   • 42?, 7 or 8?, 4-6 or 7?: 3
   • Tried to count: 2
   • Yes!: 1
   • Tell us: 1
   • No!: 1
   • We are *one* nation under Thing: 1

6. What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?
   
   Most Thingites thoroughly approve of love over the wire, especially as they can boast two weddings, several relationships and some really firm friendship groups but Peet asserts that 'There's not enough sex on the internet'. Hmmmmm
   

   • Amazing! Great! Wonderful!: 5
   • In favour/approve: 6
   • Awww - what about me?: 2
   • What is this? A dating service?: 1
   • No opinion: 1
   • I married a Thingite, so I approve!: 1

7. What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
   
   A fair bit of confusion amongst our guineapigs here. The basic thrust was indifference or ignorance, with the Sporkites being accused of heresy, being over-zealous or spamming. One Thingite admitted to also being a Sporkite. I think the following figures express the views given.
   

   • For: 2
   • Against: 5
   • Indifferent/undecided: 9

8. Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
   
   It appears that most Thingites are a sociable bunch of researchers. Most of those who haven't yet made it to a meet fully intend doing so in the near future. Mention, here, should also be made about the two Amy's who have travelled the world by paper and to Shea and Dragonfly who travelled by plane!
   

   • Yes: 7
   • Several: 3
   • Not yet - intend to: 2
   • No: 4

9. Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
   
   This question was posed mainly to see if the Thingites were an insular group or if they freely intermingle with the rest of the site. The result was an overwhelming 100% plus vote for roaming. My favourite quotes are:
   

   • Roam, roam on the range - Z Phantom
   • Roam like a dragonfly, stink like a pea - Archangel Dragonfly

10. Do you read The Post?
    
    Well, we had to ask didn't we The best reply came from Peet - we weren't aware that we had that many pictures to be honest!
    

    • Yes: 5
    • Sometimes: 5
    • Naturally, I've written for it: 3
    • No, on my to-do list: 2
    • No, I just look at the pictures: 1

With grateful thanks to all these members of
The Manifesto for the Campaign to rename Thursday, "Thing"

ShazzPRME

06.03.03 Front Page

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