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

Fair play.

why do u post on this article then?! its quite obvious we dont use the site for what its meant to be used for in your eyes..
we just use it to pass time in work. so why annoy yourself coming onto our posts? i doesnt make sense!

Because in any group of chattering nutters, there might be one person who says "hang on, what's this site really all about? How can I get involved".

And because I'm subscribed to Misc Chat. Any thread in here gets noted in my conversations - it's the whole public forum thing.

The problem is this isn't really just a chat site. Also unlike many sites where swearing and abuse is quite acceptable this isn't. There are younger people on here too.
The problem is this isn't your thread it is a an area used by all, a more public area , unlike someones private space where most people won't read it.

Obviously conversations are an integral part of the structure of h2g2, but we have to take care when letting people use it purely as a chat site in the place of Messenger-type services.

There are other services that cater for this type of activity and the fact that some companies block them via a firewall shouldn't shift the problem to us. We reserve the right not to host such conversations on our site.

Some years ago this issue posed a problem to our servers and so we added this section to the House Rules:

Particularly heavy text speak or unintelligible postings may also be removed if it's felt they are disrupting the natural flow of conversation.

Researchers breaking the House Rules repeatedly will be/have been banned.

For more information on the House Rules please visit:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/houserules