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

hi I have just joined but enjoyed the site for ages. when I think of something interesting this will be the first conversation I join, although you seem to be all too quick and clever for me! enough with the grids though! look forward to joining you. sorry about the grammar- using iPod. drt

hi !

Somebody will be along soon with an official welcome and provide you with a few tips for getting round h2g2. In the meantime, have a look round and a chat.

by the way I suppose it would be impolite not to pose a question. I suspect this is easily answered, but - why would the civil service have annoyed both Seneca (if still around) and RJ Mitchell. usual rules as I think I understand them, although I may need help scoring. bed now. back sometime tomorrow hopefully thanks to baldeagle for the welcome. goodnight.

I'll leave it to someone experienced to explain rules and usage (I'm pretty new here myself) but I have noticed that when a question is asked, most people say whether they will be - or not - klaxons for catching any red herrings or being too obvious. The points are minus 5 usually.

Since I more-or-less designed the points system; I can do that.

The Correct answer is supposed to receive 3 points

Guesses that nudge the conversation along in the right direction can be given a 1 point, and be awarded numerous times, it's the nudging that's important. We call this 'Decreasing General Ignorance'

The QI Bonus is worth 6 points, and is given out for that really scintillating bit of information that makes you go involuntarily 'oh that's quite interesting' - you'll know it when you see it.

You, drtfirsttimer can award yourself 2 points for being the question author / researcher - a role we call a QI Elf

- that's the positive scores dealt with.


Onto the negative scores - there is only one:


The klaxon deduct 5 points if someone mentions a taboo word or phrase. This works best if you decide on those in advance then people can come to them naturally which means no ad hoc decisions, which is easier for everyone. This can be awarded many times (often to the same individual, mentioning no names.... Taff ), it all depends how many taboos you set up, and how many are mentioned before the correct answer is found.



Clive.

At a guess this is not the Whitehall civil service but the roman kind but how you get from a stoic poet to spitfires, I'm still pondering.

Had a bolt of inspiration and checked the appendix of my copy of Dante's Inferno - Seneca appeared there in Limbo as a soul denied heaven by consequence of being virtuous but born before Christ , though to quote my addition: "Dante however like many people at the time supposed that the plays or treatises were written by two different Senecas; and is careful to make it clear that the one he puts with the other philosophers in Limbo is 'Seneca The Moralist"

So is it something about double or assumed double identities?

Sorry Clive you are being a bit too deep, it is quite a trivial connection. Thanks for the welcome and advice folks. Points seem to be as I thought, but if I mess it up later let me know.

Back this afternoon.

(Look, on a proper computer I *can* use Capitals!)

Oh, and only one klaxon, though Clive came close to it already! Hope I am not too presumptuous. (Or pompous come to that, hmmm.)

-- phew!

Glad I avoided that then!

"a bit too deep" - is that a quantifiable measure? Was I off by a little or a lot?

too deep because I have not read the divine comedy. the key word is in your first post though.

sorry meant the inferno

Actually i have not read either. Must rectify this soon!

Spitfires then?

Not the planes themselves, but going in the right direction.

For future reference: that'd be a Decreasing General Ignorance Bonus +1 because it narrows the scope of future guesses for anyone else. Where we go from here depends on acknowledging the answer 'spitfire'.

It's generally helpful, I find, to record this kind of award, (klaxons and QIs too), in the thread with a note XXX +1 or -5 etc.

Sometimes these QI forums can run over several days or even weeks and accumulate several hundred posts, depending on the complexity.

When you as the elf come to review them at the end and tally up all the point-worthy and klaxonable answers to report to Bob Satfford in the "POST SCORES HERE" thread - it's often useful to have a record of what you were thinking at the time.

Well we're about at the the circumference of my ignorance now.

RJ Mitchell designed the spitfire. There's a statue of him in The Science Museum. I'm planning a trip down to London next week and I'm planning to go to the museums so came across that while browsing their website.

Other than that I'm a bit stumped.

Good point, and I of course you get a DGI point if that is how it normally works. Good advice thanks.

If you need a clue how about Quotations. RJ Mitchell did indeed design a plane, later known as the Spitfire.

Quotations, eh?

Shall have to think and ponder.

Surprised none of the other QI regulars are here yet. They'll turn up soon, I'll warrant.