To Whom It May Concern
Created | Updated Apr 28, 2004
Earth, April 28th, 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 having elapsed since h2g2.com went online, April 28th, 1999.
No doubt there is great reason to celebrate the occasion and offer the heartiest congratulations and thanx to all who have been involved.
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.
In these five years, there have been many important people associated with h2g2, The Founders, the Italics, the Moderators, the Volunteers and Researchers of every stripe. But nobody has worked harder, sweated more bullets, suffered more abuse or been more committed and dedicated to the vision of a fair and open venue for personal expression at H2G2 than our good Lady Shazz1 of the H2G2Post.
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 humour, 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 irregular 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 to do so.
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 one hard fact as we celebrate and congratulate ourselves for being here this long.
And the one ugly truth is that she has done it without any financial reward or support and often without even the philosophical support of the site managers. She may not be a saint, but she is my hero.
~jwf~
I remain your most loyal and least dutiful savant,
peace,
To Whom It May Concern
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