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

As previously stated, this is a reminder to all users of the h2g2 Election Forum that all discussions within the Forum will be closed as from 10pm this evening, Wednesday 4th May 2005.

In line with all UK broadcasters, the BBC will not be enabling election discussions while the polls are open. The h2g2 Election Forum will be locked, and all discussions about political issues or the Election in threads on other parts of h2g2 will be removed. These restrictions will be lifted after the polls have closed. We will let you know via the h2g2 Announcements Page when political discussions may resume.

Please also note that no BBC message boards will be open for election discussions during polling day.

Many thanks,

The h2g2 Editors

I will of course be testing this out

I'm particularly interested in the time difference. Your database runs on GMT at all times, but of course we are running on BST in real life.

Hi Ed's

Are we 'open' on Friday for post mortems?

Thanks for your efforts

Novo

May I just ask, cos I'm curious to know, why is Polling Day any different from any other day during the campaign, when this site or any BBC outlet were able to debate election issues albeit within certain guidelines?

Are we in more danger of perverting the true course of democracy than before?

I'm not bothered, resistence is futile and all that, I'm just curious what the justification is.

Once the polls close we can talk unrestricted whevever we like about the election.

For the record the best place to do this is the Forum for the benefit of the recent election refugees to h2g2.

A1146917

Hi Clive

All BBC message boards are basically following the behaviour of the political parties, news services, etc - tomorrow, you'll note that there will be practically no coverage of the election on news programmes beyond what the weather's like, when the leaders go to vote. It's only the moment that the polls close that you get wall-to-wall discussion and debate. Traditionally, all of the parties finish their campaigning the night before the election, with nothing really being said on polling day itself. All of the BBC election discussion boards are simply following the long established conventions of election days gone past.

The h2g2 Editors

In other words, if you're a media savvy from the suburbs, tomorrow is the day you want to get stuck up a tree and be rescued by the fire-brigade, as you'll be guaranteed third item on the 6pm news

Three Questions:

1) Why 10PM today when the Polling Stations do not open until 7AM tomorrow

2) Are we ok to start posting again at 10PM tomorrow or are we supposed to wait for Friday morning

3) Does the ban apply to this thread

1) 10pm today cause that's when we all go home (!), and because that's when all of the other discussion forums that are being hosted on the BBC's message boards, also shut down.

2) Yes, political discussions can begin again ANYWHERE on the BBC site as soon as the polls close at 10pm on Thursday.

3) The ban applies to the whole BBC site. Any new election-related postings or conversations will be removed.

Hope that clarifies things!

The h2g2 Editors