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

I thought I'd add my two penneth worth here, and hope it makes some sense. As I'm in a bit of a funny mood, I might as well start from the beginning.

I joined because I was bored. I was in work... on my lunch hour I might add... and I was looking for something to do. I was a big fan of hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, and so seeing h2g2 was a god send. At first glance it looked a bit boring. As much as I love learning - currently reading the notebooks of Leonardo incidently, which is fascinating but beside the point - there seemed to be too much text book stuff. The kind that put me off in school... and frankly wasn't something I was in the mood to read during my lunch hour.

But then I looked a bit further and saw this richness of creative groups, conversations, and stories... oh the stories, and the post... and well I was hooked. There is a style of Douglas Adams books that is a attractive, and I've never understood this almost rascist attitude to it on here. People like to write in it. Do you know why? Because its entertaining... okay after the millionth version it can get a tad tedious, but everything in moderation...

Ah moderation, another interesting topic. I don't know why but I felt h2g2 began to lose something when the moderators left. I suspect thats when the project h2g2 began to have money redirected elsewhere, as a number of staff began to disappear around that time too.

Anyway, my point being with that slight diversion, is that there are no longer so many full time staff on here, so the onus is very much on the people on the guide...

Who by and large are wonderful people.

When I first started the first thing I ever did was create an entry. It was called bookcases. It was pointed out that my spelling was incorrect... which it was and it should be book cases. It was an entertaining little piece about bookcases... and I took the form of the voice of the book. I liked that idea of this being part of a guide with entries that caught your attention like that. I was beginning to really enjoy this.

Then a girl called ViP gave me my ACE greeting. Fantastic, I'm not alone! I went out sending messages to anyone and everyone. I must have gone Internet crazy, because for virtually the first week I couldn't get off this place.

I asked for advice on how to put an entry in to hootoo (VIP incidently had never posted an entry in to the Edited Guide, which I found curious... who wouldn't want to post an entry? I thought). VIP directed me to some very helpful people who told me about posting it in to peer review.

About this time I started up my group the Terranic Army. Lots of people joined, and there were so many laughs, we had mock role play fights, we had an invasion from another group. I really really enjoyed that first week.

I got a message from the person who would Sub-Edit my piece - I had a sub-ED! Wow. Someone who would personally help my article get in to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!

They were reasonably kind to it, but something that would become blatantly clear to me was that the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was like a swear word on h2g2. For a long time until the movie came about, I saw no reference to it. Plenty of references to the fantastic Douglas Adams, but h2g2 was taboo. I think someone once said that even the late great Douglas Adams would find the Edited Guide guidelines too restrictive. I think that person was being kind.

Creativity (oh that wonderful ambigous word that is so easy to dismiss as impractical) does not work well under restrictions. It isn't about people being arrogant and throwing their weight around, it is about space, and personal motivation. Without personal motivation, nothing would ever get done.

After book cases I rarely found motivation for anything in the Edited Guide again. I finished an Everton FC entry with friends from the Everton FC h2g2 fan club, and added the odd thing to an entry.

I wrote an entry about 42. I didn't see anything on it in the edited guide, so I thought I'd write something on it. This is was the first time I felt angry on hootoo. It was factual, I was willing to edit it to make it more relevant, but they would not accept anything to do with Douglas Adams creation. I have never entered anything in the Edited Guide since. Why? Because I no longer saw it as a place of entertainment. Thats why I'm here, not to punish myself, but to enjoy myself.

So I wrote some stories, some of them were picked up, and one was serialised in the Post. I nearly gave up on h2g2 numerous times, because I feared it was far too constricting. I began to wonder if Wikipedia would have been more open minded (well I think they'd have taken the 42 entry anyway). But the people kept me here.

But I'm running out of energy for the place. For motivation. I've added a lot to h2g2. Thats not arrogance thats the truth. I started the Terranic Army which was the home to many many many many conversations. It has bred many copy cat versions. My stories have been serialised in the post. My efforts to start the UnderGuide and get involved at the beginning have been noted. I've done lots of things that have motivated people on h2g2, that I can't even remember off the top of my head. I'm currently running h2g2 Fiction Central with HPB... the list goes on.

I've done my bit for king and country. But I want to continue. I want times like I have before. But we need something to keep us being creative, we need motivation. For me, and for many others on hootoo I can vouch for, the Edited Guide does not motivate us. Yes I respect there are a number who like the Edited Guide the way it is. But the spirit of hootoo is not there. The Edited Guide is too central and too... I hate to say it : BBC. BBC at its most beaurocratic. And I'm running out of motivation for it.

Welcome to the site if you are new.

" I suspect thats when the project h2g2 began to have money redirected elsewhere, as a number of staff began to disappear around that time too."

The moderators haven't left - they are still there if they are needed. If you mean when the site went reactive, that was a year before the staff numbers changed.

Mina, have you *read* what Terran has said? Your post was the most astonishing example of someone's skim-reading letting them down that I have ever seen. *blinks*

Ben

PS - Terran, I am interested in what you've posted and want to reply because in many ways I feel the same way, but I also want to think about it first. I also wonder how much you were spooked by spook, and I want to think about that too. But it's good to see you back.

Traveller in Time on a late reply
"Well, I started as soon as this appeared. But then ysmething went wrong and the systems dropped.

I like the concept of entries not using schoolbook wording. This is 'The Guide' not special dedicated as being informative, rather as giving a direction. "

"Welcome to the site if you are new."

No I think you'll find I've been here quite some time. In fact I remember having a conversation with you in the ACE group when I was still a member.

"The moderators haven't left - they are still there if they are needed. If you mean when the site went reactive, that was a year before the staff numbers changed."

I'm sure at least one member of staff left around that time. I'll bow to your greater wisdom though.

But please read a bit more of my post.

"PS - Terran, I am interested in what you've posted and want to reply because in many ways I feel the same way, but I also want to think about it first. I also wonder how much you were spooked by spook, and I want to think about that too. But it's good to see you back."

Spook... hmm... I'm never sure how much influence he had on me. In the beginning I saw him as a friend. He helped (or I thought he was helping me out, now I think he was just after expanding his big ego) the Terranic Army in the early days. I later saw him as an annoying person who had personal problems... and then later I dispised him with all my might. And now I don't care.

I gave him the Terranic Army because I thought he was the only person with enough motivation to keep it going. In retrospect I think it was the worst decision I ever made. I asked for it back, but of course Spook wasn't interested.

'Traveller in Time tit on a late reply
"Well, I started as soon as this appeared. But then ysmething went wrong and the systems dropped.

I like the concept of entries not using schoolbook wording. This is 'The Guide' not special dedicated as being informative, rather as giving a direction. "'



I think the guide can be informative *and* not have to stick to school book text style. The best way to learn is to be entertained by the writing. But I also respect your direction comment.

Why don't you both just leave me alone and stop issuing orders? If I want to only answer one point in a bloody message, I bloody well will.

Welcome to the site if you are new, Mina.

I didn't issue you an order, I asked a question. The reason I asked a question was because I was really surprised to see you respond to a post by a long-standing and active researcher with the words 'welcome to the site if you are new' - particularly since Terran had gone into a lot of detail in the post about his experiences here over a number of years.

It seemed out of character, which was why I asked a question rather than 'issuing orders'. The only reasons I amn't flaming you right now are

(a) I do actually like you and respect the work you have done here and

(b) I am aware that you are under huge pressure at the moment and sympathise - I, too, am between jobs and looking for work.

*sigh*

*doesn't know what to do or say*

Ben

well I need to apologise - it was Terran who barked orders, and as I am guilty of only reading the first half of his message where he talks about his ACE greeting and being new (and not believing he was new) I thought he was an old Researcher returning and pretending to be a newbie. I didn't have time to read all of his post, but I wanted to correct something I knew was wrong - although Peta did leave around the time we went reactive - sort of, so I posted intending to read it all later, to find myself being critised for my posting by two different people.

I've had a really bad 6 months, not just losing my job, but two family members died, and of course, I didn't want to leave the BBC either, but was having a rough time there for about 6 months before I left as well. So the last year has been extremely shit.

So sorry for being stroppy all the time, but I really, really can't help it.

Whew...

Fairy nuff, Mina. I am sorry to hear about your losses, and I do hope things look up for you soon.

Ben

"I've had a really bad 6 months, not just losing my job, but two family members died, and of course, I didn't want to leave the BBC either, but was having a rough time there for about 6 months before I left as well. So the last year has been extremely shit."

I'm afraid I was completely unaware of your situation. I didn't exactly bark... but I won't go there, and had I known I would have worded my message slightly differently.

Anyway... to the task in hand...

And I'm sorry to hear of your situation. Christ, I'm beginning to sound like a harsh b*st*rd.

Anyway like I said... on with the show...

Well, let's just leave it that clearly it pisses people off when I don't read their messages properly, so I won't answer unless I can inspect each message with a magnifying glass before I answer if they look vaguely sensible, and everyone else can just ignore me when I fly off the handle, which I did twice today, so don't take it personally.

To the task in hand, as you say Terran. I promised you a reply and here it is.

I agree with the implication of your main point, that the focus of the remaining Italics is on the EG, and that for many (most?) researchers the EG is not quite enough.

One thing not to underestimate is that there are almost certainly some very real threats to the continuance of the site as a whole from the latest round of BBC cuts, which are the deepest in years. (Mina will know more details, I am sure). The Editors are under two pressures, firstly to keep the site going by selling it to the Powers Behind the Towers, and secondly to keep it healthy by making sure it satisfies the needs and desires of the members. When push comes to shove, keeping it healthy is pointless if it is on death row anyway, so we have to trust that they are making the right call in the way that they sell it to their bosses. The way that it seems they've chosen to do this is to build up and promote the EG. I am certain that they do more than that, but that is where their main and most public efforts go.

One thing I have noticed is that most hootoo researchers have a two or three year love affair with the site, and that many long-term members fall away after that time. Many don't of course, but most of the real long-termers have had taken extended breaks, and many have narrowed their focus to particular places on the site.

The real long-term researchers have spent half a decade or more here. That is a substantial chunk out of anyone's life, and people change over the years. This is particularly true of teenagers, people in their 20s and students. There are many things I was interested in 5 years ago which I am not so interested in now, and new interests have come in to replace them.

Hootoo is also incredibly time consuming. I could have got myself a Masters with the time I've spent here.

You probably knew all of that already, but what I am saying is that your experience is probably true for 90%+ of researchers, and that in many ways it is as much or more about how you / we change as human beings as it is about the site itself.

My feeling is that the volunteers are as valued as ever they were, if not more so, and that they probably contribute more now than they ever have.

What you say about moderation is very interesting. It was so hated and so dispised when it was first imposed, but I think I might agree with you, that losing a continuous presence of moderators has enabled trolls to troll more than they were ablt to do before.

Regarding spook - he did a lot of damage, and I freely admit to being cautious about you because of your early friendship with him. Like all trolls, he was a time-hoover and an emotional vampire.

Anyway, I am glad you are back. Hootoo is still a good place, even when the gloss has worn off. And you will *always* be welcome if you want to rejoin us in the mines.

Cheers.

Ben

Hi gang. It's late for me, so as always, but more than usual, apologize the incoherence.

"I could have got myself a Masters with the time I've spent here."

I bet. Myself, I feel like I've earned one from all I've learned on this site... socially, politically, factually and creatively.

I think that so much of hootoo is based on the theory that you get out of it what you put into it. For me... it's not so much that my love affair with the site ended, but sometimes I forgot to 'put in' to the site, still expecting to get as much satisfaction out of it.

I think Terran's experience is a formula for most researchers... excited about it, then hoping to find a place or rise in prominence onsite and then losing enthusiasm. I had a much different experience in the details, but I had the privilege of meeting Terran... eventually being able to call him my friend

"But I'm running out of energy for the place. For motivation."

I wish there was a simple way to help keep golden oldies from losing steam, but I'm not really sure how.
When I was new, I simply *knew* - absolutely *knew* that when (if) I ever left this wonderful new place, it would be because of RL problems (I didn't forsee BBC problems, and I still don't lose sleep over the thought of those). I simply couldn't imagine losing steam and when reading the Personal Spaces of those who had left us, I thought they were nuts.

I'm still not sure why I lost steam... I tend to think it's a combination of the site changing, becoming too assimilated and learned in the ways of the hootoo and becoming less excited at the novelty of the whole thing.

"Regarding spook - he did a lot of damage, and I freely admit to being cautious about you because of your early friendship with him."

Do you really think he did damage? After he tried to shut down the UnderGuide, there was a palpable sense of camaraderie in the mines. Hell, for the good he did us, we could use a couple more

>> Do you really think he did damage?

Maybe not. He arrived and left at a particularly challenging time for me in RL, and he was a energy-hoover, so maybe I felt he did more damage than he actually did.

I also think that people lose enthusiasm because their expectations are not met. This place is so huge and so amazing that the initial reaction is "Wow! I mean - WOW!" for most people, so they get frustrated when they realise that it's just a day-job for the Italics, that it is full of cliques, bitchiness, infighting and feuds. Just like RL, really.

Ben

Interesting comments Terran.

The way I keep my motivation to contribute to the site is by dipping in and out of a lot of different projects. The site is so diverse that there is nearly always something that interests me.

I started with the EG - wrote a dozen entries - got bored - switched to travel writing - wrote two series for the post - got fed up with lack of feedback - was enthused by the UG - then interested again with the EG. It goes around in cycles, with UG miner being the only fairly solid commitment.

As hootoo is something I do for fun, if one aspect of the site is irritating me, and I don't fancy the chances of that aspect being changed, then I move onto something else. So far I've never had the situation where there was nothing on the site that interested me.

sprout