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

But then Vogons isn't really covering it, is it? Also a bit provocative. Going at flies with a tank, and all. It's not really us against them, it's just having a bit of fun.

I still like squacks, and prefects, and Big Brother too. Although here in holland there's been a bit too much abuse of the last one.

There a definitely some issues to work out. One post was deleted because it had an *internal* link to a conversation that is filled with double-entendres, but the original conversation passed moderation!

I like "Prefects" but it is too ordinary, so I vote for square brackets or a variation thereof. Unless anyone wants to call them the Lindas .

tsk tsk... some of the squacks are obviously more diligent than others... but like the man from planet Moxon has pointed out, if there are any over-zealous practices going on, we can squeal on the squack in question.

Death to the green yikes smiley!

I like squacks, personally. It's catchy.

Yeah, I go like squacks
(no other way to say it in case it becomes provocative)

How about the Wardens?
"an official with supervisory duties"
(owning up to being the one who had the posting deleted because of an *internal* link to a conversation filled with double-entendres.)

The thing with the moderators is though, as has been pointed out, they are new to the job. And, unlike us in the community they (probably) aren't allowed to use sarcasm and cynicism to make an offender look stupid enough to stop being stupid. They have to check things out by the book as it were.

h2g2 was self moderating for a long time, and it did work, to an extent. The thing was, it only went so far. We all had to notice an outragous posting or article to then take the micheal, the moderators have a jump on us there, they get to see everything. A great job in my opinion, being paid to read the Guide, but then again, who'd really want to read all our waffle? And I know I can waffle witht he best of them.

Good luck to the moderators is what I say. Yeah they've got a better job than me, but I don't get people looking over my shoulder all day to see what I've done.

As for an alternative name? How about the Optimists? Those diligent folks that want to make h2g2 a better place.

squacks is amusing

If the escapees from the Towers are now known as the Italics, then how about calling the Moderators "the Asterisks"?

Sorry, Pastey old mate, but I don't agree with the notion that they're making h2g2 a better place. They're making it a BLANDER place. Which is not the same thing AT ALL.

I vote for the 'Watchers'

No one can say it is copyright because both Highlander and Buffy the Vampire Slayer have watchers and neither of them sued the other and I'm sure the term has appeared in more than one fantasy/sci fi universe over the years.

And if we're all very good that's all they'll be doing.

Watching.

FABT

squacks.

It's neutral because it merely refers to the format of their work (square brackets) in stead of the work itself and either the optimistic side of the work (Optimists) or the patronising blandening side (like prefects, or watchers).

It runs parallel to italics, and it sounds kinda funky!

I was thinking about "voyeurs"...

Maybe just to lighten the mood here I'll tell y'all a little joke.
There was this [racial slur deleted] who got in his [Brand name deleted] and drove to a [FastFood Franchise name deleted]. When he got to the pick-up (...?) window the [sexist slur deleted] noticed his h2g2 T-shirt [Available only at BBC Online - one size (Moderate) fits all] and gave him her name [deleted] e-mail address [deleted] home phone number [deleted] and a URL [deleted] to her home page and said, "Now do you want fries with that?"

How about "T*****s"? Because their job is to throw out unsuitable or questionable material – like the previous post.

Ideally, it would be nice to have some feedback from the squacks/vogons/prefects/etc themselves here. I mean, if they get all hippy and excited over the idea of being called Vogons, far be it from me to deny them the pleasure.


Mikey

Yeeeaaahh.... you got a point there guv'.

Ey, moderator in question person! What you think of all this? Speak up man, woman, yer nominal fates are being decided 'ere!

Then again, they might be bound by some prime directive not to make themselves known to the denizens of h2g2, lest the eckweelibreeum be disturbed...

The wonderfully humourless moderation of my last posting here gave me a good laugh.

However, I'd like to point out that the addition of "–" is also the work of the moderator, and could be seen by some as offensive.

ahm, not too hasty eeyore, "–" might very well be a bit of code put there by the html processing gear of either your terminal or the h2g2 server, it's probably an ASCII sign that was read wrongly. It happens from time to time. No moderation involved.

Consider, was there any reason for a squack to start inserting "–" there at all?

Hi Prez. The moderator inserted the asterisks in my posting, as a consequence of which the whole message went out of whack.

Are you sure that you're not having a sense of humour failure, too?