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

I will start to ask that all referances to "HouseRules" are removed as this is obviously a referance to a dot com site. Not only is this a referance to a url but to a commercial site. It's disgusting!

Peregrin,

You're right. It's sort of a fun mathematical game to imagine all the ways we could overload or boycott bits of the system, but those kinds of actions would just get us marked as vandals who ought to be kicked out.

I've been waiting til time is ripe, maybe after the membership of the Zaphodistas tapers off (any day now?), to ask Peta directly for a name of someone I could send a petition to. I'd like to revise the current demands, maybe soften them so they'll be taken seriously by someone in a position of power (someone devoid of humor), and submit it directly to a person who ought to see petitions by the members of their community.

Ya know, THEY are reading all that is being said. I think if you guys want to embark upon a campaign of annoyance, you might want to PLAN it elsewhere. Say via e-mail?

As for me, I'm thinking in terms of direct complaints to the management. The moderators don't have any actual power. Might as well go for the brains, which would be the spineless executives that struggle to keep a clean image for their precious organization. I will annoy them in the ways I am best at: Long winded, rambling, smart-a(leck) explanations of my position, and frequent jabs and pointings-out of the utter stupidity of the other guys'.

How would they cope if we all demanded copies of ALL the information that they have about us on computer (as we are entitled to do under the Data Protection Act) that would place a massive drain on their resources and be very annoying

(Dr. Goof, my suggestion for referring to the New House Rules is to always call them the NEW House Rules. It's a subtle thing, but it's... well, I don't know what it is, but I like it.)

I agree with Subcommandante that trying to annoy/overload the system is not the correct avenue. Right now we should all focus on recruitment, so that we have as many names here as we can get. Put a link to this page on your personal space, or add the A# to your nickname, or whatever. Tell your friends, if they aren't already here.

Anyway, the best we can do is to FOLLOW the New House Rules, so that our petition carries more weight. "Sir, here are 300 decent, clean rule-abiding users who say that we know sod-all about running an ISP... shall we listen?" That's better than being "a bunch of rule-breaking trouble-making pests".

GTB

Spoil sport
problem is your right though...

Of course you're right, but doesn't it seem more attractive to recruits to promise them that they can be "rule-breaking trouble-making pests"?
Just kidding!

Well, what'd be really fun would be to hack into their computers and redo the Linda Button - give 'er bright red lipstick, messed up hair, and maybe some unsightly stains, heh, heh....

As for the moderators (hi there Signore Moderator!) I think the best thing is to address them directly as often as possible. It'll make them feel less like we have something against them personally (which, as far as I can tell, we don't - I don't even know who any of them are!), and maybe they'll put in a good word for us!

"Hey Moderators! Won't you come join us?! Hook up, and otherwise co-mingle!" (cookie for anyone who can place THAT quote!) Become a researchers, drop by, warm your feet by the fire, write an entries about what it's like to be an H2G2 moderator - I guarantee we'll all read them! We'll even save you berets, if that doesn't seem too much like a conflict of interest!

Anyway, as far as boycotts go, I'm upset about the upper-left hand corner of my screen. The Cool, Swirly H2G2 Logo has been lowered to 3/4 mast to accomodate the Big BBC Online Logo. Until they show that they're worthy of my loyalty, I'll consider that an eyesore. When they show that they understand how a website is to be run, then I'll click on their link and see what else they've got to offer. Meanwhile, I stay here, being as interactive and as productive as possible and trying to show the Beeb what this community is about.

[whew] Well, that was a fun rant!

GTB

ooo... ooo... ouch!! Someone please censor the hideous grammatical mistakes in my last post! I changed the paragraph addressed to the moderators from singular to plural after writing it, but I missed an article here and there.... ooo, that's painful to read....

GTB [hiding face behind Goo beret]

You should be ashamed! And you a Sub-editor! Tsk! Tsk!

I dont see what the problem is

Sign me up to be a Zaphodista! I don't like this brave new moderated world we're living in, and I'll be PROUD to wear a goo beret!

WOULD be awfully fun to be a major pain in the a**, raise all sorts of h***, and be right. The thing is, you can do that and make a point that'll just end up pricking you in the end (can I say that?) or you can get what you want. *sigh* I DO love a good rabble rousing, though. But in this case it's better to be polite, work within the system for mutual benefit, and give them a chance to figure out what it is they are going to have. If that turns out to be unacceptable, then those of us who don't care for the house rules will put on our walking shoes. After all, we don't own the property--we just tend the gardens.

Mother, do you think they'll try to break my b***s?

(That's just a joke, never mind if you don't get it.)

It would be fun to create logjams and boycotts, but won't have any effect on the House Rules, and will destroy our credibility when we seriously petition the decision-makers. If anybody really, really wants to do something that will mess with the moderators, I would recommend writing poems or stories or messages directly to the moderators. It doesn't break any rules, but it prevents them from silently blending into the background, and it lets them know exactly how we feel, much better than all our indirect complaints on moderation message boards.

On the other hand, I've been using h2g2 for the last week about 90% to recruit Zaphodistas and write guide entries and messages for the Zaphodistas. Only 10% of my time has been spent conversing with people on other topics, reading new guide entries, just enjoying the Guide. It's fun to talk about The Struggle, and debate what tactics we should use, and maybe engage in a little guerrilla poetry to enlighten moderators -- but this stuff should not be a total replacement for the other fun things to do on h2g2. Take some time to smell the roses, even if they're just those little smiley-graphic-roses and not pictures drawn or photographed by an individual researcher.

Zeb, nothing being said is secret, nor should it be. If people want to use these ideas about how to get back at censors who remove postings which don't break the house rules, by increasing their workload, fine. If they're happy with the censorship, that's fine as well.

If we were advocating a campaign of posting URL's leading to hostile java applets or something then I could see your point, but we're not.

btw Dumping your bookmarks onto your homepage would keep them very busy, but just remember and remove the adult babywear ones.

Peregrin, if the censors noted the house rules and let postings stand which were within them instead of removing anything they have the slightest doubt about, the rest would have more time to clear the backlog. I have already suggested to Peta a tagging system for doubtful postings instead of this guilty until proven innocent approach. Her response was the Godfrey case which has little to do with doubtful postings. Demon left the false posting in Dr Godfrey's name stay up for ten days after receiving his complaint.

Comandante. Until I know for certain who is responsible for the censorship policy on H2G2, I am not laying the blame for this heavyhandedness solely at the door of the BBC. I know that the BBC are ultimately responsible, but there seems to be some degree of autonomy. Are we paying the price for it? Here postings are removed for "political comment", but check out the Today and Newsnight fora at BBC Online. Who have most to lose if "moderation" fails at H2G2?

It might be an idea to contact the head of BBC Online to see who is responsible for the censorship on H2G2, as the fallout from it is giving the BBC a bad name.

Withdrawal of goodwill in not publishing articles may be our main weapon from within H2G2, but it may also be possible to attack it from the outside.

Peregrin is wise. This is why we elected him to be our president.

...and that is why he goes on skiing holidays at times of crisis.

...but the main reason he got my vote was because he said "Blaargh".

Of course! Those statements are very carefully conceived by a crack team of spin doctors, who design them to appeal to your political and moral senses.

I know this goes against most things said in these forums, but how about not demonstrating, but showing that we can self-police ourselves? I know it's boring but if we prove that we can behave, maybe the BBC will realise that they don't have to be so heavy handed about online communities.

"a crack team of spin doctors"? You mean Croz and the Tall Insane Twiglet?

Hi Amy, hate to nitpick but you forgot the brackets
1+6-5+(9*5)-5
....sorreee