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

I'd generally fairly happy, or at least not too opinionated, about the changes made to h2g2 but I think this is quite absurd, I'm afraid...

I can quite understand the BBC being required to be politically balanced. But forcing us to be balanced too? It states quite clearly in each forum that the remarks of the researchers does not reflect the opinion of the BBC. Why the inconsistency? The BBC seems keen to point out that 1) the opinions expressed by the researchers have nothing to do with the BBC; and 2) we mustn't say anything controversial as it'll make the BBC look bad. Is it just me or are those two completely conflicting attitudes?

Furthermore, the right to speak freely on political matters is a basic human right, and is listed as such in the International Declaration of Human Rights (see my article outlining the declaration).

Campaigning is something different; advertising in any form is already (and quite rightly) banned on h2g2, and campaigning for any political party or attitude is no different. But individual discussion really shouldn't be surpressed. If I was a communist, for example, that would be my personal choice and according to the laws of the UK I would be free to express my opinions and attitudes. But it's not as if somebody's going to start recruiting for the Red Army on h2g2.

I think the basic problem is that the BBC can't make up it's mind whether the forums on h2g2 are written by researchers or the BBC itself. When you look at it that way it's fairly obvious; and most other community sites have no problem with the fact that their members are individuals, with differing personalities and opinions. We can't all be little clones of the BBC.

(btw, I'm in a bad mood this morning, so I may be going a little over the top. Feel free to ignore the above post if you can't be bothered to answer)

I think you've got a point. It's not as if there's danger of the Beeb being sued just because someone on h2g2 expresses support for a political party, is there?

Two things

1) Political discussion is not being banned, only political campaigning (which you seem to accept being banned)

2) H2G2 is not (as far as I am aware) fully back online yet (not notice has gone out by email saying it is back), and Mark has stated elsewhere that this is likely to be in place for the current election only. By the time of any later ones the H2G2 will be able to deal with the election in a better way.

So although its not ideal I think this could prove livablewith.

Hope the day gets/got better

Z

"Any Conversations or Guide Entries that veer into heavy debate about the General Election (or local elections during the General Election period) may be removed by the Moderators."

That dun't sound like only campaigning to me and that's the first time I've heard it claimed that we're not fully back yet.

Actually, I have to admit that this version of the policy is a vast improvement on the original draft, which made it sound as if you'd get banned for life from the site if you said: "Tony Blair is wearing a nice tie today."
We'll have to see how it works in practice, but hopefully this edition of the policy should prove tolerable.

What if I say: "William Hague is a short-a**ed baldy slaphead who shouldn't be put in charge of so much as a ferret."?

Well, you certainly wouldn't get much disagreement from me...

Peregrin: "But individual discussion really shouldn't be surpressed."

It's not being surpressed - if you read the guidelines, they clearly state that "heavy UK-political discussions" *may* be removed, and only during the month run-up to the election. The aim is to cover ourselves in case of heavy political barracking or hijacking, and we provide an alternative ares on the BBC where you can talk about politics to your heart's content.

You might also like to check out the Conversation Forum at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F64597 - it refers to an early version of the guidelines which I wrote and accidentally left on site, even though they were *not* going to be the final version (they were far more draconian than the above). In this I go into detail about how this policy is *my* decision, not the BBC's, and that it is purely down to a lack of resources in the h2g2 team, and nothing else. Feel free to rant about what you perceive as problems with the BBC, but please note that would be complaining about the wrong decision-makers...

Bagpuss: "It's not as if there's danger of the Beeb being sued just because someone on h2g2 expresses support for a political party, is there?"

No, there isn't a danger of the BBC being sued. However the government is in charge of the funding for the BBC, so there is a very real danger of the BBC having its funding cut or even removed entirely if it is seen to have become politically biased.

Also, we are fully open for business (though the email is still awaiting more paperwork somewhere deep in the bowels of the Beeb), but we're not fully staffed, which is why this policy is being implemented. Again, I refer you to the Forum linked to above.

Does that mean you're not getting your e-mail at the moment, Mark? I ask because I have been sending Abi mails detailing any new links I've added to my pages. If she hasn't been getting the mails, is there another way I could let her know what I'm up to?
Also, for any other people out there who are really interested in the Election (as I am - I'm strange that way ) may I heartily recommend the Beeb's Vote 2001 pages: http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/ . Very informative, comprehensive and entertaining!

If you've been sending me emails, Ormy, I haven't been getting them, but Abi got one from you today with an update for her to do. She only replies once she's done the update, and she's going to try to fit it in later today...

...but no, I haven't been getting any from you. Have you been sending me any?

No, I've sent everything to Abi - I understood that the doubtful privilege of looking after my pages had been given to her!
But I take it that the e-mail at h2g2 does work? I just wasn't sure what you meant about the e-mail awaiting more paperwork in the bowels of the Beeb.

Ah - the email referred to is the mass email we have yet to send to the Researcher base to tell them h2g2 is alive and well. Sending out emails from the BBC involves quite a bit of bureacratic sweat, so we're still waiting for the green light, amazingly.

Someone mentioned the email above, I think...

That was me. Sorry.

I've been working on the principle that that email is the 'H2G2 is fully back now' message which is why I said I didnot consider H2G2 to be fully back yet.

Z

Yeuuurrggggh! Beaurocratic sweat

Is there a worse kind?

*tries not to think about civil servants' armpits*

Yeah. Nervous bureaucratic sweat.

I once worked for the Ministry of Defence (bet you didn't know that - and now you do, I'll have to kill you). When I was there ol' Thatch was rolling her capitalist philosophy across all government agencies, and the area of the Ministry I was working in became the Defence Research Agency, and had to ensure that all projects were either profitable, potentially profitable, or closed down. As most of the people I worked with had been beavering away for years, hidden away from reality and working on totally irrelevant rubbish, they suddenly realised that they were either going to have to work, or going to have to go.

I loved it. But the smell was awful.

(I should add that 'work' is the wrong word. The Ministry sponsored me through University, which consisted of them giving me wads of cash, employing me for two sets of 8 weeks in the holidays at the end of the first and second years... and that was it. It took them a couple of years to realise that everyone else who sponsored people was *insisting* that the sponsorees worked for them for a couple of years or pay the money back, but I managed to slip in there, grab the money, laugh loud, and leave. Mark one, Thatch nil, I reckon. )

Well I've been beavering away for years, hiding away from reality and working on totally irrelevant rubbish.

Not sure whether that's my job or being a researcher for h2g2 though

Well done, Mark! I too suffered as a civil servant under the Thatcher regime. Small , isn't it!
In my case, it meant being effectively ordered to work for the Department of Trade & Industry, which the Thatcherites obviously saw as a major priority. (I was told that my unemployment benefit money would be cut off if I didn't take the job, and of course the pay wasn't much more than the dole).
I did it for 18 months and hated it, mainly because of the customers - lots of pompous, ignorant "entrepreneurs" whose egos were being swollen by the social climate of the time. Around the time I left, the DTI set up lots of regional offices all over the country. We staff members were told that we could be sent to work at any of them at any time. We'd be expected to uproot and go and live anywhere in Britain that suited the Department, and if we refused we'd be sacked. Nice, huh?
At the time I was there, there was a series of leaks of information from the DTI that severely embarrassed the Government - and I wish I could claim that I was responsible, but sadly I wasn't! Frantic efforts were made to find the mole(s), but they never did. I wish I'd known who it was - I'd have loved to congratulate them and buy them a !

Did any one listen to Thought for the day on Radio 4 this morning? It was by an ex Head of Religious Programming at the Beeb and was talking about Election Guidelines.

Any way he was saying how it was a complete nightmare because the parties employ people to sit there monitoring programmes and noting political bias. They would get complaints to Songs of Praise because hymns would contain lines like "Let us not labour in vain" and "Across the blue, blue sea".

Fair made my morning!

By giving those examples and not giving equal parity to hymns implying the Liberal Democrats you have broken BBC election parity rules and will be taken out and shot.

More serious, it is perhaps unfortunate but so long as one party does this sort of monitoring the others are likely to be at a diadvantage if they don't. A Prisoners' Dilemma (http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A509690) situation.

Z