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

I stopped coming to h2g2 a couple of years ago because I couldn't find anything I was interested in. Then I dropped back in, found my way through the BBC registration, saw the new rules and arguments about them, but also discovered conversations that I wanted to be part of. I was invited to join the Zaphodistas but declined (I had some sympathy with their complaints, wanted time to see how widespread the problems were, saw one of them in reasonable/deferential correspondence with the powers that now be...).

My own view is that the current stance is a bit too tight but doesn't restrict anything much that matters. What worries me is that a web community can grind itself into the dirt because it is always diverging. A small number of people in the moderating room can never hope to hear about, let alone deal with all the complaints aimed in their general direction.

There are thousands of us out here (add a couple of noughts for the number of actual registrations, take at least one away for inactives, multiples, jokes, never-wanted-to-be-heres), and everything is based on trees. Start a conversation, three people respond, eight people reply to them, one of whom starts a new thread. It's a slow, stumbly form of exponentiation but impossible to traverse, let alone manage.

I don't want to be managed. I want to be left to get on with things, because it - almost always - works. Maybe there should be a Frequently Voiced Complaints link on the home page to try and short-circuit the complaint-and-answer sequences that are getting very boring.

Huzzah, I totally agree,

Nice one, have a on me!