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

I recently had an exchange of e-mails with Peta where she brought up the "We are guests at a party, and H2G2 is the host" analogy, meaning that we should be grateful to be invited, happy to be here and feel free to leave if we're not enjoying ourselves.

I'd like to expand on this analogy...

Imagine this as a party where, part-way through a great evening the host suddenly locked everyone outside for an enforced game of hide-and-seek, while keeping all our hats and coats locked inside. When we are finally allowed to return, the host has "found religion" and decided to go teetotal, and is highly offended that all the guests won't immediately follow suit. When we go to find our coats and hats, most of them are missing and those we can find have had all the pretty buttons and badges cut off and thrown away.

That certainly feels closer to the situation to date

ouch! Wow, she really got under your skin!

Some people are stuck in a capitalist and materialist way of thinking about this place. BBC bought the servers, BBC bought the rights, BBC hired the staff. Therefore they can do whatever they want with this site.

But the community that developed on this site is voluntary, drawn to it by the atmosphere and open discussions available in the old h2g2. It is only a community in so far as people enjoy and continue gathering here and cooperating with each other. The community can't be bought or sold. And the community has every right to protest when some outside force tries to change the rules.

So did you tell Peta that you feel more like a Teamster than a houseguest?

Here's a Woody Guthrie lyric for someone to censor: "Oh no you don't scare me, I'm sticking to the Union!"

It was no fault of Peta's; that analogy has irritated me from the first time I heard it!

And like I've said a lot of times, these analogies are all somewhat oversimplified, because h2g2 is too complex of a thing or idea to pigeon-hole by simply calling it a community or a guide or a website.

Isn't it interesting that "community" and "commodity" sound and look so much alike, Subcom?

Isn't it interesting that "community" and "commodity" sound and look so much alike, Subcom?

furtim,

You must be new here. No one else still has this much enthusiasm for the Revolution. Did I already thank you on another thread for signing the petition? If not, here it is again.

I wrote a little essay at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A539057 called "What Gives You the Right" about some other analogies for the relationship of researchers to the BBC. Squatters versus cattle barons. Trade unionists versus management. I tried to collect as many analogies as I could that I had heard people use at the time, but I need to update it again.

If you like these discussions you've been reading, you might also click on "FEEDBACK" and look around for a link to the Community Soapbox section. Discussions there get philosophical and ranty and protesterful too.

See ya round,
Deidzoeb

Hah.

Well, I'm not *strictly* new. I started visiting just after BBC had already taken over, though. I became aware of the Zaphodista movement a few months ago. It wasn't until very recently, though, that I actually started using my Researcher status to participate in any of the discussions. My Revolutionary Zeal may simply be attributed to the fact that I'm still on summer break before heading off to college and am, as a consequence, remarkably bored. It doesn't hurt that I'm an absolute believer in the freedom of expression under any and all circumstances, either, although there are certain individuals on IRC who might say that my actions demonstrate otherwise (hehe).

I've read the What Gives You the Right article. Actually, that's how I found this discussion. I'm not especially fond of searching the discussions themselves, other than the ones attached to Guide Entries.

Perhaps I'll visit the Community Soapbox at some point, but I probably won't. Not for a while, at least, as I'm about to get very busy with relocating myself to Boston (as I mention in my Personal Space).

VIVA ZAPHODA!