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

Is announcing that you equal to *slamming door behind me*?

I suppose people don't mean it that way, and I imagine they're just trying to communicate that they won't see further conversation on a thread, it always makes me think people are exiting angrily when they notify a thread that they . Maybe I hang out at too many flamewars on h2g2, where the is meant to be as much a statement about the researcher's feelings on the conversation as it is a simple communication.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I would see it as the second choice there - I am not going to be here anymore to answer anything. Also, to paraphrase Everything2, everyone here is posting for the ages. Everything posted will, most likely, be here for as long as the site is (*shudder* this thought still wakes me in the middle of the night) and it will look better a few years from now if you mention that you are leaving a thread rather than just disappearing. Just a £0.02 Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

I'm just guessing here, but I think the posting is automatically generated when someone clicks on the "unsubscribe from this conversation" link - the person unsubscribing doesn't know it's there, and thinks they just slipped quietly away...

I'm basing this on the fact I've seen many identical messages on unconnected threads, from unconnected researchers...

Peet, I tested your theory by unsubscribing to this conversation a minute ago. When I returned to the F***ing Pub and clicked on this thread again, it showed no message saying by Deidzoeb. I think it's a message that people type on their own, to let others know that they're leaving.

It really doesn't bug me as much as I make it sound. I doubt that anyone means *leaving in a huff* when they say they unsubscribe. But it's an odd thing to see. Very different from normal conversation.

And I don't understand why people worry about these words being virtually set in stone. Under most circumstances, we should allow ourselves to use these message boards as normal, disposable, casual conversations. People in the future will have sympathy for our folly when they read the silly things we say, or when they see all our typos. (...If anyone would even have the inclination to read these dreadfully fascinating discussions in the future.)

I can say for sure that it's definitely not an automated feature, it's something people choose to post.

It would be my opinion that there are two main reasons for making a post:

1) to let people know, "hey, I'm not going to be checking this thread anymore. If you want/need to ask me something, don't try here, try my personal space instead." These posts are generally left by someone who's been involved in the thread, but has decided that it's no longer worth the time investment to keep following it.

2) to let people know, "I would leave in a huff right now, but am too well-bred for such things. So I'll post an instead, so that everyone will know that I think this thread has taken a turn for the pointless and offensive." These posts can be differentiated from the above by observing the earlier exchange of hostile (or at least mildly so) messages between the individual unsubscribing and others on the thread.

just my 2 cents.

Mikey, who really wished they had a smiley for 2 cents....

I understand what you're saying, Mikey, but I don't think that people using that second reason are aware that it's still a minor slap, almost passive-aggressive. It's like if you tell someone "I won't stoop to your level by insulting you," it turns out to be untrue, because that sentence is insulting.

A person saying "I would leave in a huff right now but I'm too well-bred" would be obviously still leaving in a huff, obviously only trying to cover up the fact. And that's what it seems like to me on some occasions when I've seen . Trying to act dignified while leaving in a huff.

Hopefully I'm just misinterpreting, and people are really doing it for reason number 1.

You want a two-cents smiley? Well, it can't be posted in forums, and only shows up on Internet Explorer, but click below for two-cents table graphic that can be used in h2g2 guide entries...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A595118

I never assumed that was going off in a huff - and if I had thought that it would be interpreted like that I wouldn't have used it that often. I don't actually use it that often, in fact.

Sorry if I have been banging about the site, slamming doors behind me like a disaffected teenager. Some people! No manners! Just can't get the researchers these days...

I use it as a *must be going now* statement to say that I won't be reading future postings in a particular thread. I also use it if I want to say that I don't want to be involved in the direction an particular thread is going in. You are right Deidzoeb, there *is* more to unsubcribing than meets the eye...

And f course, it doesn't work very well when I sit outside the window eating pie and chips and evesdropping on the conversation inside the pub and popping back in with my two cents.



a lurker called Ben

I guess it depends on the context. At the end of an exchange that has begun to flame, the carries a whiff of brimstone. If flames have not yet begun, no reason to assume *door slamming huff* was intended.

re: pub analogy.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH! Why is h2g2 always a pub!!?!?!?!?

!

Aside:

On usenet there is an ability to place another person in your kill-file. This means you will no longer read any of their posts - they are never even downloaded to your machine. In such places, *plonk* is used to signify the placing of a person in a kill-file. In chat rooms, *squelch* is sometimes used to similar effect.

*plonk*/*squelch* is definately an insult - you are saying, publically, that you believe that this person has absolutely no positive value. It is often used on blatant trolls, for example. It also gives notice that the person has been placed in the kill-file, which will explain subsequent unanswered insults and such.

While it is a kind of nasty thing to do, it often succeeds in rescuing situations which would otherwise devolve. There is no need to get the last word in, so long-running flame wars can evaporate like the morning dew. It also allows drastically incompatible people to co-exist in the same place.

--

I believe I was the first, or one of the first, to use . I used it in Xolin's thread "this site is trite crap", pointing out the existance of the unsubscribe button, and suggesting that those who couldn't respond without suggesting that the poster stick hir head up a pig might be better off not responding. I later took my own advice and 'd. I was definately echoing *plonk* in that.

I post to let people know I'm leaving - generally my final post will give a fairly good hint as to the whys, so it tends to emphasise whatever was said then - whether that be my taking offence, or realising that the conversation I was reading has just become uncomfortably personal.

I've only returned from an on one occasion - I really try to avoid that - like swearing, over-use of reduces its impact. Similarly for -ing and staying subscribed - don't think people don't notice such things. One person who posted three consecutive posts with at the bottom of each just made me laugh - might as well jump up and shout "I'm indecisive... maybe!"

That was probably me in the lifetime ban thread.

Trouble is, what you guys say is just so damn seductive! I keep coming back for more.

***B

Not you Ben - at least you explained why you had come back!

Lucinda - just ductive

Well, so long as no-one is being reductive! btw Peta has offered to respond to specific moderation issues in the Moderation Helpdesk Closed thread - http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F55683?thread=130663&post=1186264#p1186264 It might be worth posting a summary there. Ben