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

Someone suggested that its a BJ smiley...

Can I just say I'm almost (almost, but not quite, my opinion of myself isn't *that* high) offended that nobody asked me to join. Still, found my way here via a bowl of tapioca, so Lucinda, please, put me on the list. Ideas for additional naming:

-since I'm a self-described "apologist for the italics", you might like to list me as "potential double agent"?
-alternatively, since despite being said apologist I've still been, apparently, a bit of an embarrassment (re: what Willem saw), you could try "a wolf in sheep's clothing"
- since the exchange about what confidentiality means and the fact that I (an ignorant engineer) seem to be better legal counsel than H2G2's lawyers last year (any idea who they are? I wish I had a daughter so I could forbid her to marry in case they ended up handling her divorce)... "The barrack room lawyer - kill me last."
-in the context of the previous postings regarding smileys, and also Watergate (yes, Brits do know, at least some of us) and anonymity issues, you might plump for "Deep Throat".
-or more simply than the above, just "a cipher"
- call me a martial artist, and put a link to the entry on Run-Lak Fekh (shameless self promotion)
-or make something up. I leave it to your discretion. I ask only this: if you use something other than any of the above, make me smile, please.

Thanks...
H.

I was trying to figure how Matthew Kershaw might fit into this picture. However, I think that dropping out of h2g2 is a failure to be vocal enough.

Whereas LeKZ should be honorary (since she can't belong to a minority of a group she was kicked out of), Matthew Kershaw should be only "former" because he stopped being vocal.

(I know, I'm not treating this sillilly enough. But can you really hold it against Kershaw if he quit due to disagreement with the Italics? Will we have this same conversation soon about Col. Sellers?)

I hope this place has no real rules for membership, but Hoovooloo, why would you want to belong to this group? The phrase "Small But Vocal Minority" has been applied as an epithet to people who protested against rules or decisions by BBC and the Italics (Matthew Kershaw, Zaphodistas, Friends of LeKZ, other protesters I'm forgetting?). If I remember correctly, you've consisted agreed with the Italics.

You're a vocal individual, but you don't seem to belong to the Small But Vocal Minority that's been described here.

[Not that being vocal is a bad thing! Don't you go changing! There's a whole lot of love in this virtual room! There's a whole lot of vocality in this room!]

Oh, I like Kershaw - hope I didn't give the impression otherwise. I'll have to ask on the List Which Dare Not Speak Its Name, what either of them think. 'Former' for LeKZ. I like that.

HVL - consider yourself a member {and everyone else who asked }

Reply to Subcom.

Hmm. Strictly speaking, I didn't agree with italics (or at least, I don't think so - I'll hold my hand up if I'm on record as saying "I agree" with anything). I defended them. I did so fairly consistently and quite vocally, right up until someone thought to try to tell me what I could and couldn't do with the contents of my email inbox. At that point my response could be paraphrased as "f**k off and don't be so bloody stupid" and to make a point about that as well as something else not unrelated I posted the complete text of an email correspondence with the italics regarding some posts I yikesed to my personal page for 24 hours. I've had the distinct impression that since that, despite trying to seriously point out where the italics are going wrong and how I think they should be behaving, I'm considered a "whinger".

Also, I'm one of the relatively few people not sticking my fingers in my ears and going "lalalalalalalala" and hoping the "Lifetime Suspension" thread just goes away. I'm also, very slowly, trying to bring more people's attention to it. For those reasons, I see myself as part of SBVM, even if nobody else does .

H.
Ploughing my own furrow, possibly in another small but vocal minority of one.

I see you as part of the SBVM, Hoovooloo, don't worry! I'm sure the italics are trumping up charges to get you banned from h2g2 as we speak {though it might take them a while in your case... }

Well, I agree with HVL on a scary number of points (I even thought about suggesting we take a cottage together by the sea, but decided that would be to forward of me).

I consider myself to be a member of the SBVM because I agree with points not people.

Isn't the phrase 'small but vocal minority' tautologous btw?

a logophile called Ben

Personally, I'd rather it was a g-spot smiley, being a gal and all. O thought was the bj smiley.



a girl called Ben

you can have large minorities, and small minorities. For example, the number of researchers who are still at h2g2 is a small minority of the total number of researchers...

There you go Lucinda, your cue to put agcBen down as "Cottage Thief"

Ok - I think the first and most important order of business for the group is to grab some torches and placards and issue a strongly-worded ultimatum demanding immediate smileys for Dr. Pepper™ and Spicy Nacho Doritos™. And can we please f*****g write it in such a f*****g way as to f*****g offend as many f*****g people as we f*****g can?!!??! Thank you.

-7rob7, being whimsical after several weeks of carefully writing stuff to make everybody happy and still not finished...

Sorry, Hoovooloo. Guess I hadn't followed your track record enough to see that you've actually been Vocal in the Small But Minority way.

"Ploughing my own furrow..."

Oo baby, please stop, you're turning me on.

It's not a smiley that can be used in journals or conversation threads, but I designed a table-smiley of a Dr Pepper can which you can find at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A595118

The GuideML code for it is in one of the threads at the bottom of that page.

(You're on your own for the Doritos.)

Re: post 24. Subcom...

If there was any remaining doubt as to my SBVM credentials, check out the thread "some changes you might like to know about". (Like everybody here hasn't already anyway....)

Re: post 27. Lucinda

Maybe not as long as you think, Lucinda...

I see towelmaster is blaming the Small But Vocal Minority for PROVOKING the italics into being 'rude and abusive'. Obviously somebody's upgraded the Mind Trick without telling me about it - tut, tut, tut...

As opposed to the Italics asking us to provide details of why we abuse them, of course...

*Too f*****g tired of this to find it fun any more*

***B

Things Towelmaster says should be taken with a grain of saltmaster.

In my attempts to muster all the Zaphodistas to sign the petition, I asked TM to consider signing. He said that he didn't like how so many changes had been made to the original Zaphodista page after he and others had signed it, so wouldn't sign this petition. I replied by documenting the changes: one correction that was made before anyone had joined or "signed" the page, and several links posted at the top or bottom of the page. No changes to the body of the "declaration" after the signatures were in place.

I suggested that anyone who felt they had been somehow betrayed or misrepresented by the Zaps should ask for their name to be removed.

He made no further defense of his claim that changes had occurred after he signed, but asked to be removed because *get this* too many Zaphodistas seem to support LeKZ!!!! (I wonder if he views the ACEs or subs as all supporting LeKZ if some individuals there do?)

Somebody wake me if he says anything logical on that Soapbox thread...

Wow, the Post!

Uh... I've been debating doing this for a while. I *have* been hanging out on the wrong side of the tracks; that's no secret. I've also been hanging out on the right side a lot lately. (must... edit... Badminton... entry...)

Am I SBVM material? Your call, Lu. I can't bloody decide what I think about all of this. What an amazing place is h2g2! Let's see, titles... (dammit, if I was good at thinking of titles, I'd have joined the Thingites by now; I believe in their cause!) Titles... can I be 'The Indecisive One? There, I can't be indecisive about that choice, I'll just be making a joke. I'm undecided on which minority I belong to, and even on whether I should go back and fix the grammar in that clause...

Or think of a better title, or tell me to piss off.



...but this is a neat idea, Lucinda. Hang in there, eh?

GTB