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

We have updated the House Rules to state that we do not allow URLs in Nicknames.

This is not a new policy, it has been in place for sometime but it was not specifically mentioned in the House Rules. This caused confusion for many Researchers whose names were failed on this basis. Following a request from the Community, we have rectified this and it can now be found under the sections entitled 'Please don't impersonate others' and 'Only include suitable URLs in your contributions'.

The h2g2 Editors

I didn't even know you could put URL's in nicknames!

I don't even know what a URL is!

how did you get here?

A URL is a web address such as www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2

*Processes this for a few seconds*
*Dumb look*
*Dumber look*
*Lightens up*
Oooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh-I see!

Actually, it's not.

A URL (Universal Resource Locator) looks like this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Login
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/
mailto:[email protected]

etc.

Actually, it's a *Uniform* Resouce Locator ...

Oh well, I got the 'U' bit right

become net professor
http://www.netlingo.com/

Of course, URLs are really only a kind of limited version of URIs (Uniform Resource Indicators) which are used for all kinds of things - JDBC (Java DataBase Connectivity) database server paths spring most immediately to mind, much as I wish they didn't - things like

mysql://localhost:username:password/database

And so on.

Lets get back on topic. Normal researcher's translation of Post #1:

Don't put web addresses* into your nicknames because, thanks to some amazing BBCi reasoning, you're not allowed to. So there. By the way, we've actually had this policy in place for some time, but we're only telling you know because all of the controversy over the other Announcements threads has finally finished**.

=======

*For : Yes, I know what the differences between web addresses and URLs is, but this is supposed to be a general announcement.

** This translation is not endorsed by BBCi, the Italics or 'The h2g2 Editors'.

'Clarification of last post ('cause I'm not an italic and therefore can't edit my posts ):

'we're only telling you know' = 'we're only telling you now'
'For : Yes...' = 'For s: Yes'

Yes, I'm a . I like it that way.

Watch out! It'll be s at ten paces!

*doesn't see any handbags*

I was going to say something pithy and insightful here but somehow I can't be bothered.

Like the Translation Robert

manda

You're welcome ! I was going to make it a /little/ more sarcastic, but I figured it might get moderated .