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

GTB, I appreciate that, that's why I didn't even guess. But there is a thread somewhere where someone asked how long researchers spent online on average, and that got lots of answers.
Would it make any difference if I found that? As I've always been interested in that as well. We celebrated getting to 90000 researchers, but the number of physical people, rather than accounts is probably the same five people, being very busy.

"Would it make any difference if I found that?"

Well, given that there are usually an average of 60 people logged on pretty much of the time (is this a good 24/7 average?), if I knew how many hours per day (or better, per week) the average researcher spent online, I could tell you how many active researchers that is. Even something kind of close would be better than nothing at all. My mathematical powers are at your disposal.

Actually, here's the formula: 60 researchers online, most of the time, is:

60*24*7 = 10080 researcher-hours per week

Figure out how many hours the average researcher is online per week, and divide. If the average active researcher is online 10 hours per week, that's about a thousand active researchers.



Here's an experiment that should also give an approximate figure.

1. List all the active researchers you "know" (whatever that word means to you). Count up how many that is.

2. Go to the Who's Online page, and see what fraction of the researchers online you know.

3. Repeat step 2 at different times of day, etc, and take an average. If it turns out that you "know" 20% of the researchers online, then the number of total researchers you "know" from step 1 is 20% of the total number of active researchers. Multiply, divide, share and enjoy.

Thanks. I can't get the search engine to work atm, so I'll have to find that thread another time.

There's a drop-down list of people on my personal space, Mina.
Researchers I have met. Physically in the flesh. I can't guarantee that they haven't got other h2g2 personas....
If that helps.

GTB - 10 hours a week?Are you kidding?

Is that average?

Nice to know I'm way above average in some things

I dunno *what's* average. I'm closer to 40 or 50 hrs/week, I think.



OTOH, AGB, the list on your page could be a perfect sample. It doesn't matter how the list was generated. If people can check several times, at different times of day and days of the week, what fraction (eg, 15 out of 42) of the people online, excluding italics and "new this week"s are on AGB's list, and post the results here, then we can get an honest-to-Zarquon study going here.

Maybe we should start a new thread for it?

Does this sound like a fun idea to anyone else? I think that we on this thread already cover a lot of time zones (Nairobi, here), so we should be able to get a good sample pretty quickly.

We'll just have to let multiple h2g2 personas be a possible source of error, unless someone can think of a good way of dealing with it.

Definately start a new thread

Seconded.

Apologies for butting in - but I might have some numbers you could use. Just let me know if you could do with some more.

Er, hi there,

I come into the 'read some of the threads about all this unpleasantness and kept out of the aftermath' category. I read all kinds of wierd things about people I'd never heard of and *heavy* politico-philosophical discussions about 'rights', 'ethics', 'freedom', 'dictatorship', 'defamation' ... The list goes on. One specific reference that comes up again and again though, and lends a sinister aspect to some postings, is the saving of a life at some specific moment as a result of h2g2.

I can see a lot of noses got put seriously out of joint in one way or another. I don't know how I first became aware of it, but frankly (and here's why I am posting on the subject after remaining resolutely outside it all for a while) it seems to me to have been the most 'popular' topic of conversation here for some time.

Some people here were wondering what it looked like from the point of view of an outsider (and relative 'newbie'). Well, it all seems to have been rather unpleasant and many of what are clearly the core contributors to the guide and its threads have obviously been involved. I don't feel qualified to comment on the specifics, as I was not involved myself. Generally speaking it seems to have hit the fan big-style and it's going everywhere! I suppose the point I am making is that it has been unavoidable to someone (like me) trying to work out what h2g2 is all about.

I think Hoovooloo seems to have a good point when he highlights some positive things that have come out of it. Changes to how things work on the site, etc.

And I would like to thank Lucinda et al for making me laugh heartily tonight while reading this (relatively short for this issue!) backlog.

The image of an anti-classical music activist heckling people as they arrive at their concert elicited a much-appreciated guffaw from this 'lurker' ("Oi, you. Yeah, you. Classical Music's crap! Why are you wasting your time with that b*****ks?).

I hope you all work it out, because various people have apparently stopped being friends, or worse, as a result of this. Clearly its going to carry on for a fair while yet.

Bizarrely, some of it actually makes quite compelling reading. It's a bit like a scene in a film or a book where everyone involved clearly knows each other but you are a complete outsider and have to piece together the hints at the characters' personalities, outlooks, etc. This is not strictly my case, as I have had some contact with *some* people who seem to be involved (to a greater or lesser extent).

I hope that doesn't sound to wierd! But you are all aware that this whole thing is *public*, so I can't see that you can find it worrying in any way. It's not meant to be.

Finally, I have been quite conscious in writing this of avoiding rocking the boat or being contentious or even (though I don't think I'm in any danger of this just now) of being offensive, which is clearly at the core of the whole issue. This seems a shame (not the 'offensive' bit. I always try to avoid that! ). Another pillar of the whole argument seems to be free expression. This is my (probably ill-advised) attempt at expressing myself freely on your difficulties.

Please don't lambast me for talking about an issue that is really none of my business. I have only done so because I thought you seemed to feel that it would be interesting to know what 'outsiders' thought about it all. Also, please don't think that I want to get involved. I really don't.

For what it's worth
Spiff

Your opinion is very important to us.
Thank you.

The Great H2G2 Researcher Count! - Come and help count researchers! Data gathering thread: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F41297?thread=153345 Project HQ: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A662474

I hope some of you will excuse me for dredging this out of the backlog, but a four-day weekend kept this from my attention until now...

Tefkat: Congratulations for posting exactly the sort of thing I was trying to avoid. You're doing a fine job of over-generalizing and making ad-hominem attacks, and the best part is that, since your involvement has been sporadic at best, you're far less qualified than just about anyone else in this conversation to make such statements. Making statements like these without knowing the facts is the very definition of "talking out of your ass."

I suggest you examine your own hubris before you make statements about the hubris of others.

"It takes moral courage and strength to openly challenge authority figures? Excuse me. It takes arrogance and a belief in your own superiority." - I guess that I suffer from the same terrible character flaw as Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, and Nelson Mandela. I know that if I work hard enough to overcome my own hubris, I can become a harmless and useless member of society. If *only* I could be more average ...


Colonel Sellers, overtly gifted, but in no way isolated or lonely

Hi Col Sellers, welcome back!

Coupla things before anyone else jumps in...

Don't discount the possibility that Tefkat knows a LOT more than she lets on (which doesn't excuse ad hominem whatevers...) , and is more directly involved than we know. It's possible. I don't know the full extent of the facts and I suspect neither do you. Just a thought... (and calling it that might be dignifying it overly...)

Second...
"If *only* I could be more average ..."
Is that the sound of a repentant Harlequin? Say it ain't so!

H.
Arrogant and believing in my own superiority. Kind of.

Dittoo.

Ha ha ha ? I nearly believed it myself.
Colonel, you wish you could be more average? Well, for those of you that came in late, let's try a little pop quiz;
1) Which of the following campaigners for social justice stated that another rearcher on this site had no redeeming features at all? Was it a) Gandhi b) Nelson Mandela c) Colonel Sellars
2) Which of the following great figures of world history stated that someone should not "bother f***ing replying" to a vitriolic attack on them as they had nothing to say that would sway the speakers mind? Was it a) Martin Luther b) Colonel Sellars C) Martin Luther King Jr.?
3) Which of the following great thinkers thought that referring to someone as "chubby fingered" was an effective method of discourse and somehow helped their argument. Was it a) Colonel Sellars b) Benjamin Franklin c) Gandhi?
Like some other people on this site, Colonel, you have a rather over inflated sense of self. Comparing yourself with any of the figures you mentioned was, frankly an insult to them. You really believe that anything that happens on this site can be compared with the system of apartheid, and that even if it was, you would be a Nelson Mandela for us? Or perhaps like Martin Luther King, you will bring us all to the mountain and let us view the promised land through your efforts alone?
You belittle all these great men by comparing your frankly petty vendetta's and bickering here with their struggles. If you want to mention them in the same breath as yourself, I think you'll find that the Middle East is in need of a peace process, or you could try Afghanistan. They need a great man of clear intellect and way above average intelligence to help them reach a solution that won't plunge them into bloody civil war. I'm sure they would appreciate your help and guidance, oh great one.

using a sledgehammer to crack a very, very small nut

BluesShark: Since you have no grasp of context, I'll state in painfully obvious language with small words what I intended to accomplish with the references to Gandhi, etc.

Those people resisted power. I resist power. If I do so from hubris, so do they. Ergo (a fancy Latin word meaning "therefore"), resisting power is not, in and of itself, a bad thing.

But please, carry on your character assassination. Please provide evidence of your claims. You only discredit yourself by entering into such a petty and pointless exchange.

At least I respect you enough to spell your name correctly...

Colonel SellErs

Actually, I'd be eager to enter into a discussion with you on those very examples you provided. Naturally, I'll have to present them in their proper context, as they were addressed to someone who continued her presence in a private email list where it was not only unwelcome, but counterproductive, and to the person who admittedly, from pure malice and spite, manufactured claims of illegal activity to the list's host, which were directly responsible for the shutdown of said list.

I can, naturally, provide full evidence of this claim, and am prepared to do so. Would you like to take this conversation further?

Even sweet old Ben Franklin was rude to people who deserved it... he even disowned his own Tory son...

A rose by any other name, my dear Colonel. Apologies for the mis-spelling, nothing intentional. A faulty memory is all.
I am perfectly well aware what you intended, and, for that matter what ergo means. Context is generally everything, and in context (ie the surrounding words or circumstances) you compared yourself to those men, and do it again now. I just wondered if you could see the irony about what you were saying.
Obviously you can't. Otherwise you still wouldn't be claiming that what you are doing here was "resisting power". If the H2G2 editors represent "power" to you, then your world, is, I'd hazard, pretty parochial. So far as I am aware, there is no forced labour being carried out here requiring people to stay in a place they do not wish to be. There are no machine gun posts fenced with razor wire requiring that we contribute here. There is a requirement that you observe the rules, but that's how civilized society's work. Anarchy's an interesting theory, but it isn't long before people are saying anything they like about their neighbours, and then your neighbours start burning your house down.
Oh, and you could have found all the proof of those things in your e-mail of 04/11/01 on the place that isn't there anymore. And you know it. That e-mail pretty much fitted the bill for "character assassination". Especially as those being attacked weren't allowed to reply. Doubtless you would say that that is the problem here, but the crucial difference is that here, you can't just libel people and then deny the right to reply, which happened pretty regularly over there, from what I saw.