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

Please post character witness statements for the ban of Satyagraha here.

Just spent MORE time lurking threads.
Definately LeKZ.
Defending "Quincy", no doubts.
I'm *really* annoyed that this has involved two of my friends, who probably don't know who LeKZ is, and I've had the unsavory task of emailing them {one a 16 y.o. girl who had given "Satyagraha" her email address} to tell them the bad news.

Yet another LeKZ invention, ban ban ban.

This *is* getting tedious.
For the record, I am justt *incredibly* suspicious of any newbie who ends up posting in the highly controversial threads first.
I was here for a year before I even discovered stuff like this went on, for heaven's sake.

This is *not* a 'request'/'vote'/'demand' to ban Satyagraha.

It is intended as a 'character witness' on the only aspect of this business that I feel I can contribute positively to.

So, for what it's worth, I found the 'I can't write English very good' comments and the overall style of a native French-speaker struggling with English rather unconvincing. There were some 'false-false-friends' and some fairly elaborate constructions in English.

I am a native English-speaker living in France and (although I don't like the word fluent, it is bandied about too often, IMHO) I believe my French is of a high standard. This 'Franglais' looks like a fake *to me*.

I am not willing to claim outright that Satyagraha *could not* be the native-French speaker s/he claims to be. There is simply no way to establish that on the evidence, as far as I can see.

I am willing to state that it struck a false note with me as a French speaker.

Finally, I think it is worth mentioning that I am in no way suggesting that people shouldn't be allowed to be French, Norwegian, Afghani or any other nationality. That is not my point at all. I does seem though, that this person's 'true' nationality is one of the few relatively 'concrete' elements in the case for them being here under false pretences, possibly (or 'eventually' as a French national might mistakenly say ) because they have previously been banned under another ID.

Seeya
Spiff

*trying to be objective and to contribute positively*

Pssst! Hey, Blues Shark. I was here for a whopping three weeks when the initial Arpeggio Ban plunked into the pond and here we are in the ripples still... Newness doesn't always deserve suspicion.

Which is to suggest nothing one way or the other about the subject of this thread; just wanted to comment on the comment.

I agree with Spiff that this didn't appear to be a native French speaker struggling with English - we've a few non-English folks on h2g2, and stylistically there did seem to be differences.

If I recall, LeKZ does speak some French. This may be relevant.

-X

7Rob7, point taken, though I would have to say that I was blissfully unaware of the Arpeggio stuff, and I had been onsite some six months, I think, until I went to a meet up.
There is a world of difference, as well, between 'being aware' and suddenly arriving, 'loading for bear' and blasting both barrels at the editors?

woefully off topic.

We have added some new trace information to the 'Suspension of Satyagraha's h2g2 Account' page which we believe is relevant.

Ban.

H.

I'm only character-witnessing the language used, with a warning.

The language styles used were, yes, overpowering. In fact, my friend who comes from Mauritius (French Africa) speaks with the equivalent style. In all of the Satyagraha posts I read, she mentions Quebec and various other French-speaking countries, but definitively posts that she comes from France Mainland, in Europe. My instinctive gut feeling, sorry, is 'Ham'. If she'd said she'd come from Mauritius, I may have sat on the fence a bit more, but since she didn't, and based on the location of her ISP, I'm on the side of the Ban.

Oh, and for the record, I admire the concept of Satyagraha [an ethic of Non-Violence] and for that reason I disagree with the subject-line. The fair and open way in which this is being discussed doesn't cause my conscience any pangs, though!

x x Fenny (Universal Tolerance for all)

> "There is a world of difference, as well, between 'being aware' and suddenly arriving, 'loading for bear' and blasting both barrels at the editors?"

If I recall, One of the first things I came across at h2g2 was the umm 'discussion' between Matthew Kershaw and the Editors. If, like me, you're interested in the politics of places like h2g2, then such things are hard to miss.

On the other hand, people may recall the genius that was Xolin, who's very first post was 'this site is trite crap'. Oh, happy days...

-Xanthia (loading for mammoth)

If it walks like a duck, acts like a duck and swims in the same pond as other ducks - what are the odds that it's a lobster?

The info about the IP trace is enough for me.

Ban away you crazy italics!

Satyagraha appears to be an American pretending to be French, with good grasp of English grammar. How many French people do you know who know that the archaic familiar second-person singular in English is "thou"?

Satyagraha's only posting other than statements in defence of Quincy were a comment on that great American, Thomas Alva Edison.

Does this remind you of anybody?

Hi Gnomon,

Just a word about the archaic 2nd person sing form 'thou'.

Although I think Saty's 'Franglais' does not ring true, this is one thing that a native French-speaker might well pick up on, if at a relatively advanced level of English study.

The simple reason being the 'absence' of the distinction between the casual 'tu' 2nd pers sing vs the more formal (as well as plural) 'vous' form.

Just a thought.

Seeya
Spiff

Anyone with much school which included English would have seen some Shakespeare, with all of his thous and stuff. He's sort of part of the canon of western lit, right?

I don't know crap of French, but I took a coupla years in college, and that involved reading Racine. I understand that his classical French involves stuff that modern speakers don't necessarily know. If I'd been a better student, or liked Racine much, or continued with my French, I might remember/use some of his phrasings.

It's hardly proof that the poor guy's LeKZ.

And when has LeKZ ever said anything about Thomas Alva Edison? He wasn't even a communist, was he?

For anyone who feels that the fake-sounding francophone English would not be produced by any LeKZ personality, I would like to draw attention to LeKZ's own website, where her doubly mis-spelt 'Síobhan Ní Breáthnach' personality has written the most excruciatingly stagey-sounding 'Irish' idiom I've seen in years.

If she considers her alters' various experiences to be totally real, then it would hardly occur to her to question the authenticity of their writing style, though I think any actual Irish or Scottish person would cringe reading her 'Gaelic Gals' personalities.

To me, it seems very plausible that she could produce Satyagraha's kind of style, and totally fail to recognise how 'off' it sounds to nearly everyone else.

Azara

Just passing through h2g2 when I stumbled on all this again. Honestly, I know it's not funny, but I had to laugh. I just cannot believe it!

Lekz is back under at least 3 accounts - Quincy, Wallflower and Satyagraha. This time it seems she's gotten someone to set up the accounts on her behalf and they are carrying and editing her communications. Thus Barton, David etc can say 'This is not Lekz' and be technically correct whilst twisting the truth to suit them as usual. Nice try guys.

Insightful, Clay Toy. Here, let's try this.

Hey, David/NBY! Are *you* (or any alter of yours) operating any of these new accounts (Quincy, Satyagraha, Wallflower, etc)? And if so, who cares? You're Not Banned Yet!

Hey... wait a second... I'm suddenly not sure that this is really Clay Toy we're dealing with! Everything in that post was spelled correctly. Clay Toy, I think you're LeKZ!

I've had a quick look at user page and some postings, and the language errors are not consequent and are not the kind of errors I'd make myself (English is a foreign language to me).

I know some French, and I've heard French people speaking not very good English when I used to work in the front office of a hotel, and the errors they made were different...