Posted: 9^th March 2006

The Fail-Safe Topic

When in doubt, an h2g2 commentary can always discuss Douglas Adams. And as I can't think of any of my usual weird subjects this week, DNA seems a perfectly good subject. You see, it's the Great Man's birthday on Saturday, 11 March. He would have been 54.

As I believe I've said before, it's always mildly annoying when people, including h2g2 Researchers, either talk about our Founder as if he were God or create lame imitations of his work. In the first instance, Douglas Adams didn't believe in a god, so to suggest that he was one is sort of a contradiction in terms. (If he were a god he'd also be immortal, and therefore not dead.) In the second instance, whatever the circumstances, using your imagination is always a good thing.

Douglas Adams was a brilliant man and I, like so many others, am devastated by his early death. Having not joined h2g2 until 2004, I keep thinking that maybe, had he lived, I would have been able to come across him on the site or in some other chat opportunity through the site. But in any case, we shouldn't dwell in the past. The future of this site doesn't involve Douglas Adams, and we are moving inexorably towards the future. In the past few days, a group of Researchers have set up shop in forums dedicated to discussing the Peer Review and Flea Market processes. Groups of volunteers and non-volunteers alike have been able to talk about how the system works and ways in which it could be improved. The fact that the Peer Review forum has made the Busiest Conversations list on the Front Page is wonderful to my eyes. A dedicated user base is the way to enlightenment; waiting for the return of the Messiah is going to take a while.

echomikeromeo

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