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

When we think about the way that the Friends function works on Facebook, there's a lot of scope for new (and apparently existing) users to make reasonable but wrong assumptions about the obscurity of their journal entries.

WOuld it be worth updating the text by the Journal entry window to say what it says now, plus "Journals posted here show in Search results and in the list of conversation in the <./>Info</.> page."?

This means it would read:



We all lead interesting lives, and your Journal is the place to tell everyone exactly what makes your days buzz by. Here you can talk about what you're thinking of doing, what you think about what you're thinking of doing, and when you're thinking of doing it, because, unlike Guide Entries, Journal Entries are associated with specific points in time.

Think of your Journal as your personal diary. If you want to preserve your writing in a more permanent format you might like to create a Guide Entry, but remember that everything you write is always part of the Guide, and other visitors to your page can still read what you've said, and discuss it. Journals posted here show in Search results and in the list of conversation in the <./>Info</.> page.



Reading it now, the whole text needs re-writing, but this might be a quick-and-easy reminder of the status of journals.

>but wrong assumptions about the obscurity of their journal entries.<

Such as?

I don't know any existing users who make assumptions about the obscurity of their journal entries.

Everyone here knows everything is PUBLIC.

But certainly the way a site is designed and structured will affect the way things are done and the kind of community resulting and evolving.

One only has to pop across the Channel to see 'difference'. And yet the people there are as human as those this side. (but there will probably be a small percentage of sociopathic types in all communities...that's an unfortunate fact of life.)

Some types may well be attracted to a 'community' which has a structure such as an 'info page'..which automatically shows every single updated conversation on a site, including messages left for a person on their PS..which are naturally aimed at that person...as well as Journal entries..which can be more or less personal in tone.

Awareness of the way the 'info' page will automatically show *all* posts on site is certainly something for everyone to be made aware of, because it means those people that enjoy voyeurism to a greater degree will be watching that.

You'd have to be pretty thick to be here for several years and not realise the way some people behave in respect to obsessive voyeurism.

If those sort of people have to make a bit effort to search around that can only be a good thing IMO.

But this is a subject that can be discussed *honestly* with regard to the way human beings can behave, frequently irrationally. That's hard *fact* You have to be very thick indeed not to accept that fact.

Or some tedious game of trying to win a discussion.

It would appear, Effers, that this suggestion was made as a reaction to your thread yesterday about the <./>info</.> page. Blue is trying to propose a solution to the concerns you raised.

Haranguing someone for attempting to be helpful doesn't exact foster community spirit, as far as I can see.

Oh, and nobody is engaged in voyeurism onsite either. It's not technically possible here, and there are loads of other internet sites were it is positively encouraged. I think I know what you are trying to say, but that really is the wrong word.


Geggs

My experience is that indeed some people do behave in way that you would rarely encounter in real life where you don't get such large numbers of keyboard warriors..and obsessive voyeurs.

It's pretty easy to spot the patterns.

Anyway I've clearly made my point by referring to the way societies are structured, and that will affect the way they develop, as it affect people's behaviour.

If you went to a party in real life where all conversations were PUBLIC and the party was organised in a certain way that all conversations could be monitored rather than people mingling with each other...getting to know one another etc you'd have a pss poor party IMO.

But I'll leave now. I've made my point *here* abundantly clear.

Oh.

Well, yes, everyone that's been here for a long time is aware that everything posted on h2g2 is public and permanent, but new people wouldn't necessarily be (and, after all, when's the last time someone that's been here forever noticed, much less actually *read* the bit above the text box when you go to post a journal? I'll admit that I forgot that there was even anything there)

> I don't know any existing users who make assumptions about the obscurity of their journal entries.

Oh, so you were lying the other week when you said that you'd made incorrect assumptions about the obscurity of your journals?

TRiG.