If h2g2 Never Existed… (III)
Created | Updated May 5, 2019
If h2g2 Never Existed… (III)
Back in January, I somehow got to thinking of some what – ifs in my life, including what if I'd not found h2g2, which morphed into what if h2g2 didn't exist at all? Then I started wondering who else had lives that would've been different. And then, the dangerous part – I decided to ask1.
If h2g2 never existed...
Some folks posted responses that didn't seem quite so stream-of-consciousness at the time, but out of context, do a bit...
Friends from around the world2
GuideML, which lead me to now work with html and JavaScript every day, and I love it!
Milla
if h2g2 didn’t exist
1) I wouldn’t have met Belana, so not visited Frankfurt or Mannheim. A friend for life.
2) I wouldn’t have met SuperFrenchie so wouldn’t have visited Rheims and another special friend for life.
3) I wouldn’t have met Gerald’s Groupies
as I organised the Meet based on H2G2 meets I’d been to.
4) I wouldn’t have met my Fiancé who I met via FB but in RL through 3.
5) I wouldn’t have broken out of my shell and actually mixed with a group, let alone a group of people I’d never met.
6) I’d not have met Gnomon, GB, lil, Captain Moonhog et al and had a couple of great meets in Hull (How I miss those Meets!!!
7) I wouldn’t have had the courage to arrange tours around London or Kew and so build up my confidence.
There are so many more.
Basically h2g2 has been about a great bunch of people helping a great bunch of people, being for a great bunch of people, supporting a great bunch of people and I am forever grateful.
When’s the next Meet? ??
MMF
If h2g2 never existed I wouldn't have been sorting old music scores with Sara this morning, I wouldn't have had lunch in Restaurant Schnabel at lunch, and I wouldn't have been supervising the special collections reading room this afternoon. That's just today, but for every single day the last 17 years, I could make a (longer) list of things that would have been different if h2g2 never existed.
Oh, and I wouldn't have met a bunch of people including the person responsible for every single day having been different – but I might have been better at following directions3? (Probably not!)
Ottox
h2g2 told me two valuable life lessons:
1. The SEP solution. More often than not it really isn't your problem so just shut up and walk away. (Sometimes you need to make it your problem, of course, but that's different.)
2. The point is that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later. This has literally saved me at least 42 times!
Add to this all the lovely friends I gathered from all four corners of the disc!
Some moved from state to state or country to country to partner with other researchers. Some even moved from continent to continent eventually ending up on a third continent!
Pierce the Pirate
Not everyone has fond memories of their whole time on h2g2, though they do think of some of their time here with fondness...
I was on H2 for a long time. Stopped visiting when it was no longer a nice place to be. There was too much bitching, political arguments and everything just go so nasty. I did a couple of articles while there and enjoyed that experience. I did make a few life long friends there and to that end I am grateful. I would never have visited Canada if it was'nt for hootoo. I wouldnt have a first idea how to log in there now4.
Venus
And, of course, the most important thing that could never have existed without h2g2...
i love this idea! honestly... i never knew so many things were 2legs fault before H2 G 2
lostmonalisa
Stay tuned for Part Four!
1Order doesn't matter for this series, so you can read this first, then go to PartOne or Two.2There was originally a heart here that didn't survive copy/pasting...3Referring to my complaint earlier that hardly anyone was PMing me their responses/PMing me for my email address to send their response to, instead contributing to a multi-threaded comment list that ended up at 270 strong...4I told her to email the Mods.
