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

Inglish wot we speek in PckeM mate... ond mi vex.

(Seriously I think it's ridiculous not to have British English as the standard for the Edited Guide given the cultural connection and tradition of Hitchhikers.

Why should US English be singled out as to be used if needs be? I think that is a totally stupid idea..(Plain speakin')

If they bring in languages such as Greek, does that mean i can write in classical Greek (that would take me a while, but still)?

I don't think so, that's all double dutch to me.

Everyone spoke English, often to each other, last time I went to Netherlands

You'd have to write the Greek in GuideML code, letter by letter...

...and you know, I don't think we can get the rough and smooth breathing marks. I remember running into that problem before.

I'm still waiting for Pastey to put in those Romanian diacriticals so I can write about Nadia Comaneci.

Yes i remember having that problem when i wanted to write something for my only ever post entry (it was one sentence, and i took me around 90minutes)

-actually, my only individual post entry, that "test entry" got posted, and i was part of that

I think we should have more collaborative Post entries...

And yeah, it takes forever. The last time, all I wanted to write was 'Mickey Mouse' in Greek, too...

Well I have one lined up to write in Taki Taki.

(A three way mix of 17th century tribal African, (From where the slaves were seized somewhere in west Africa; 17th century Portuguese and 17th century English.

Academics describe it as a simple language.

I'll do translations for the African and Portuguese bits but keep the 17th century English bits

Interesting conversation... after wading through most of the backlog I must admit I couldn't give a damn about the actual issue...

British English, US English... I personally would have set the bar at 'British English by default but other spelling and grammar can be used if editorially necessary'.

But that's where I think this whole thing falls down...

It's not about how we spell the word meter/metre... It's how the decision-making process is organised.

I've heard things like "It was discussed with the community", whereas it's patently obvious that for many people who are involved in this conversation, this thread is the first they've heard about it.

I've read stuff like "We didn't tell you because the decision hasn't been implemented yet"... which I read is "we've taken the decision but haven't had the time to update the house rules yet."

A word to the editorial team and current 'staff'...

Read this please, one of a wonderful set of articles on how to run an on-line community, by Peta (who should know what she's talking about):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/A787223

Or in short:

"Forcing plans or new organisational structures upon a community will only be met with resentment and antagonism unless the proposed changes are discussed with the members first."

Bingo! And there we have it... Exactly where we are today.

If you want to involve people, post a question in 'Ask', of course you're going to get biaised opinions and unhappy people once any decision is made - and you'll not always get a balanced view of what the silent majority prefer (and of course the final decision rests with the people who hold the chequebook and pay the electricity bills to run the servers) - but the alternative, shutting yourselves off from the wider community and using smaller more insular groups to help you make decisions is only going to alienate you from a lot of people.

To be honest, personally I've never felt more removed from the people running this site than I do right now...
I've been here an awfully long time, and throughout the period the site was run by 'professional' full-time staff, I knew who was running the place, I could find them easily, I could pick them out in conversations... Now, all of a sudden, decisions are being made by 'unknown individuals'.
Some people seem to be speaking up on behalf of some organisation I know nothing about, are they talking officially or offering personal opinions as researchers? There's no way of knowing...

Decisions are being taken (by whom?) after being 'discussed with the community', a community I no longer feel part of!, because I'd no idea these 'discussions' were taking place.

More transparency guys!

Pretty much the same people are running things, though there is a final choice, Noesis has yet to exercise it. Though yes, posting it first would probably have been a good thing, regardless of any effect that it may/not have had - something for next time?

Truth, as commented there, is something that i will always think of our SVs, no memory of them lying while I'm around.

Well I take that back, I think it dangerous to trust many of our SVs...just not in site matters per se

And let me take that last post as an example...

And I'm in no way trying to personally attack you Nosebagbadger...

"Pretty much the same people are running things"...

Who are these people? I know about 4 names of people who were seriously involved in the community consortium, but that's about all...


"Posting first would probably have been a good thing"...

Thanks, but this highlights yet another one of my problems... I've no way of knowing whether you're talking as a researcher who's agreeing with me, as an 'Ace' expressing their opinion or are you one of the people who actually are in on the decision making processes?

Whiskey's post speaks for me too

post 249 just to be clear

And me.

I agree with much of your post, Whisky.

But: "decisions are being made by 'unknown individuals'"

You mean the good people who bust a gut to ensure our continued existence with the least objectionable shareholders? I don't know about the majority view, but I trust them to look after our interests. We can always vote them out when the time comes.

U14914070

I recognise the name of most of the people who are listed in the groups controlling things

My comments were by myself, not as an ACE, where I would only comment on person to person issues without asking the others.

Though i disagree with how you comment on it, I will at appreciate the civility and ideas, unlike some who seem to appear, insult and offer no helpful suggestions

RE, no-one disputes the amazing job done by people to find a way to save h2g2...least of all me. In various places of praised that.

But the fact is the decision was made to form a private limited company...with two other partners. One seems pretty much sleeping to me, ie Robbie...he has all the street cred to make us still be h2g2...but where on earth is he in a practical sense to bolster our h2g2 identity as individual posters here?

Noesis seem about as far away conceptually from h2g2 as you could imagine. The site where so many discussions happened, and where we spent a couple of weeks is a total morgue. Just do the research there...I did. They also have something called worldchat which has millions of members apparently, (Dr. Zen has a link) it's about as a trivial thing as you could imagine.

Ally and Brian are involved from Noesis. I never once saw them post about anything to do with the philosophy of Hitchhikers. Did anyone at Noesis ever listen to the plays or read them? I don't think so.

And there's a Consortium..which I can't make no tail of as an actual structure to do with a philosophy of 'hitchhikers'. They did all their discussing at Noesis.

It's a dog's breakfast in IMO to be honest.

We exist in NAME only.

People will rightly be fed up. A lot more honesty needs to be forthcoming about how much power anyone has without a financial input.

Yes good people did good stuff. That was the past.

Rudest Elf...
>>>You mean the good people who bust a gut to ensure our continued existence with the least objectionable shareholders?

Quite probably - But that's my problem - I don't know who's making the decisions - it's difficult to trust an unknown.



Tavaron...
>>>U14914070

Sorry, but that's another example of a _lack_ of communications - starting new accounts to help communications but not telling anyone they're there... The account points towards the announcement page but there's no announcement on that page that this account exists... And it hasn't exactly been overactive in the communications field.

effers? i am just curious about one thing
what do you suggest be done?
clearly and succinctly please
thank