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

Hi Mikey, that's an interesting idea. Not sure I could come up with enough material to really do an entry, but I will do some searches and see what I can come up with.

JE

Hi Stuart, "hypergraphia" is a clinical term for the type of excessive and incomprehensible writing often associated with psychosis. People can write for days in such a state, not stopping to sleep or even eat. What they write is intensely meaningful to them, but can't be understood by anyone else. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I have experienced hypergraphia myself, and from my personal experience I would have to say that Holly Examination's writing is a perfect example of this.

JE

So what do you suggest we do about this character?

I think you'll just have to continue to ignore him or her, or yikes them. If you offer constructive criticism, like "this is not an appropriate place for your writing", they're not going to be able to follow what you're saying, not if they're psychotic. So I take it this has been happening a lot? I wonder if it is the same person, registering under different names.

JE

Very probably. In defense of our less-than-sympathetic approach, we people who spend a lot of time in PR are only trying to make light of a rather irksome situation. I also think it's fair to say that he/she is *not* obviously psychotic. Most of us have never met a psychotic person (although I was raised by one with a personality disorder) and we find it very difficult to recognise the signs. All we see is someone who insists on ignoring our pleas and submits very eccentric piles of c**p to PR. He/she offloads on us, we offload in our own way.

Anyway, thanks for shedding some light on this whole business.

fm

Hi JEllenJ42,

Thanks for that JE. It would explain a lot. There have been a few cases like this recentley, although in this case I suspect it is a non-English speaker using machine translation or perhaps even just a dictionary.

Stuart

I tell you, it's really eerie reading Holly's stuff, it's so much like what I wrote when I was ill. I'd post some of mine for comparison, but it all got thrown away while I was in the hospital. Jumbled phrases, highly religious imagery, odd emphasis, it's all there. My experience was back in 1993 - I haven't thought about it in a while.

JEllenJ42, it seems like "pressured speech" put on paper. I can actually see the mechanations behind it a bit, and it is amazing in its own right. It's like abstract poetry, if you read it with the right attitude. Having had a manic episode induced from an allergy to medication, I have sympathy and a deeper understanding of your concern. I think the others are done having their fun, and are now seriously interested in a solution to the problem of these frequent posts.

Personally, I think it's not so hard to ignore, so that is the best solution for what to do with the entries. It really would be great to put these all together, linked by an article on the condition. I know you are worried about how much you could write. But, I think if you "cut to the chase" and provided a venue for the links, you would be doing a service for everyone. You could always get some help co-writing during peer-review.

There are many people with mental affectations who find online communities to be an excellent venue, I would be willing to help with some content in this direction in general if you are willing to take a few hours and make this happen. Let me know.

I've gathered together links to all the entries I could find at A1007993. I think they are all the same person even though they are registeredas four different researchers.

Well, that gives a place for them to go... an Asylum for Wayward Entries, so to speak.

I will look them over later and see if I can find a pattern or consistency. We might want to just organize by date and not label these as written by affectives. I can write something to let people know that these are Last Bus Shelter entries, of a sort. Lemme know.

*signs off to get some sleep*

"I think the others are done having their fun"

I wouldn't quite put it like that, mate. We're hardly thugs goading a cripple here. Don't forget that it's *us* who originally and very politely tried to deal with this person in as constructive a fashion as possible. Our present attitude arises from desparation rather than anything more malign.

Sorry, it was a statement meant to diffuse things, so we can spend our energy coming up with a more permanent solution (like beer, eh? ). No doubt you have been put out by these entries, it was not my intention to sound judgemental.

Beer sounds fine to me. better than what the Bus Shelter inhabitants have to make do with, eh?

That should be enough to get us started!

The bully-slayer has returned to PR by the way: now has the name of Haven Bridge Moore. I'd like to ask for suggestions as to how me might politley and constructively deal with this misbegotten individual.

To keep the guide growing, we need a steady supply of new stuff coming into Peer Review. It has to be easy for people to submit stuff, otherwise only a small number of writers will bother. We'll have to put up with a certain amount of the wrong sort of stuff being put in, sometimes repeatedly as in "Holly Examination" or "Bullies are Evil". The best way to deal with it is to have a pre-prepared polite reply which we give every time something like this is submit, then to give it no further thought.

Good idea. The equivalent of the 'rejection slip'.

Yes.

Authors of less extreme 'wrong entries' on their first try may well come back with a right entry if a polite explanation is given. I can think of a few examples.

On the more extreme cases, it probably doesn't matter what is written, as they don't seem to read it anyway. Polite but firm I guess.

I still think the shelter has its place.

Sprout

I think the Shelter has two functions:
* a subversive offloading
* an ultimate sanction with which to threaten PR pests.

But it needs more occupants! Get writing!