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

Ok - so I don't have a sense of perspective. I consider the systematic brutalisation of 20,000,000 people, genocide and the killing of half a million people as more important than a f**king website, so much so that it is obscene to put them in the same sentance. But that isn't a sense of perspective...

What IS a sense of perspective then? The English language has just broken in my hands, I don't know how to use it to communicate with you, spook.

H2G2 is neither a town nor a hotel. It is a website. To call it a hotel is to use an analogy or a metaphor. To call it a town is to use an analogy or a metaphor. Analogies and metaphors are useful lies. Your lie works for you. My lie works for me. There is some truth in both of them, but they are both lies.

Personally I don't give a s**t about the BBC's policy on Iraq. I am however completely terrified by Bush's policy on Iraq, I am disgusted by Blair's policy on Iraq, I am saddened by the failure of the UN's policy on Iraq.

But the BBC's policy on Iraq is a matter so trivial compared with the polarization of the world between Islam and the West while we fight it out for the diminishing oil reserves using terrorism and weapons of mass destruction on each other, that I find it incredible that anyone even bothers with it.

This is the BBC's website.

They can do what they like with it. If you owned a website, so could you.

As I said - I truly do not know how to communicate with you spook.

B

Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth...

To compare a broadcaster to a dictatorial regime such as Saddam's is, frankly, insulting and facile, spook. There's no comparison at all. One asks you not to enter into discussions about a specific war on areas of a website other than those prescribed to deal with such discussions; the other has denied people basic human rights on pain of death. Human rights do not include access to the internet, by the way, or the right to a TV - we're talking about the right to have an opinion and not have your legs broken as a consequence - might have slipped my mind, but I don't recall any such threat being issued at any point to people who choose to ignore our requests to only discuss the Iraqui conflict in one area of BBCi.

It's comments like this that really undermine your campaign. No-one is going to take a protest seriously if it can't distinguish between reality and emotional hyperbole.

Since this morning, Frankie Roberto has also presented a rational, mature and well thought-out proposal to the Powers That Be about the Community's response to the policy and possible ways of handling this kind of situation in the Future. Take a look at: A1026370

I'm honestly not belittling the feeling behind this petition; we know this has not gone down well with the Community and wish it could have been easier for everyone involved. We're receptive to suggestions as to how this might be better handled in the future and as ever are keen to have the voice of the Community heard within the BBC. But a petition is not going to impress anyone to any great extent - all it says is 'people don't like this', which they already know. Which people don't like it isn't really an issue at this point. Whereas the proposals by Whoami? and Frankie at least entreat the PTBs to engage in some kind of discussion and ask them to consider options that might not have been apparent to them at the time the policy was drafted.

Anyway, it's late, I've been working for far too long this evening and I'm looking forward to a long weekend. Let's hope we can enjoy a bit of quality weather and come back to this with fresh minds after the Bank Holiday.



Jims

well, the si ple fact is, i can make a difference to this website, i can't make a difference to Bush or Blair. i don't trust Bush. i think Tony Blair is doing the right think. the UN is just a complete failure. and what Saddam Hussein has done in the past is the past. you can't live in the past, you have to live in the future. yes this is a website and not a hotel or a town, but i consider h2g2 to be a virtual world. i perceive it is a town.

i do not agree that is is just the BC's website. they may own it, but the community make it, write entries on it, talk on it, and use it. without us this website would not exist. without all the people who visit the BBC website in any way the BBC website would be nothing. websites are meant to provide people a service and are meant to please people. if they don't they people will not use it.

spook

ps. i'm happy with you using the english language to communicate with me as you have been. i do speak french and german too, just, not very well.

Ok, I take your two points that you can make a difference to h2g2 in a way that you cannot make a difference to Bush or to Blair. I also take your point that the community are an important part of the website, (though we have no ownership here, which is where I think the hotel analogy is more accurate than the town one).

If I cannot manage English then I certainly cannot manage German or French. My German is good enough to shop in, and my French is good enought to argue in, but I sure as hell can't write either.

Take care, spook, and stay passionate. And be accurate in your use of language. Words matter.

Ben

ok, since it hs been mentioned that an alternative policy to be looked at would be much more useful, i have created an Alternative h2g2 Guidelines for Discussions During the Iraq War at A1000107. i have pieced this together from the present Iraq guidelines and the Afghan guidelines, and i believe it imposes an expected and acceptable amoun of restrictions on talk while allowing people to talk.

editors and researchers alike please take a lok and comment, make suggestions on improving it, whatever. i can, from a personal perspective say that the alternative guidelines is the type of thing i expected going by previous guidelines for the Afghan crisis.

spook

PS Jimster, we simulposted, and I missed yours, though it will be no surprise that I agree with it. Have a good weekend.

B

Me too, Ben - I thought to myself, 'What's Ben doing online at this time of ni- oh wait, what am *I* doing online at this time of night!'

Long weekend to look forward to, with just me, the sunshine, a laptop, a box-full of scripts to work through and no h2g2. Honest. Nope, y'won't catch me online any time this weeke-

I've done it again, haven't I? Have a good one, everyone!

Jims