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

What you think sbout h2g2, what you think it is and what you think it could be, depends on when you got here.

Once upon a time, h2g2 was just about the only place you could writr om the internet and have an audience. And the folks who arrived here then, back in 2000, 2001 or so, quivered with the excitement of it all, like pointers seeing rabbits.  Ooh!  Ooooh!  "Create an entry" it said. "Post here".  There wasn't anywhere else like it anywhere.  So being hip, happening, early adopters, being creative and silly and fun, we flexed our fingers, unleashed our imaginations and wrote.  And half of what we wrote wasn't factual enough for the Edited Guide.  We wept and wailed and used words like "pedestrian.  We gnashed our teeth, and created the UnderGuide.  

And the world spun on.

By 2003 or 2004 you could get some blogging software and create a blog, where you could put whatever sort of self-indulgent trossachs you liked, and all sorts of interesting edgy people did so.  Dooce, la Petite Anglaise, Brooke Magnanti, Guido Fawkes.  And eventually some of those folks who were frustrated with h2g2, like me, drifted off to join them.  Others, like GTBacchus and Lucinda put their efforts into Wikipedia instead.

And the world spun round.

But here's the point.  We are used to saying "it's not like Wikipedia" and "it's not a blogging site" but what you feel about those things depends on when you joined h2g2. For me there will always be a tinge of bitterness and regret, I think we are so much less than we could have been that I often forget what in fact we are.  But for Z, and those who joined us when they could have been blogging or wiki-ing, they saw far more clearly what h2g2 actually IS, and the positive qualities it has, not the imaginary ones it doesn't.

I'm still digesting the implications of that one.

And the world spins round.

Ahem.

I cannot help but feel, Ma'am, that the Blotchy One would opine that your epiphanies tend to coincide with the seismology of your taxonomic practices. What seems freshly and clearly ordered today will only need different boxes tomorrow.

Meanwhile I am pleased to report that certain alumni of the Class of '91 do not hanker after the imagined h2g2 of that time. They prefer instead to live in it.

SYWM

>> What seems freshly and clearly ordered today will only need different boxes tomorrow.

Yeah. It's called learning from your mistakes. It's usually seen as a sign of maturity.

In the scouts, we deal with Learning by Doing and Learning by Suffering. The third option, Learning by Fu***** Up is more means to an end...

Impressed with your Big Document, btw!

Thanks Santra. That means a huge amount. Any specific comments gratefully received anywhere you want to send them.

I'm really glad you've read it, but I didn't want to ask.

B

I had to squeeze it in - really couldn't do without reading Sadly, my RL is imposing a lot of constraints atm - and, really, with the quality of input I have seen, I do not have much more than moral support and to supply.

(expect to see a string of three-letter codes in the coming 2 months and a bit... I do reckon on nicking your recent travel report style )