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

On Sunday I was discussing h2g2 with another hootizen, and with their flatmate, when the flatmate (who has tried h2g2 several times) as "intimdating".

What puts your friends, who are obviously intelligent, literate, witty, and charming, like yourself, off h2g2?

Why do some people 'get' it and others don't?

Were you incredibly shy about posting here for a while, and how long did you continue to lurk without posting?

Ben

i joined up and started posting as soon as i found this place
only wish i had found it sooner...

If anyone think h2g2 is intimidating they should try some other places. Having cut my teeth on usernet, h2g2 is the epitome of restraint and decorum.

When I first discovered h2g2 I lurked for a bit during which time I came across Justin the Preacher who was just screaming out for a response. I haven't looked back since.

Donald

I know how h2g2 differs from other communities I have joined for a bit and then left, but I am curious about your experiences Donald. Hell, I am curious about *everyone's* experiences.

B

Actually - rereading my first post I am amused by the typo.

The word used was 'intimidating' not 'intimdating' - but the site it was being compared with was Gayday which is ALL about intim-dating!

I love serendipidy, don't you?

B

well, some of our researchers are a tad forthright in their views and, should one come across one of them without being aware of them before hand, it could be off putting. Took me a while before I was willing to contribute to a thread with the likes of Blues and Hoo in them
But other than that, I think it is just a vast place and people are spoilt for choice!
Then there's people who accidently post in some of the more private convos and told to bog off. Doesn't happen much but I have seen it myself. Sometimes people just respond to these as they would if any user had posted without giving the newbie the benefit of the doubt.

Whatever happened to Justin the Preacher? Has he calmed down, or been shot down?

Sometimes I find the Topic Drift somewhat unnerving - but most of the time Topic Drift is not only educational (ha!) but also highly entertaining.

Y.

Yep i think Justin spurred me to react,and then i found out that they are not all like Justin,and it's a place where you can read (oh.i really should read more of the excellent guide entries,and spend less time in convos
it's a wonderful place filled with wonderful people who live wonderful lives (if vicariously) on this site.and in the main get treated with respect(or, at least ignored in a fairly benign fashion until they off or play nicely

I lurked for about 6 months before signing up, mainly because I didnt realise I oculd do it at work .

However what got me into hootoo was all the hoohah over Hoovooloos home made porno entry.

I must confess there are few hootoo things I like more than a big fuss

Perhaps the lurkers are disinclined to post until someone challenges them directly? Or perhaps early browser people are simply unaware of the vast plethora of things they can have an opinion of or contribute to simply because it was not the first thing they came across, and thus were mildly scared at the precipice they were teetering over with nobody to guide them.
Perhaps.

i think the eyes can freak people out (i have seen people think that because they can see that someone is online it means that they Must be reading the same thing you have contributed to (earlier )and can get quite shirty that you haven't spoken to them.

Yeah, the hoohah over the Gentleman's Guide was fun, wasn't it? *sigh*

B

What was the Gentlemen's Guide hoohah about?

Y.

I think it's interesting that so many people got into h2g2 as a result of events I would think of as 'negative'.

How so..?

For various reasons nothing to do with my own sex life, (which was non-existant at the time), I asked Hoo to write an entry about home made pornography, (ie filming yourself and your partner involved in purely private and personal pleasures for your own purely private and personal review), which - show off that he is - he obligingly did.

He called it "A Gentleman's Guide to making Home-Made Pornorgraphy" or something similar, and it did what it said on the tin. It was one of the most responsible things you would ever hope to see about the perils and pleasures of filming yourself bonking, and the care and hiding of the resulting tapes.

It went through Peer Review and became an edited entry.

Then.... BBC Editorial Policy, in the interests of protecting the BBC brand and reputation, pulled it along with a number of other entries which could be read in the wrong way or which would make bad headlines "BBC Promotes Home Made Porn..." or whatever.

Unfortunately the way that it was announced to the site was fumbled, even bearing in mind that this is not a site that likes to be silenced, and there was the MOST ENORMOUS hoohah about it, with people firing off hate-email to very senior high-ups in the BBC. Not the way to convince them that we are not a bunch of sex-crazed internet wierdos, and most certainly not the way to convince them that we are a jewel in their Internet crown.

Fortunately they managed to see the passion and rose above the abuse, and it appears from the outside to have done no lasting harm to the site.

And the 'Gentleman's Guide' has now been thrust, along with the legendary entry on 'Cunnilingus' another on 'Testicle Cuffs' and one on 'How to break into a car' into e-oblivion.

The uncontrolled vituperation from members of the site did nothing for our cause though. It was a dangerous moment.

B

Yes it all got a little out of hand when the "Clone Wars" phase started.

Up to then it had just been people getting ritgheosly indignant. However it started getting to the stage where I was owndering if people were doing more harm than good.

Also there was that silly Red/Green/Amber subject matrix proposed .

On the negative side, it was not so much the events just getting involved in a thread and actually (at least in a hootoo sense) getting to know osme of the people here.

That would have taken a lot longer if I had not got myself involved in a heated and fast moving thread. At least I think so.

I'd forgotten . Ironic that it doesn't work in smiley-speak!

B