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

Fair one, I a 'baster head.

I use brunel and I'm on about the three red dots with two extentions in the bottom corner of every post.

You can get the tree in Alabaster too - just chose expert in your preferences.

'You've raised a good point though. I think Ben said a while ago that 3-4 years seems to be a natural 'hootoo life-span'.'


Been a h2g2er since before Rupert so I guess I don't know when to quit.....

Never mind I like this addiction.

You used to be able to see the various threads within a thread, listed on the left, so that you could follow one topic. But as very few people click "reply" anywhere other than in the last post in a thread, this didn't really work very well.

You can still see that view if you use Goo or Alabaster. It's just not supported anymore. I prefer it, because it's a bit easier to follow.

Hi all,

I have only been on for about 1 month. I make lots of mistakes. I have tried to reply to an older thread but been told off for breaking the flow.

All I do now is click on reply on the last posting. Not sure what all the technical stuff is that you are talking about.

My wife thinks I am getting addicted to H2G2 and to EBay. I have had a broadband link since April 04 and only now am I getting hooked on the web.

I have made a few friends.

Why do you all say HooToo, it sounds like an owl!!

Oldaardvark

Hi oldaardvark. This is quite a good thread to read if you're new. Don't bother about the techie bits. Each skin has different features, to compare them, just replace "brunel" with "alabaster" or "classic" in your address bar.

Thanks Trillian,

Best explanation yet. But why Hootoo??

Apparently it's easier to say that aitch two gee two.

I use "hootoo" because it's easier to type than H2G2.

I geddit now!!

What yootoo are telling me is it's easier to type hootoo.

"Ah, I see... Well, she does say something about blood in her tagline"

You can't really get away from it if you do my job. It's not for the squeamish

*sigh* Getting back to the subject - again...

I'm wondering why I bothered making posting 176, and Aina might be wondering why she bothered with posting 181. Has anybody read either of them?

Since I posted, most of the comments have been in-jokes or completely unrelated to the subject. Surely, you can all see that *this* would put newbies off. If a thread on this subject can't even stay on-track, there's a serious problem here. Even a thread on what stops people contributing is making me, no longer a newbie, feel like I'm 'crashing a prvate party', to borrow Aina's expression.

The last time I had this feeling I was in a thread that was most defintely the home of a clique. I've since bowed out and left that thread to them. I *should not* be feeling excluded on a thread that is about increasing inclusiveness. Nevertheless, that's what's happening here.

I think that you didn't get a response because you quite correctly answered the question & presumably no-one found anything controversial in what you said . Perhaps we should more often post an 'I agree' acknowledgement.
There isn't actually a lot of material to discuss in this thread, all we can do is give our own experiences or hypothesise. I think that's why it's drifted so much & I agree that when in-jokes & personal conversations start taking over, it puts some newcomers off posting.

There was an occasion though, when as a relative 'oldie' I criticised a newcomer for drifting into personal chat (in a Forum thread) & got told to 'lighten up'!
It strikes me, with the diversity of this site, it's a question of finding a place where you fit in. If you really can't find anywhere that suits then may be this site isn't for you.

Teasswill, the implications of your last statement are also troubling. I assume you aren't actually telling me to leave? Or are you?

It is an unavoidable fact of life on any Internet forum, especially an uncontroversial one like this, that topic drift will occur. There is a much chance of staying on topic as Canute had with the tide, after all the people at the other end pressing the keys are, for the most part, intelligent human beings and behave as such.

As mentioned earlier, join in any conversation at a bar and the topic will drift in all directions. If it is a group of men it will invariably end up on one of two subject, sex or football, regardless of the subject that started the conversation which might be something a simple as the weather. Expecting an Internet conversation to be any different is asking for the impossible.

The difference with the Internet is that because there is no face to face contact and because of the the delay, topic drift is more likely to occur.

Donald

Agreed, topic drift will happen in any crowd. But in answer to the original question? It's been said several ways already. A browsing, wandering newbie comes upon a thread that should be an intelligent discussion. And then so very quickly sees the discussion becoming a case of the arrogant and elitist few belittling, insulting and, not infrequently, personally attacking someone who had the nerve to enter "their" domain. It's enough to make the newbie either run screaming, or wonder where the sign posts are decreeing this the domain of a select few.

Been there and received it.

Wise words, Donald.

Moving on to Mina's post earlier on...

"I think that's really harsh - I was a subed for a while, and you can't really expect people to take on only those entries that they know something about - I'd have never got anything edited!

Peer Review is the place that I've seen corrections made, and I think that's the right place. If I start fiddling around with an entry on my own as a subed because I think it's wrong, then who's to say that *I'm* not the person who's wrong (as seems to have happened). "

Maybe it's just our definitions of how much 'something' is that differ?
A couple among the first few entries that I subbed had a couple of little factual things about them that made think that something wasn't quite right and made me go and look them up and modify them accordingly. This determined my behaviour in future.
I was one of those subs that, if the author was still available for comment, would always consult the writer of an entry before sending it off to the Towers - if I'd made modifications, I always gave them the chance to call me on it. I took Bels (RIP) as one of my main role models on this - subbing was a chance to improve an entry above and beyond what it had become in PR, rather than being just a matter of tidying up the spelling, grammar and GuideML.
Also, a surprising amount of entries get recommended without *everything* mentioned in Peer Review being looked into. It used to upset me when I saw the amount of entries certain Scouts recommended (and the Italics accepted) when there was still some unfinished business on the PR thread. So I always made sure I looked into it when I was subbing.
I only ever did what I saw as the bare minimum. The trouble I always had was that my definition of that was more extensive than some people's.

I think the point about people's posts not being acknowledged in a thread like this is a valid one. Whisky also posted eruditely on topic and no-one responded.

It's a tricky h2 ettiquette thing - obviously some threads, especiallyy fast ones, not everyone is going to get a response (for a variety of reasons). I had the feeling that this thread was about generating ideas about what h2 is (following on from Ben's other threads), and so when people share their ideas and experience and don't get a response I can see that sometimes that would put people off.


~~

I read intermittently on h2 for a year before I registered, so when I first posted I already had a reasonably good sense of how things worked. I can see that people who find the site and join immediately might get put off if they happen into the Della wars, or get run over by badgers. I tell newbies to take the time to look around the site, especially if they are having trouble finding their feet.


As for the controversies and arguments, I think they are an integral part of any community and there is no way to get rid of them. What interests me hugely is how groups of people (particularly h2) deal with conflict.

One of the things I love about the site is the complexity of relating. I doubt I would have been as interested in the community if it hadn't been for conflicts here (I spent HOURS reading the leKz thing before I joined).

I can see that those things aren't interesting to everyone, but then there are many places on h2 to avoid such things.


The only things I can think of where I felt a bit intimidated when I joined was the fact that everyone here seemed to drink so much . I did wonder when I joined if I was going to fit in as at the time I wasn't drnking at all. It was interesting to see how much alcohol figured in h2 culture.


One thing I find irritating is some of the parochialism on the site. I'm used to being ignored when I start talking about New Zealand, but a newbie coming in from here might give up fairly quickly because of the need to be UK focussed. I know that this is a chicken and egg thing (more kiwis would give new kiwis a place to talk). It'll be interesting to see if more NZers join when the movie comes out. My sense is that this site isn't sticky for people from outside the UK and the US.


Personally I appreciate the people that acknowledge this - some people put the term UK centric in their thread titles. Conversely there have been an increasing number of threads on The Forum lately where someone has posted a first posting with an opinion about something that is happening in the UK, but without any link or explanation. Sometimes I have the energy to go look it up myself, but I also am not sure why I should have to (I will address this on The Forum shortly).



The things now that put me off posting are when I am really tired, or not feeling that great in myself. I think when people are low, or insecure, or stressed there are places (quite alot) on h2 where it's sensible to not post. I doubt that newbies are aware of this, and I'm not sure what can be done about it. I was naturally cautious here, and I feel releived that I didn't post alot of personal information about myself early on. I think there is definitely a need for self care and self protection, and people have that to varying degrees (or don't have it to varying degrees).

I used to be continuously amazed at how rude people here are. I wonder if this is a cultural thing (like are you all like this in RL? <winkeye) or a consequence of the internet.

Best stop now - overly long posts put me off

kea.