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

He posted here a bit, a while back.

He was, IRL, my bestest friend. He was the Pooley to my Omally (or was it the other way round?). He was the reason I'm in the profession I'm in. He was there when I met my wife. We would often say we had two bodies but just the one brain. I wouldn't be surprised if at least some people thought he or I might be sockpuppets of the other.

Almost exactly a week ago, alone in his home, he took his own life. It was an enormous shock. Not much else to say. RIP Steve.

Thanks for letting us know.

So many drop out without saying anything. Death is even less voluntary.

I'm very sorry to hear this. I do remember Alfster.

Very sorry to hear that, I remember him on the site, but didn't have a lot of interaction.

Yes I remember. Very sorry to hear that - that's awful

Many condolences Hoo and to any family he leaves behind.

Really sorry to hear that. I do remember Alfster, though I don't think I knew him well, even by h2g2 standards. That's really shocking news... I won't claim that I've thought about him in a long time, but I do remember his contributions here positively and the news is still shocking.

I think I remember knowing that you knew each other off-site though I can't remember for sure. Don't think I ever thought you were the same person... very different posting styles is my half-instinctive memory.

Thanks for letting us know, and many condolences.

Well... there were at times other posters on h2g2 whose posting styles were very different to mine.



There were still me though.

Then again, there were at least a couple who people *thought* were me but I swear blind were not.

I do like how confusing this all got, getting on for twenty years ago. I once had a VERY entertaining Saturday morning being five separate people.

Go on. Rev Nick... that was you?

So sorry to hear this, Hoovooloo. I remember Alfster commenting very wisely on some of my guide entries and other assorted items - he struck me as being a very intelligent guy, as far as you can tell on h2g2.

Thanks for letting us know

>>>"I do like how confusing this all got, getting on for twenty years ago. I once had a VERY entertaining Saturday morning being five separate people."

And there was me thinking that you were a serial account monogamist rather than an account polygamist....

Five accounts that were secretly Hoovooloo all along... I'm going for Della, Gnomon, Nighthoover (obviously), Lanzababy and me. This whole site has been a lie.

"he struck me as being a very intelligent guy"

He really was.

It's no exaggeration to say he shaped my life. A conversation with him in February 1988 in the Dutch Pancake House in Manchester led to the two of us packing in our chemistry degrees and going doing chemical engineering somewhere else entirely. A conversation with him some time in about 1995 (I think) was the first time I seriously considered doing paragliding. He taught me how to tie onto a climbing rope, and taught me how to make salmon pasta, pretty much the first bit of proper cooking I could do. He was a polymath, not just a highly competent engineer but a mean salsa dancer, a keen guitarist, pretty decent juggler, and I would say half the really decent laughs I've got in my life I've got by stealing his jokes. I really fscking miss him.

The five accounts that were me all along were Playboy Reporter, Arpeggio/LeKZ, Justin the Preacher, Della and Mark Moxon.

Good times.

Arpeggio/LeKZ!?

Were you also a close friend or relative of Arpeggio who reached out to me well after the ban?

I wasn't here for all those hijinx but read through the archives later. I found it fascinating. I never made a value judgement about the multiple personalities, but I did love some of the things "Arpeggio" had to say. I recall some very good info about kids with certain antisocial/sociopathic tendencies and some very good info about Prednisone (my father has been dependent on it for about 2 decades).

Just WOW!

As for Della... well, enough about Della.

I joined in 2003, I think, so missed all that banned researcher malarkey. It’s always fascinated me how seriously people took it. It clearly changed the relationship between the italics and researchers. Did it put a lot of people off contributing? The site was probably in decline soon after.

The decline didn't really happen until the later Auntie Beeb years. When there was a real threat of this place being scrapped, and when they introduced Pliny, that was when folks started leaving in droves and contributions diminished greatly. I think some of that era with several banned researchers was really one of the most active.

"I think some of that era with several banned researchers was really one of the most active."

It's hard to imagine now, but IIRC there was new content going into the Edited Guide every DAY, and Peer Review was *active*. Pretty much every week there'd be a "University Project" of several linked entries put out on a Friday. There was a lot going on. Lots of things killed it, not least, I think, Wikipedia, which came along and fulfilled at least part of this site's brief better.

Just to be clear, that list of five accounts that were really me is a joke.

I met LeKZ IRL just the once. She passed away in 2014.

Specifically, or in general?

Were you really five accounts? If not, then it's a moot point.

Bt if so, were you five accounts, just not the ones you listed?

I collaborated with Arpeggio on a curry entry. A Girl Called Ben argued against banning her.

I did have five accounts aside from what I'd call my "account of reputation", which was U114627. I can't remember the details right now - which conversations I posted in - but all five were parodies of accounts LeKZ had used (or allegedly used) to post here while banned. One of them was, I think, satyaselfdownandhaveacuppa (after satyagraha) and there were four others. They had consecutive U-numbers, since I set them up one directly after the other with the express intent of having a chuckle. They were pretty much active for a Saturday morning about 19 or 20 years ago so the memory fades a bit.

Entertainingly my memory seems not to have faded that much as I have, with no particular effort, recalled the U-number of Satyaselfdownandhaveacuppa. Not bad for an account I didn't use much and not at all for almost two decades...

U189490

There was also Squint_See (after Quincy), fenceblossomboy (after wallflowergirl), Brainy Brunette Bloke (after possibly Brainless Blonde Bird?? Can't recall) and another one that morphed into something else later. All the U numbers immediately after the one above. It does all see very silly and trivial looking back...

I’m only aware of one researcher who was banned in the modern era . I won’t name them, but a while after they were banned they sent me an unsolicited email detailing all the things they got up to. I probably should have forwarded it to the site owners, but I think they were being particularly obnoxious at the time. Might see if I’ve still got it...