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

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I hadn't thought of this before.


I just sort of thought "ah, it's just one more thing that doesn't work and who cares"

But now that you've mentioned this, it kinda reminds me of the phone hacking thing, where the parents of that girl were lead to believe that their dead daughter was still alive when the PI hacked her phone and erased her messages.


It is actually a serious issue, perhaps with legal ramifications.


This aspect should be brought to the attention of the Powers (if it hasn't already been)

This is the place, Effers: A87706669


If you want, I'll submit a report if you don't want to. Just say so. And, I would recommend a link to this thread in such a report, if you think it's okay, but I won't if you don't say okay.

I started a thread on ASK I feel so angry.

It was Lord Wolfden's space. I read that thread again that lead to all the upset months ago. It was *very painful* reading. I wasn't all paranoid I think.

God only knows what a relative would feel.

And I was so shocked to see Empty Space shown online yesterday.

It's because I've not really used that widget before.

I can't think straight at present.

Yeah submit a report.

I think it's OUTRAGEOUS.

I only found that 'INFO' page last week.

I realise I haven't been using this site like others.

I'll probably get a load more stuff about having been here years...and you only just discovered it.

Yes I use things in a a way that seems REAL..

What's REAL to me is that that is totally unacceptable.

Why should Lord Wolfden and Empty space be *on display* for the world and his wife? which it is when shown as someone being online...

All that stuff on threads that is upsetting that happened here for them. By all means keep the space...but NOT on PUBLIC DISPLAY.

I'D HATE FOR MY SPACE TO BE DISPLAYED LIKE THAT AFTER I DIED...AND SHOWN AS ONLINE....

There has long.been a problem in the world of technical people building/fixing things in ways that make sense and not really being aware of how they will be.used/function for some/many/most regular users.

In the technical scheme of things zombie eyes are pretty low priority.

But there are other schemes of thing that I think should.be considered.

It's because I use technology just how I would real life. I don't do GEEK...same with using anything on my computer.

I suppose I'm a kind of animist.

To me it's just an extension of life..I make relationship in the same way.

(Since new h2g2 came along...and really since the beeb dumped us it's been a whole new culture for me in my mind.

Aunty was my relationship...now its all new...and you you know some of the upheaval I've had.

I really am a ridiculous primitive.

But I don't know how else to be but real..

I'm off to listen to music.

> There has long.been a problem in the world of technical people building/fixing things in ways that make sense and not really being aware of how they will be.used/function for some/many/most regular users.

The technical people know about this bug, and it's on the list of things to fix. They have told us that it is a major bug, which will require major changes to fundamental sections of the code. In other words, it can't be done on the live site, for fear of breaking loads of other things. Pastey is currently setting up a development/test server, with a copy of the site he can tweak and play with. Once that's done, development work will be easier.

TRiG.

I understand the technical issues quite clearly (which makes me a little bit unusual in the big online world, I think). I've known for a long time that the bug has been known and that it is a big, deep bug. I don't have a problem with triageing the bugs, but I do think that everything needs to be considered when deciding what gets triaged where.

What I'm concerned about at this point are the possible legal issues that might arise from this bug, as I've mentioned. I'm not jumping on Pastey and the technical people here -- they're doing wonderful things. This is something I think the corporate bosses and some legal advisers should take a look at. Maybe they already have and it's been decided that it's all clean and they're all protected and the bug can be put on the back burner. There's no reason they need to tell us about that. I just hope that if the advice has not been asked and given that it will be asked and given soon.

I worry that the technical difficulty of the bug may be minor compared to other difficulties which may rise from it.

I'm sick to death of forever hearing about what Pastey is trying to do.

Is he MD and Chairman of Not Panicking Limited?

No he's some unpaid coder as I've been told that showed up in the last few months..and said he's been in deep lurk mode for years.

Who cares? It's Not panicking Limited not being prepared to shell out on getting PAID people in to sort out the problem.

It's the company's responsibility.

I wish people would grow out of this childish thing of talking about individuals.

If I have a problem with a company I complain to the person in charge who is responsible.

We know its some weird 3 way thing. Probably that means they can hide about who is responsible.

But there is a legal framework.

They think they can get away with it..because evryone looks to Pastey

anhaga this NPL thing is a private company. They don't CARE about feelings.

I've seen Strangely Strange shown online which upsets me...he left years ago with severe mental illness.

I could list you lots.

They have money making priorities.

I know, Effers. I'm coming at it from the angle a corporation will care about. If h2g2 is suddenly getting press as th website that told a family their missing daughter was still alive when she was in a shallow grave somewhere, if h2g2 suddenly gets named as the new Murdoch, if law suits start landing on the footsteps o shareholders of Not Panicking, somebody will wish they'd dealt with this low priority bug.

I share your concerns, but as you suggest, the human things that trouble you are not going to resonate into the Towers.

There's lots of angles because it's just SO WRONG...and should be prioritised.

I got incredibly angry and upset earlier because it sparked to the whole Lord Wolfden thing for me again. I went to that fateful thread that FKF brought up and read again...I was just so upset.

I only found it though because he came up as online.

And then I thought imagine if a close friend or real life relative came. If I'm this upset how would they feel?

Yes they might know his 'grave' was here...but something hidden away...like a real life grave yard. Public and accessible but not blurted out on tv adverts..

Of course its stirred everything up again...maybe that's how FKF came across it before?

But its clearly not a priority for the company NPL.

Maybe they'll do smileys for the dead in future though? (for a small fee).

When you try to mix money and community its tricky. We are community bought and sold.

I'm too angry about the contempt shown for not taking dead people's spaces offline.

The more I think about it...the more I can't believe it.

It's like Life and Death counts for nothing on this site.

I should never have had to put up with seeing Lord Wolfden's name come up earlier. It has been the biggest thing to affect me in all the years I've been here.

I can't sort it out with the person concerned indirectly...which I want so much to do..even in a friendly loving way which it would be...I have to see that name come up as a downright lie as online.

I won't go to that hateful widget again though.

This is something I've thought about from time to time. As, I suppose, most of us don't discuss our RL issues here, I've often wondered how I would know whether an h2g2 'friend' was still with us. The answer, is wouldn't. They would just stop posting. Then one wouldn'yt know whether this was because they'd moved on to pastures new, or whether they'd died in RL. The only ones I've been aware of are those that other hootoo'ers knew in RL.

I agree with you Effers that the system should not show somebody as being online, when they're not. That does need to get sorted.

However, I hadn't considered the upset that could be caused to people who knew dead hootoo'ers in RL. (For instance, my wife isn't a hootoo'er and hence doesn't know my hootoo persona. Furthermore, I don't know the RL personae of ANY other hootoo'ers. I had assumed that this was typical for the site ).