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

Mina,

I have only ever known you as 'Italic' Mina, a public persona that has to be the face of BBCi on here, showing little bits of who you are, now and again. (i am not meaning you were false, just you have been restricted by your official position)

But behind that is a real person, with real feelings and problems just like all of us. I, and i am sure i am not the only one, forget that sometimes. You take grief and bad manners from us, listen to us whinging and whining about things that in reality are pretty petty. But you never caved in, and i don't believe that was only because of your 'official status', but a strength you have.

Since the change of status, i have seen a glimpse (and only a glimpse) at Mina, a researcher on h2g2, and hopefully i will get to know her more.

Mort

sorry - i forgot to put a subject title in

I have just noticed that I am 1 year and 3 days old on h2g2. Feel like i have been here all my life!

Hi Mort,

Thanks for coming over! I appreciate it, I am not a number, I am a a free man! Or something. Sadly, I'm still the 'voice of the BBC' as I still work there, so you still might not see the real me. My new 'role' with BBCi means that I'll be poipping up in unexpected places, so there was me thinking that I could go back to being the real me, and I can't really. When I first started working for h2g2, Peta apologised for breaking my toy by giving me the job, and she was right in a way. I don't suppose things will ever go back to being the way that they were before.

And I don't mind the name calling and the grief really. If my son, or my mother was saying it, then I would care. If my friends all started complaining and whinging, then I would care. It's not that I don't care about people here, I do, but because I understand the nature of internet communities and the way that they communicate, so it's easier to have a cup of and stay calm about things.

But thanks a lot for saying so here. It means a lot! And I'm glad that you came back to the site, you're a great person!

It is 8am and I am just about to go to bed - there is something very comforting about staying up all night and going to bed when everyone else is getting up!

The only good thing about working the emergency night shift was seeing everyone else going to work as I was going home
Of course it wasn't so funny when everyone else was going home, and i was just about to start a 14 hour night shift.

I know what you mean about still being a BBC person, although i thought you may have been a bit more behind the scenes which meant you could be a little more relaxed onsite, but I guess whatever you do then 'Auntie' will be watching! (or even worse - Terry Wogan!!)
Perhaps you should come back as Nighthoover anonymously!!!

I was quite high profile in the hospital i worked at, and even when off duty the clients would recognise me and all i wanted to do was be a 'normal' person (well as normal as i can get ) but all the clients were so posh that I daren't even let them see me smoking let alone 'gothed up'!!

I expect the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a nightmare! I wish they had done the upgrade before downsizing the h2g2 italics, but these things can't be helped due to bigger scheduling timetables etc. Nobody likes change at the best of times anyway, so whenever it was done would be a disruption to the karma. It could've been much worse.

Probably just as well you don't have a swear box in the office - bet you would all be skint by now

Well, have a good day at work, and think of me snoring away !

Mort

I thought I was going to be low profile, but when Peta got called up for jury duty she asked if I would mind lending a hand. I just have to pop in and water the plants, make sure the water pipes haven't frozen and are about to busrt, that sort of thing. But it means I'm still out there. Ho hum, she should be back on Monday.

I haven't heard much swearing from the other end of the office, but what does make me mutter is when people don't give out info that would make our lives much easier, and we wouldn't look like gits when we suddenly find out that we're saying one thing, and either the answer is something totally different but no-one told us, or someone else is saying something totally different. But I mustn't complain. Someone will see and tell me off.