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

[FYI: this post is self-censored, so to give the poor moderators a break.]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A628643

Have you seen this yet? It's not very nice. I myself find it rude and completely insulting, and my mental health is just fine. I can only imagine what it must be like for people with more fragile mental heath to see such things.

PEOPLE. FOR ONCE IN YOUR GODD**NED EXISTENCES, LISTEN!

>>>>> LET IT GO! <<<<<

I am SO SICK of all this BULL***T!

h2g2 USED to be a nice place. Now I keep finding these petty little squabbles all over, and it's really pissing me off.

Yes, I know LeKZ wasn't too nice to some people on this site. LeKZ is GONE, so GET OVER IT!

For chrissake, people, grow the f**k up.

*still pissed about that*

sorry, that was a bit of a rant, there. but it's how i felt, and still feel. this makes me really quite angry.

we're poisoning h2g2!

why the hate? why the cruelty? is it necessary? i hope to god that it's not.

i guess it's just like war. people are a-holes, and they're going to BE a-holes until people cease to exist.

*sigh*

welcome to reality, h2g2. guess you're not a utopia anymore.

*sticks nose in SEP* (dna's sep=somebody else's problem). Cheer up! It's not that bad! It can't possibly be, if it was, I'm sure I'd have some hand in it...and i don't.

*sigh*







Yeah, I know... "every thread Ottox joins etc."
I'd wish it was true, then I would join many more threads!

ottox.

things have been getting to me lately. first i listen to one of my old christmas CD's and come across a song called "Christmas at Ground Zero", which rings all too true in today's political climate. it makes me mildly depressed.

then a girl who lives across the hall tells me that she has a chance to go on an all-expenses-paid trip to Israel over break, but she's afraid to go because of the war that has just broken out (or, rather, gotten worse).

then i come online, and even h2g2 is being infected with hate. i've been noticing it little by little, and i thought maybe it would go away, but it's not. it's getting worse.

i, like so many who have already left, am losing my faith in h2g2. i miss the old h2g2: the utopic society that moderated itself, and had no need for lifetime bans; the society that would never do some of the things i've seen it now doing.

*sigh*

The offending article has been moderated.
(It's just my luck to come along too late
to find out what happened. Oh, well, I'm
used to it....)

Utopias are pretty fragile. If H2G2 ever
was one, its moment passed. There are a
lot of bright, creative people here, though,
and most of the ones that I've met seem to
want to make the place work.

thanks paul. and ylla. s.

*sigh*

i'm glad it's moderated. i yikes-ed it myself, and the italics told me that it didn't break house rules. i wonder if they would have felt differently if it was insulting to someone other than LeKZ & Co.

Hi sea!

I know what you mean. I just thought I'd let you know that you are not alone in feeling this way, and there are a number of people requesting that this whole topic is just dropped.

Many people think it has been done to death, and has resulted in far too much damage, hurt feelings, and all 'round nastiness.

And there are a lot of positive things to do and discuss on site, without allowing yourself to be upset by the negatives

I don't know if h2g2 was ever a utopia.. My initial 'greeting' here was not all that friendly, so I never thought of the site as being no more than what it is -- a community of mostly harmless souls, with some outstandingly friendly and good and a very few contentious ones.

Just concentrate on having fun, and interacting with the more reasonable sorts, that's my motto!

And have lots and lots of ...

Tal

thanks, hon. *munch, munch* my favorite!!!!

i guess i was alone in thinking that h2g2 was a utopia... but i really did think it was.

i'm sorry your greeting was nasty. the world just seems so much meaner lately.... *sigh*

They get to us all, sea...

Marjin once said to me, "If there are discussions of people who are blinded by their limited views I am tempted to answer, but I refrain, and just go away. Let them, if they like it. If they go too far, somebody will yike them. The only way to realy frustrate them is to completely ignore them, make them invisible."

Making them invisible would be great, if only it were that easy. Still, it's a good place to start. Fortunately, there are many more people here that are fun to be around

that's true, apollo. there still are a lot of wonderful people here, and i have a lot of wonderful friends who i love.

thanks for reminding me of that.

I am with Taliein: You have GOT to choose your company wisely. Your friends often mirror the type of person you are.

And life's too short to let hate and ignorance, and/or a few hateful and ignorant people ruin it for you.

And... if there weren't poopy silly mean cranky grumpy people, we wouldn't really appreciate the nice silly kind cheerful happy people, would we!?? Well, not as much-- You have to have dark to appreciate light, you see... You don't really know how great the sun is unless you've known it to set and not shine on you for a while...

I'll take your advice, Dragonfly.

EVERYBODY!

The outside world (what we call the real world)
has gotten a lot darker and grimmer lately. Even
if H2G2 is still a haven from the darkness, it
can't help getting a little darker. We bring our
own concerns into it when we enter. I recall
that a few days after the September 11 attacks,
I would flinch when birds flew over my car;
I thought they were planes coming toward me.
It can't be helped. More people are nervous and
fearful, expecting the possibility of real harm.

And, some people had some problems even before
Sept. 11.

Just wanted to say that I'm not replying to this because I have stopped discussing the issue.... It is all behind us now, and it should stay there.

I for one am not looking back.

I'm going to do to this thread what Ottox never does to a thread.


Dancer

Hi Sea W're sorry to hear that you're unhappy about the decision. :-( We do understand why. We left the post up for the same reason that we left the Entry up that mentioned suicide in a satirical way. There's a discussion about the rights and wrongs of doing this over at the Community Soapbox, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F55683?thread=154198, which you may like to read, or not... We totally agree with you that it'd be nice to see a return to the friendly days of h2g2. Hopefully the nice atmosphere will start to return soon. We're trying to to help it on it's way as much as we can. Please take care, there *are* lots of lovely people on h2g2. We hope to be able to give the friendly and contructive side of h2g2 more time and attention from now on! Best wishes The Eds

We *hate* exclusivity! We *hate* it when people are marginalised! We *hate* it when people are underappreciated! We *hate* it when people are being ignored! We *hate* it when people call other people and their problems *BORING*!!! We believe that *every person* should care deeply for *every other person*! We believe in the positive value of *communication* and *interaction*! We believe in *forgiveness*!!! We believe in *solving* problems!!! We *don't* believe that ignoring problems make them go away!!! We believe in *helping* people with their problems!!! We believe in being *patient* with people's shortcomings!!! We believe in *working, working, working and working more* to establish peace between people!!! We believe in pouring out our blood, sweat and tears for the sake of helping others!!! We *don't* believe in doing what's comfortable and convenient merely because it's comfortable and convenient!!! *WE ARE MULTIPLE AND WE RESENT PEOPLE BEING DISSUADED FROM SPEAKING TO MULTIPLE PEOPLE!!!* Because *we* wanna talk, and we have some serious things on our minds that we wanna discuss!!! We *will not be ignored*!!!

Of course you won't

You aren't being rude. You aren't being insulting. You aren't being cruel. You aren't being unjustfully hateful. You aren't being nasty. You aren't being mean. You aren't tyring to hurt people's feelings.

Discussion is good...

Well, I *am* paranoid ... at least, many of us are.

Forgive me if I say I don't like the way you're phrasing yourself. You say:

'You aren't being rude. You aren't being insulting. You aren't being cruel. You aren't being unjustfully hateful. You aren't being nasty. You aren't being mean. You aren't tyring to hurt people's feelings.'

You know how I read that? I read between the lines. This is what I read between the lines:

I read it as, you are saying, there *are* people who are all those things you say. There are people who are rude. There are people who are insulting. There are people that are cruel. There are people who are unjustfully hateful. There are people who are being nasty. There are people who are mean. There are people who are trying to hurt people's feelings.

You imply, there *are* people who are like that. Implied in *that* is that it is you, by your judgement, who judge these people as being those things.

My question: might you perhaps be *misjudging* people, if you judge them to be *any* of these things?

The next bit that I read between the lines - and in fact this is also implied by an earlier posting of yours:

When people are these things, it is OK to ignore them. Make them invisible. You said that.

I say - ignore *nobody*. *All* people, without *any exception*, are important. Once we start making exceptions is when *we* become blinded by *our own* prejudice.

*Everybody* is worthy of respect and attention. *Everybody* is interesting. I resent it if people say, some people are too much trouble, and should be ignored. I resent it when people say the only people worth paying attention to are those who are fun to be around. That sort of attitude is what drives some people to suicide.

Hi Willem

You're a lovely person and that really comes across in the way that you post. You're a lovely caring individual.

"When people are these things, it is OK to ignore them."

I don't think anyone really *wants* to ignore anyone. But sometimes it's a way for people to cope. Everyone has their own way of coping with things, and sometimes this is the way that people do it. It doesn't make them nasty people, people have to deal with difficulties in the way that they feel best able to.

This is what is difficult about the internet. It may seem that someone is ignoring someone, and it may not be obvious why they are getting so stressed by someone else, but we have to remember that we often don't know what else is going on in someone else's real life. They may have a lot of problems and a lot of stress and avoiding confrontation on the web maybe the best thing for them at that time. They're not trying to be rude, they're just trying to cope. That's understandable isn't it. We all deal with problems in different ways. That's what makes us all interesting and unique individuals.