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

My kids (and wife and me, if I'm honest) have just been through some trauma and feather-spitting because of small words.

The kids were subscribed to a mail list for home-educated children (because they are) and one of the other contributors was foolish enough to use the word cr*p (I put it that way for comic effect and to placate the moderators).

In swings mother-of-somebody, controller of the list. Instead of issuing a "cool it" directive (which would still have been an over-reaction in this case) she starts a witch hunt ("that's not the kind of language we use round here, sonny") and then a parents-of-witch hunt ("are you sure you're bringing your children up correctly?").

A list like this might include damaged children, and most of the others are aware of that (they come across each other face to face). And netiquette is a good thing to learn. But we now have...

* kids being kids ("I can say cr*p 407 times and you can't stop me!")

* kids being sensible ("there are more important things in the world", "please treat me like a human being")

* parents being silly ("we've all got to follow rules, and you can't teach your kids that their own gratification is more important than anything else")

Anyway, as must happen all the time, the list may well disintegrate. The ones who have been accused by a self-styled "adult" of behaving in a less-than-helpful/depraved manner will certainly not be back, and they're setting up their own list. The sad adults may fear that it's a "list-for-swearing" but I doubt it.

I was just re-reading your short guide to short words to see whether I should put it in as a recommended read. I think not, all things considered, until things settle down.

Good to know it isn't just h2g2 that disappears up its own backside chasing cr@p. (Sorry about that, I am still stinging about some completely pointless and politically motivated moderation in another thread).

Yes - the Small guide for Small words is intended for audiences over 12 or 13 I think. Certainly I was reading similar stuff at that age. It is also not intended to endorse foul language. What is foul is a cultural issue - as the entry on 'b*****d' makes clear.

Thanks for your post Mund. And enjoy the farmland.

***B

Incidentally, it challenges and perhaps frees the mind every time you change your "name", because it reaches back through past conversations and maybe changes the way people see the words you wrote then.

Yes, the name-change facility is one of the cooler things about hootoo.

***B