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

Shazz from <./>ThePost</.> here.

As the most succesful club around h2g2 I have decided that it is about time I asked you all a few questions. This is basically for a special
forthcoming edition of your h2g2 newspaper. Hopefully, apart from collecting a fair few replies, I would also be grateful if one of your founders would agree to being interviewed by email to comment on the results of this little questionnaire.

So, without more delay, here are the aforementioned questions. Please try to keep your answers as brief as possible - hard I know

1) What made you join h2g2?
2) What made you join the Thingites?
3) How did you hear about the Thingites?
4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?
5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?
7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
10) Do you read The Post?

Thank you, you wonderful people! Could you please try to reply to these questions in this thread before 27th February - and could a founder member please drop me an email?

shazz

1) What made you join h2g2?
looked interesting on tomorrows world.

2) What made you join the Thingites?
the 's

3) How did you hear about the Thingites?
word of mouth/postings

4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?
(you mean there's life outside h2g2?)yes

5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
42?

6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?


7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
DOWN WITH SP******ES (actually they are quite nice people - most of the time)

8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
not yet - next year (though i said that last year)

9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
*roam roam roam on the range*

10) Do you read The Post?
yes of course

Thank you Z Phantom

shazz

THE founding member is here!

I'll reply to this one later when I get back from w**k

all kneel, and pay tribute

Will be back to answer... just got those class thingies to get out of the way first today.

1) I was bored.
2) I was still bored.
3) A person told me.
4) Yes.
5) No.
6) Wasn't aware of them; no opinion.
7) I AM a Sporkite. So there.
8) No.
9) Roamer.
10) Yes.

I know, I'm just so eloquent and informative, aren't I.

I have a free moment... so, here goes...

1) What made you join h2g2? I have no idea, it's been such a long time - led here by a friend, joined on a whim, and I just never left.
2) What made you join the Thingites? Actually, I think I wanted another title, and since Clive, Parrferris, and AB had one... I just had to get in on the deal.
3) How did you hear about the Thingites? Clive mentioned it to me during Rupert when we were emailing back and forth. Of course, there were no "Thingites" at that point - there was barely Thing at that point.
4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2? Only among those who know what I'm talking about. And my to-do list is listed using Thingite day names, just to make it less scary.
5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites? A lot. Very very many.
6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club? What is this, a dating service? Um, I plead the fifth.
7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites? Indifferent. I wish they'd quit spamming our forums.
8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet? Yup. (PA Dutch meet in August 2002) And a Thingite wedding.
9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2? I'm all over the place.
10) Do you read The Post? Every Wibble night (EST), when it gets put up.

1) What made you join h2g2?

Found a web address to Douglas's Adam's company Digital Village on the inside of my copy of "The Deeper Meaning of Liff." There was a link there to "The Hitchikers Guide To The Galaxy" Interest Piqued, I clicked on it and haven't really left it since.


2) What made you join the Thingites?

Well as The Founding Father and Prime Mover I did not so much join as, Start.

The story to that little episode is oddly enough tied into one of the epoch making parts of H2G2's own history. Anyone coming afresh to h2g2 will find a rather nifty corner of the web closly allied to The beeb. But it was not always so. Once upon a time h2g2 was a small dotcom and like the way of most dotcoms it was running perilously close to becoming extinct. But spotting a good thing when they see one, The BBC stepped in, stumped up the cash, all mostly everything came back (offsite pictures now the only last remianing absentee from the good ol' days. )

Anyway, The Italics, life inmates of Hootoo Towers, set up a Yahoo Usergroup as a temporary substitute for lost and lonely researchers while these delicate negotiations were taking place - anyone attempting to find h2g2.com would instead be taking to a page that bore a hauntingly similarity to the alabaster skin advising people not to panic and the normal service would be resuming shortly as soon as anyone could work out what normal was anyhow.

This yahoo group became our home for the period of time later known as Rupert, amid much wailing and gnashing of teeth. And it was here in the trenchs of dispair that Thingism was born.

Alas records of this yahhoo group were deleted when h2g2 came back online - so this precious document is lost. and my memory is only good up until a point.

Somebody said:, "I don't like Thursdays"
I said: "I've always had an ambition to re-name Thursday 'Thing'"
Acidbath U168613 said: "Cool! in this glorious campaign I should want to be a Grand Vizier."
I said: "Okay you can be my Grand Vizier if I can be Warlord."
AB: "Alright"

It wasn't quite storming The Winter Palace as Revolutions go but it was still pretty signifcant.

There was some discussion about naming the days (M**day/Sodit - coming in for particular attack, 'Tedium' and 'boredem' being banded about.

Shea the Sarcastic U63974 (or 'Shee-ah' as everyone thought she was called. ) came up with Wimpy I think.

There was no real direction (never! they say mockingly ) and we didn't have all the names. F**day and the weekend remained outstanding when H2G2 came back on-line.

As an ACE, I'd been invited back to test run the beeb'ed up h2g2 before it went live again. I'd been spending some time sticking some idle bits to The Manifesto page (my first real attempt at GuideML.)

It very quickly attracted the attention of a researcher called Inkwash. Who protesting vehermently started a conversation setting out in a calm and reasonable fashion his reasons for opposing our new World Order. "No No No!!" he started, promising to defend the common weeknames and yada yada yada - anyone who's interested, our resident armourer The Gook U148521 - turned up with the in post 29

Truly they are most desireable and were accepted with great relish by myself and the rest of the First Generation Thingites who by now included Acidbath, ParrFerris U168284 and Amy U50994 (See Question 6. )

Inkwash turns by post 35.

So s have been part of the Campaign for a long, lo-o-o-ng time.

Shea arrives and Mike U140459(who in the incident involving the Strand Underpass volunteered to light the fuses on the dynamites himself. So I inducted him into our Suicide Squad (fantastic zeal followers of Thingism have, naturally this post is of a strictly temporary nature.)

Thus the informal Thingite High Council came into being.
(the same who converged on London in 2001 for the summer meet up.)
informal because few other than myself have gabbling rights and Shea is our honourary spork giver-er-out-er-er. until the Gook finds his way back on to h2g2 permenantly.

The Summer meet up was a huge boost for us (we got talked about in Abi write up after we won the pub quiz) got our names out into the public arena and the "no no no!!" forum was regularly on the 5 buisiest list.

No no no has grown (oh my has it grown!) from the first humble couple of hundred posts to a staggering behemoth of gargantuan proporstions! (We are close now to our next landmark of 42,000 postings. )

We are still occasionally on the 5 busiest list - there's a lot more competition these days and we are regularly invoked as the standard of sillyness that a web community can generate (A787160 - footnote 1.). A lot of our members now sign up, I think, simply to know what all the fuss is about.




3) How did you hear about the Thingites?

I think I've about covered that.



4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?

Absolutly! Occasionaly when in the presence of The Unelightened it serves the purpose of the conversation better to speak in the old tongue - but I'll convert them all sooner or later!

5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
Ooh Lots. I know we have at least several Brits, Scots, Irish, Americans, Eurpoeans, Elly is from Israel and Evil Roy, I know is from Austrailia!
So Thingism is certainly a Global Enterprise!


6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?

I'm quitely in favour of them


Not including my own with Amy

(See posts 45 - 51 of no no no for a really scary precursor! F63252?thread=100492&skip=40&show=20 - if only because of it's accuracy!)

To our name we have let me see...two weddings, several relationships and some really firm freindship groups.

7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
Controversial. It was diplomacy at work. As Constitutional Head of Thingism I am unsure of my own position in regards to joining this new cause (and frankly I'm quite happy with my trusted <spork and spikey helmet of Warlordship. ) However I have no problems with anyone esle joinign if that's their bag.

8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?

Several. I am a multi time champion of various Thingite Teams on The Moxon Pub Quiz.


9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?

Oh roam freely, us flying ostrches have a travel bug.

10) Do you read The Post?
naturally. I've even written for it!

1) Whilst pottering about at w**k, I discovered a link in Internet Explorer favorites, clicked it, and became enthralled.
2) Poor judgment
3) Several intriguing people had Thingite titles emblazoned in their name thingie-mo-bobs ... naturally, I stole the idea.
4) Only with fellow Thingites. Other people tend to look at me as though I've spilled coffee on their shoes.
5) We are *one* nation under Thing ... I think.
6) I'm happy for them. As for me ... *collapses into wracking sobs*
7) Who?
8) No. Never.
9) I no longer roam h2g2. I've shriveled into a pile of shyness, measuring approximately two by three by two centimeters in volume.
10) Sometimes.

1. My kids (Amy+ U50994 and Shorty+ U95649) seemed to always be sitting in front of the computer with this goo-ey blue background on the screen and giggling for some reason... I just *had* to find out what it was all about!

2. They were primarily giggling at Thingite conversations, usually 3N, so it follows that I just *had* to find out what the joke was about.

3. I thought I just explained that??!

4. I have been known to, on occasion.

5. Lots and lots. It's a world wide revolution, I tell ya!

6. Amazing. My own daughter is involved in an international Thingite romance! Wouldn't be surprized to see even more spring up over time.

7. Hmmm... They are a zealous bunch, aren't they?

8. You mean other than the fact that living in my house is like being at an h2g2 meet all the time? Oh,yeah... Sir The Theory (U186705) is local so we see him a lot, then Clive (U113478) visited Amy+ (and by extension, the rest of the family) last summer for nearly a month, then there was the Pennsylvania Dutch meet on two of the hottest days of the year last August... so I guess being as brief about it as possible, I would have to say that my unequivocable answer would be... I think so, yes.

9. I'm all over the place.

10. Sometimes. I promise to read it when this article is in there. Honest.

1) It was brought up in an edition of the SciFi Channel's e-letter. This was way back in the pre-bbc days. I joined because of my interest in the Hitchhikers' Guide, lurked, and eventually started to post when I had a few free seconds at w*rk.

2) It was and still is the most popular uprising in the history of... whatever.

3) That "Busiest Conversation thingie on the front page

4) Sometimes

5) Oh... three or four...

6) Good on ya!

7) Eh. Haven't checked them out yet, but rest assured, it is on muy to-do list.

8) No, but I am looking foreward to eventually attending one.

9) Free roamer

10) No. Again, something on my to-do list.

Clive dearest, she said in a *few* words...

That *was* a few words, by *his* standards...

1) What made you join h2g2?
This question would be better asked as "What *possessed* you to join h2g2?", but the answer in both cases is that I haven't the foggiest idea.

2) What made you join the Thingites?
An aneurism.

3) How did you hear about the Thingites?
I believe I wandered innocently into one of the fora and was promptly hit on the head with a . Thus, the aneurism.

4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?
I have no recollection of that event.

5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
Yes.

6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?
It was The Almighty Bobs plan to brings us all together, and it is by the grace of The Almighty Bob that we find ourselves together. More, I cannot say.

7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
It is a travesty, an abomination, a threat to civilization as we know it and, most importantly, a tax on our supply!!! BTW, who are the Sporkites?

8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
Yes, but I have no recollection of these events.

9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
I cannot be bound by the constraints of a single page on a site and I cannot be bound by the constraints of a single site. In fact, the internet is altogether too claustrophobic for my liking.

10) Do you read The Post?
Occasionally.

whoops!

Hokay, here goes:
1) What made you join h2g2?
I clicked on a link on the BBC Hitchhikers' guide page.

2) What made you join the Thingites?
Seemed like a good idea at the time

3) How did you hear about the Thingites?
Through the busiest conversation list

4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?
I have been known to.

5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
at a wild guess...about 7 or 8

6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?
Great.

7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
I think it's great that other people further the word of Thing.

8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
Nope.

9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
I'm all over the place.

10) Do you read The Post?
Nope. Should do that sometime.

1) Boredom. I had internet access at college.

2) Boredom also, with a side order of alcohol.

3) I think someone invited me over to n³

4) Doesn't everybody?

5) No, pray tell...? (Wouldn't it have been more productive to use this question to actually ask us our nationality? Or were you just hoping one of us had been bored enough to conduct this survey already?)

6) It's a good thing. There's not enough sex on the internet.

7) Hmmm. I think they plan to use the smiley. Heretics!

8) Several

9) This is the first Thingite forum I've participated in apart from n³

10) No, I just look at the pictures.

1) What made you join h2g2?
Just finished reading the books and found the Babel Fish on Altavista
2) What made you join the Thingites?
It just looked like fun...
3) How did you hear about the Thingites?
Followed other researchers.
4) Do you use the Thingite names for the days of the week outside h2g2?
Um...no.
5) Do you know how many different Nationalities are members of the Thingites?
We've got brits, americans, aussies, israeli (me) and prolly few others.
6) What do you think of all the romances which have sprung up through the Thingites club?
Well, I'm married to a lovely thingite, so I approve.
7) What do you think of your affiliation to the Sporkites?
I don't.
8) Have you ever attended an h2g2 Meet?
Yes. London, July 02.
9) Do you always stick to just Thingite fora and topics or do you freely roam h2g2?
I freely roam and grase
10) Do you read The Post?
Occasionally.

And Clive, *I* was in that summer meet too.