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

Hello Mr. Adams. I've not felt worthy of speaking/typing to you previously, nor do I feel worthy now, which probably just complicates matters because you probably don't like it when people feel this way. This may well be my last opportunity, so I'm taking it. I know you are probably are busy with other things, e.g. writing a screenplay and shopping out of the Sharper Image catalog, but I just wanted you to be aware that the editor of H2G2 seems to have some power and control issues which are affecting his work. Researcher 131224, once here http://www.h2g2.com/u131224, seems to have been ousted, and as I had the audacity to sign his petition, I may be next. I'm American so I suppose I have a predisposition to sign petitions and join in protests and the like, but I believe that freedom to express a diversity of viewpoints would be a great value for H2G2 to officially embrace.

I personally left the site some time ago largely because I came to H2G2 out of a desire to have fun, but fun seemed to be taken away when I was told in so many words by the editor that he could arbitrarily oust me or anyone else at any given time. Threats are not usually much fun; well, I could think of a few fun threats but they are not relevant here. Normally I could overcome such an arbitrary situation by using charm and cookies, but I've found this difficult to achieve in cyberspace. (People have told me I can be charming, so I am not just making this up!)

Well that about does it for my attention span, and probably yours as well. The ousted researcher posted a petition here http://www.h2g2.com/a469578. The entire ordeal escalated when, in my opinion, things could have been worked out had the editor not behaved as he did. I hate saying bad things about people, but there it is. I think he probably could be quite nice and think perhaps circumstances have him in an ongoing stress which overrides the underlying potential for niceness, not unlike the Abominable Snowman. At any rate, I apologize if I have caused you stress and hope that your screenplay and movie are a great success. I'm an aspiring writer myself, but nobody cares until one actually makes money at it.

Peace and success,

Petunia

Hi Petunia

For anyone that doesn't know, Petunia is referring to Matthew Kershaw and his petition, which can be found here. http://www.h2g2.com/A469578

Matthew has been banned from h2g2 for a period of one week, for spamming a large number of conversations with requests for people to sign his petition. He interrupted many conversations, in places as diverse as the Forum and Firkin and the Post community newspaper and people involved in these conversations complained directly to me. Spamming is anti-social and consititutes offensive behaviour, which why I suspended Matthew for a week. All h2g2 Researchers have agreed to abide by the Terms and Conditions of h2g2, and if they break the terms, as Matthew did when he offended people by spamming, I will suspend them.

If as you imply, Matthew had been suspended because we objected to his petition, we would have removed it. We're quite happy for you, or any other Researcher to sign Matthew's petition and to discuss its contents. If Matthew had posted information about the petition to a couple of appropriate forums, for instance the Community Soapbox and my personal space, instead of spamming most of the most popular h2g2 conversations he wouldn't have been suspended.

And that's all there is to it. It's nothing to do with Mark, the Editor and it's nothing to do with Douglas.

Dear Saint Petunia,

I don't think going to DNA will help much but that's of course entirely your own decision. DNA hardly every writes for h2g2 and responds even less frequently(I am sorry to say).

Anyway, as this has now been escalated up as much as is possible, I feel obliged to add a few words.

You are quite entitled to talk to anyone about Matthew Kershaw, but I feel that you have presented a very one-sided point of view.

Mister Kershaw's suspension has already been explained by Peta. I had nothing to do with it and I will not take part in any discussion regarding this suspension.

I only wish to add that a very large majority of the researchers disagrees with his points of view, not to mention the way he makes/made his case clear. People have been telling him to : "F**k Off" . And that was *not* the worst of the postings I have seen. This comes from the people that he addresses ! So is it that strange when people complain about his spammingtechniques ?

He has made his point, he did not get enough support, and yet he keeps on trying. No problemo, but let him do it on his own page or on the soapbox-page, not on the pages of numerous other researchers.
Indeed, the soapbox was meant for this sort of discussion. I visit it myself frequently to see what's going on. So anything that's posted there will be read by ACEs such as me, if only to stay in touch with what's happening. The current opinion of many people about the ACEs is that they are some kind of lapdog for the Towers. This is most definitely NOT the case. If the towers go to far, the ACEs will not hesitate to tell them so.

If Matthew wants to fight his own private war then let him do it without annoying the other researchers.

Yours truly,

TowelMaster.

(This posting deleted because it was spam.)

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