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

 Is anyone else getting irritated by Zachsmind and his copyright infringement?

Yes and no. It's a big guide and there's room for us all. Theres nothing in BBBB particularly memorable but they are having fun. If you are learning to play the guitar you must have found that reverse engineering a composition is one way of discovering how to compose yourself.

As far as copyright infringement is concerned, I personally don't like to be beholden to anyone else and I do think blind copying and quotation is the lowest form of wit.
One of my favourite authors however, Dave Sim (Cerebus), is quite happy for other people to appropriate his characters. His opinion is that if they do something new and interesting with them, thats great.
If all they do is rehash what has been done before, history won't remember them anyway.

I do think his view is naive though. Did you know that Jeffrey Archer was invited to judge a childrens writing competition. He then (I was told.) went on to use the stories as his own and profit from them.

So to reiterate yes and no. BTW what do you think of the enourmous number of guide related researcher names.

The names are fine, its the stuff beneath that sometimes makes me want to escape and never touch a computer ever again. I know it's only fun and escapist but there's something about the "Hi, I'm a half-breed betelgeusian and human" mentality that reminds me of the trepidation with which I enter into the sci-fi sections of bookshops.
History sometimes does remember the rip-off merchants. I hate all these adverts that use someone else's song, whatever the original meaning might have been. They'll re-record if permission to use the original isn't given but the upshot is that some people will say, upon hearing something on the radio, that "hey, it's that thing from the advert, you know..." etc. There was a thing in a paper a few years ago about a piano teacher being asked by a pupil to teach him "knockin' on heaven's door" by, of all people, the stone roses. He said that he didn't feel it worth mentioning BoB as the kid wouldn't appreciate the knowledge, even less actually remember it.
Copyright infringment was probably too incorrect a term to use. Unoriginality? It's the "I'm doing Marvin" mentality that irked me most. If it was well-written or funny I wouldn't have complained, but I'm reminded of "Free as a bird", released a few years back by the remaining Beatles after they dug out the tape of John lennon singing a few bars. If he hadn't turned crap in his later years he might have had the decency to turn in his grave. Maybe he was supernaturally revenged by making Linda dead, making Noel Gallagher insult George Harrison in the national music press and preventing Ringo from getting to voice the remakes of Thomas the Tank Engine.
I'm going to have to leave the whole BBBB thing alone as it'll only irritate me. I'll have to start using H2G2 for the purpose for which it was created and get on with reviewing some pubs. I like to feel that the point is made, though. Tributes are fine, repetition is unnecessary and appropriation is unthinkable.

Impressive home page BTW. Maybe you wouldn't mind giving me a few tips on HTML or a site which explains how to use it.
At the moment I am unable to even do links from one page I've writen to another.
Any help gratefully accepted, if you don't want to clutter your own site, come round to my place and post on journal entry neighbours.

I got bollocked by Jim Lynn for referencing another site here, so give me an email to send an address to. Simply create your own pictures and animations using any sort of graphics manipulation utility that allows the creation of MPGs or GIF animations, save them somewhere (a site that gives people free server apce is ideal if you don't have any yourself) and reference them in the usual way.

I find it strange that you can get into trouble for that. Especially when the other guy with "recursion" doesn't seem to have. But I've done the sensible thing now and done a web search for html tutorials.

regarding BBBB again.
People posting rubbish will get their punishment. Everything is going to be stored forever, so everyoff the cuff remark in every forum can come back to haunt them.

Unfortunately that doesn't work when all your work is I.D.ed.

But the permanence of the guide entries has the potential to be the persecuted man's greatest weapon.
Posterity can read what you have said and judge in truth whether you were just a noble man applying his own high standards to others.

Unless JL rewrites history. Does he recognize the power and responsibility he holds now, if the guide one day fulfils its potential, to be the repository of all human knowledge written by all the people interested in our world.

What doesn't work when all things are IDed?
What was the space at the bottom of the other entry?

Solidarity whithin the anonymous crowd at the end of the slaves revolt. I was just trying to say I think you were a bit hard done by, by the man.
The space at the bottom is just sloppy editing on my part.
Fanboyish behaviour on the site is tolerable, when the protagonists are too young to know any better. My big worry is that if too much of it goes on, the wider range of contributors we need to make this site interesting, (like any Radio 4 listeners who tried it out after hearing DNA on Start the Week) are going to get embarressed and quickly leave. Do you think Jeremy Paxman would register as a researcher here? If it grows in the right way however, there is no reason why it should not happen.
So get those pub reviews in, broaden the appeal to any casual visitors, and with your contributions make yourself indispensible to Mr Lynn.

There ought o be a little box you can call up showing the relative amount of h2g2 server taken up with forum postings and guide entries. If it starts swinging towards the former, people could note it, think "Aagh! I'm an internet geek" and start writing guide things until the balance tipped the other way.

I've been trying real hard not to get personal.

Not a good idea. Try to keep the criticism to content and concepts and patterns of behaviour rather than people. I would be honoured if you visited my page even if you made very negative comments about the submissions I've made. In the same way, I hope you don't take the fact I'm not interested in BBBB as an insult to yourself. One of the positive aspects of this guide is for the content to be improved and changed constantly, honed in the wind of criticism. But please tell us why we are wrong in not being overawed by BBBB.

Your views are yours, ours are ours.
I'm enjoying doing something.
If you try to stop me worshipping my religion, or I tried to stop you doing something, there could be a law case.
So why argue?
everyone is different, and this causes more.
Personally I think it would be better if we were all friends.
If the authorities don't mind, then you can politely ignore BBBB things, and we can quietly get on with it.
No hard feelings. It's easy to do.
love from me.

Yeah! Thanks Artretia! I was in trouble there.

Stay cool, and put yourselve in others shoes.
Then stay cool when you get arrested for stealing shoes!