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

Hello to you crew of "The Blood of The Zaphodistas"!

On behalf of the post I wanted to stop on by to ask you essentially about your group, for an article I want to write for the Post . I started posting this over in the thingite campaign, F63252?thread=6926859 and am hoping this will grow. My intention ultimately is to give community groups a voice in the post, and hopefully "join the dots" of the communities. I'm fascinated by popular areas of h2g2, and where they now reside. I found you here, and wanted to see what people here think. I'm sure this is different for everyone, but I was wondering whether some people who use this group could tell me about it.

Not to limit, but to give a taste of what I'm after I'd ask the questions : What is it that makes this group great to you? What's happened lately that's made you want to post to the group? What made you join the group? Which people have affected you most in the group? Has it made your h2g2 experience different/better/sideways ? Or anything that you'd like to say about the group.

I'm also interested in any other groups you may be involved in, and perhaps what inspires you about them?

Sorry to bother you all but hopefully you'll find this productive So please take it away

*bats eyelids at Terran and sidles up as well as she can in the rather tall buccaneering boots and over large cutlass*

Here, do have some grog --- Us crew only talk sense when our blood alcohol is suitably replenished with smileys

Seriously, you need to ask the Captain of this here barky the one and only Pierce the Pirate- he and his loyal crew have been around the world many times and have many an adventure to relate. Shagbark has an up-to-date ship's roster.

I am a newcomer, a sort of stowaway, but have hopefully ingratiated myself into the intriguing business of buccaneering and gossip. I suppose you could liken our life here aboard The Blood as being a surreal text adventure game, like listening to a radio comedy - anything that can exist in words and the occasional smiley can occur here - so watch your step Terran my old son, lest ye be pressed into service!

Many a one has joined recently for a quick nose job, or half a pint of and found they have become part of our jolly crew.

and now I look at you more carefully Terran, I see that you are looking a little green around the gills As the ship's doctor... *rifles in for a few blue pills *...I recommend that you take these with a and remember to hold onto the ship's rail, and beware of The Generator Room and The Plank.

Oh, and if you want to disembark, I should do so quick as we are about to set sail for the Mediterranean.

I've never had a sideways experience before - is that what is happening here I'm always happy to try new things out!

oh dear. so many questions, so little time

i joined hootoo almost 10 years ago and had to think up a good name

a fellow hootoo'er, who left us years ago (i miss you so much, ms Z! ), the fact that i once was a sailor (if only briefly) and a few other things inspired - nay, forced - me to take the name pierce the pirate - which was the first pun/joke i ever made in english

and then at one point abi the italic asked me to tell the story of me and my ship

thanks to shazz and amy (both of which i miss very much also ) i managed to create this universe within the realms of hootoo

much inspiration was given me by - oh, dear, hati, what was his name again? mark? - who had created the foxy manor

it was my aim to create a sort of playground that could w*rk without me being around to
sort out things (even if i AM the captain! make no mistake!)

it has w*rked very well (for me) so far

as for the other questions, you will have to ask the members of my crew

shagbark has been very loyal over the years. as has hati, alec trician and . our trusted navigator kes has taken a long term leave, it seems. as has our mari-rae and a few others.

but we are still afloat. and there are still new crew members joining us. lanzababy, paul h and the voodoo priestess to name but a few

i hope i have not offended anyone by not naming them. i hope you all realize i never meant to

the air is dry here, init? where's me rum

A few more notes: this ship set sail about nine years ago. I joined about eight. Over the years things have changed slightly and the crew has changed greatly. A couple things that have not changed are Pierce is still the captain and the ships engineer Alec Trician still mangles peoples names every chance he gets. The ship is equipped with SEP generators so nobody ever stops us because it is always "someone elses Problem" .
Anything beyond this and you will need to speak to Pierce the Pirate.

*rushes back in*

And NO PHOTOGRAPHS!!! NO PHOTOS!!


We will have to make you walk The Plank if we find any cameras stowed about your person...

*glares at Terran rather rudely* *strokes the hilt of overlarge cutlass menacingly*

*hands Pierce his evening grog ration and whispers*


Ahem... you should mention Robyn and Pirate Alexander LeGray and not-so-bald-eagle ...and I think Captain Black may be wandering around below decks, unless the panthers ate him.

As about Foxy Manor, name of that guy was Matthew Kershaw.

(It took me quite some time and digging in old mailboxes. )

I've been on the ship seven or eight years now, though my role was more like ship's poet than actual pirate. When I came onboard, I brought Nancy the Dragon and her Aunt Matilda. Aunt Matilda started out by making soup out of a sea serpent that someone caught. She kept going from to with a pushcart full of soup until it was all gone. Over the years, there have been some practical jokes such as the one that Pandora played on Gwennie involving a shower. This has been a fun place to be, especially because of our captain, who has the most marvelous sense of humor.

ah yer old flatterer, you

just goes to show what a marvellous sense of humo(u)r paul h has

lanzababy dear, i deliberately left out some names, because if i mentioned more it would be even more embarrassing for me if i forgot someone important

like flint. or pele

and when i wrote in posting 4 "i hope i have not offended anyone by not naming them. i hope you all realize i never meant to" i did NOT mean that i never meant to mention them, but that i never meant to offend them

as for the question "Has it made your h2g2 experience different/better/sideways?"

well, when i first came here i thought it was all about writing entries. serious entries like portraits of people, places to visit, how to boil an egg and so on

and more quirky entries like how to flag down a , how to insult a and what goes best with - this is a site based on the w*rks of douglas adams after all - and now devoted to his memory

but i found that the place opened up to stuff that had far more than just relevance to the real world and the fabulous imagination of our much admired and beloved founder

this to me is hootoos finest asset. it leads to strangers getting to know each other, often visiting each other in real life and forming long term friendships

i for one would probably never have made it to estonia had it not been for my dear friend hati, but now i have been there so often i can't even remember the number

as a result of these visits i have also been to meets and mini-meets in the netherlands, denmark, estonia, germany, england and sweden

although this is not your typical dating site other people have not only met and formed friendships. i know of at least three couples who married after getting to know each other here. one lady even moved from one country to another to be with her love. another moved from one continent to another - whereupon they both moved to a third continent

as for other groups i will only mention 'hati's summerhouse' and santragenius' 'the great outdoors'. again: please do not feel offended if you think i ought to name your group also. better not to name them all and then find out i forgot one or two of the most important

Having just given up my post as barmaid (I'm buxom, yes, but not very helpful... Throwing peanuts at people when they ask for things you dont agree with is not, apparently, correct behaviour. Humph) I thought i'd pop over here and see what you wanted to know.

I sort of jumped on board after being invited (I think? I dont remember... too much ) and rather like it.

Do you like Iceland?


(psst. I agree with the text adventure thing. It's sort of the wendy-house of virtual pirate ships in the playground of the mind on the internet.)

hands Robyn some more smartie resembling tablets from the




Take these with some grog dear and you will soon feel better

If I drink grog, will it make me groggy?

better groggy than punch drunk

If I give it to a frog, will he be a groggy froggy?

or, if they fall off The Plank, as in that's exactly what happened to the last paparazzi we saw aboard The Blood, will they be soggy,sorry and groggy?

Terran appears to have left this part of the ship - and is currently to be found in a state of inebriation in the popular ship's bar. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F70774?thread=375225&latest=1

Yay! Press Ganged!

It's lucky that the ship has a good bar, then. Diane Keaton not included.