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

"As jwf will tell you. The yikes button was created by the Politically Correct Police to silence anyone who doesn't follow their rules. The things you wrote, though I didn't like them in my thread, were still politically correct (don't violate the house rules), and therefore will not be removed."

The 'Politically Correct Police' are we? You don't know us very well at all then do you? Do you think that's a polite thing to say about people you don't know, whilst you're visiting the website that they started and nurture?

The 'Yikes' button was created so that your fellow Researchers can bring postings or entries to our attention, if they're offended by them, and/or they break the House Rules. That seems like a reasonable idea to me. Do you disagree? Do you not think that we should have some basic set of House Rules?

Peta

You tell me that I don't know you very well, and this may be true. But when you hid my postings (which few people in the conversation found offensive and even defended) without explanation, when you declined to honor my questions with an answer, and when you post such a defensive reaction in my space, it speaks volumes about your character.

Should you castrate my words, the only means of interaction I have with the lovely people I've met here, simply because you have a website and I don't?

I've done some research on your conversations list. It seems you handle very important duties in this website, some of which have been neglected (such as the finished university projects, which have even been featured on the front page, still listed as in progress, and the new projects [now weeks old] which haven't been added yet) while you come and harangue me for a comment made while I was in a rather irritated state of mind. Please forgive my oft-fiery tongue; I assure you I did not mean it personally. But remember, when your actions are all I have to judge your character on, don't blame me for drawing my own conclusions.

You've neatly avoided the question, Corinth.

We have rules that the Community have agreed to abide by. We believe that they are reasonable. The Community rejected your comment and 'Yikes' it, not me. I think it would be kind of you to hold your oft-fiery tongue, and stop making personal comments about the staff. It's anti-social and it's rude. And I honestly don't think the staff here deserve to be slated.

So please, it was just a gentle suggestion that it might be nice to be polite. That's not unreasonable, is it?

Peta

When postings to a forum are hidden, a message is put up instead. If you look it says, "This Posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way. You can find out more about moderation on h2g2 here." This is a clear explanation of what has happened. However made the posting must know what they put, and it's a simple matter to go and read the house rules (which are linked in the message on the forum), to double check which one has been broken.
By the look of your space, you are quite new to h2g2, so no one holds it against you for not being 100% sure of all the rules.

You are not being silenced when you have a post hidden, but there are some young children on this site, and we have to be careful that they don't read anything they shouldn't. It's nothing to do with having a website or not.

Peta does handle important duties on this website, she recently organised a party/community meet up for over 60 people, pobably edging nearer to 80 by the end of the evening. Some things have to take a back seat, as Community Editor, that's the most important job that she has as far as the community are concerned. She has one other staff member on her team, the Deputy Community Editor, and they both work very hard. When the BBC took over they gained extra responsibilities, but no extra hands or staff.

It's not fair of you to pck and choose things which have and have not been done, and then blame Peta. With one member of staff taking maternity leave, and the new member not starting straght away, then the University might not be up to date, but at least other, more important problems are being dealt with. So what if my project is still being shown as unfinished? It's on the front page for anyone to see!

How you can possibly make personal remarks about someone and then say that you did not mean it personally I have no idea. If Peta's conversations show the only things that she does all day, then I wish I had her job!

I've read the rules, but still have not been told which one I broke. You say I dance around your question, when you have flatly ignored mine. This demonstrates your lack of respect, and earns mine.

Corinth, please! It's me jwf, the guy you quote in Post#1. I'm sorry I set you off on this tangent. Now please listen to me before they get your adrenaline flowing and the vultures smell your sweat.

Are you listening? Ok: There is no hope of winning an argument with anyone who has their name in Italics. These people are at 'work' and we're just here to play. They are just doing their job and they have no time to play games or fool around. They have no sense of humour. So, just ignore them and they'll go away.

BTW: Nothing you have said anywhere is offensive, even to children. Your calm responses, to many who visited your thread and tried to bait you, are a model of self restraint. But don't even try that with an Italic. Go for Mycroft. He's spoiling for a good fight. And I can tell by the way he threw his gauntlet down, that he really likes you.
He's gracious, wears an asbestos suit and is very seldom wrong about anything.
peace
~jwf~ (smiles, waves silently to 'others')

Corinth, I'd guess it was the one that says "Unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable."

jwf, "They have no sense of humour." Not true. Their humourous side always comes out on site. Maybe try to make a community party and you will see for yourself if you don't believe what you see on site.
"So, just ignore them and they'll go away" Not true either. Very bad advice to give a newbie.
"Go for Mycroft. He's spoiling for a good fight." This also comes under the above house rule as far as I can see.

What do you get out of being so nasty?

BTW Corinth, Peta answered your question in her first post. Read it again. 3rd paragraph.

Hi Corinth

When postings are removed the Researcher is automatically sent an email which lets them know why the post was removed. I assume that you received the emails? They're sent to the email address that you've set in your personal preferences.

I'm not aware of a question that I haven't replied to. I can't guarantee that I'll reply to any question unless it's posted to the feedback forum, or to my page. I couldn't possibly read everything on h2g2, it would be quite impossible, so I may have well have not seen it. (If it's in the 'Young Girls' conversation, I unsubscribed a long time ago.) If you'd like to repeat the question here, please do.

The only question I can see in the above posting is:

"Should you castrate my words, the only means of interaction I have with the lovely people I've met here, simply because you have a website and I don't?"

The answer to that of course, is yes. It doesn't matter that "few people found your posting offensive". The fact is that some people *did* and some people complained.

In any situation where official social sanctions are applied, it is customary, since Hammurabbi's time, to inform the accused of why he is being punished, and WHICH SPECIFIC LAW OR RULE he broke. Mina has offered a conjecture as to which one it was, but the only thing I've heard from any 'official' source, the e-mails and peta, has been "...broke the house rules."
But frankly, I'm bored of this. Never mind.