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

Hiya Amy,

Obviously a lot of chatter has been happening lately about what's going to happen to h2g2 after we leave the BBC, and I thought I'd swing over and see what you were thinking about it.

I'm actually pretty willing to go with the flow--as long as my friends are still here, I'll stick! If the Consortium wins the bid, I can't really see any problems, personally, and, if we don't, the owner would have to lay down some pretty draconian rules for me to be bothered. I'm not one that likes change, particularly, but I've seen quite a few changes the last almost 10 years and am still here. Some of the changes were good (when I joined, the BBC didn't allow outside links in conversations) and some were bad (losing Italics, and therefore Italic presence in threads--especially the Community Editors, but I can't think of specific things to put in that thread in Ask). The only time I've *ever* considered leaving h2g2 (and I actually left for a week or 2) was over the Symphony ban, which was the first stealth ban (that I know of, anyway) and one that I know for a fact was bull. We did manage to get it overturned, but if Symphony hadn't had someone available in RL that could alert the community to the ban, all evidence would've pointed to elvising.

Glad to hear it. As and when we know anything we think you'd be a fine person to have on board (when real life permits, obviously).

Thankfully, I managed to (somehow) avoid the whole Symphony episode, and I think it actually did good in the end as the banning situation was improved. It's certinaly been brought up as a Mistake That Must Never Be Repeated.

How was it improved? We still have no way of knowing who's been banned unless the person that was banned finds some way to pass the info on. (As far as I know--I could be wrong. I haven't exactly looked at SoRB or Della's PSs to see if there's anything there...) I still think that the way bannings were done previously, with community input, was good. I know I posted links to the google group, but I'm not sure to which thread... Maybe the moderation one.

Ah, I'd read A623288 and people had said that large elements of it had become policy.

It *used* to be policy. The Symphony ban was the first that I know of where it was abandoned. I know Nick's ban didn't follow it (you can ask him about it).

Ah. I guess I've never been close to the people who have been modded. It'll be something I will have to be very careful about, And have good friends who can point out my errors.