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

It is probably the hormones, but I'm feeling quite bereft.

It has finally come crashing in that many of the people I used to see around the place have just...gone.

It turns out lots of them have turned into bloggers - have moved on to a new shared space. I can't help but feel a bit left behind.

The main reason I have enjoyed the salon so much was because it was a shared space - one place you could go to see what is going on in so many peoples lives - that place seems to have moved on.

*this bit is definitely the hormones talking* I can't help but wonder if I've done something to upset the people I used to think of as really good friends who have...gone. I feel like I must have done, because otherwise wouldn't they have told me where they were going?

I still enjoy reading h2g2 entries, and there are some interesting things still under discussion. But I miss the people I had got to think of as friends after so many years.

I can't understand why anyone would think blogging is a step up from hootoo: the blog seems to be the preserve of the self-important and over-verbose.

If it's any scant consolation, I'm still here.

B

I'm still here too, Kelli, hanging on by a thread. I also feel that a lot of my friends have evaporated. But I can't tie it down to anybody in particular.

Most of the interesting conversations on h2g2 seem to have moved away from common shared spaces such as Askh2g2 and into people's journals. I'm aware that about 50 active researchers are subscribed to my journal, so I try to make as many new journal entries as possible, to give people an interesting and friendly place to chat.

I'll second what B said, and add a of my own

I just got back from the loos after having a little cry about this and you two have set me off again!

This was brought on by going to see what was going on with someone in particular as I hadn't seen them around - only to discover their space saying it is vacant.

There is one blog I read by a researcher (who does still regularly post here) because her writing is such a delight, I *like* reading it. I went there this afternoon as I realised I hadn't been for a few weeks and wanted to catch up. This seems to be the downside of blogs and the upside of h2g2 - I can subscribe to things in here and see what is going on. Anyway, I noticed the name of the vacated researcher I had looked for earlier and discovered she had a blog saying she'd pretty much left. I've been rather upset since. I posted a message there but now I wish I hadn't - maybe it wasn't welcome?

I noticed you were being rather more prolific with your journals G

I'm not gone, just very busy at work right now. It's the wind up to the start of the new academic year and it's all hands on deck sorting out the computer labs before the influx of students in a few weeks time. Then it'll be a mad month sorting out user ids, answering basic queries like what is my password and so on.

And thank you Danny, I could do with a new loobrush

You know Phil, I miss you because I have a little private in-my-own-head race with you each morning to see who posts first because you so often had the post immediately before or immediately after my first one of the day Mind you, with my weird new sleep patterns at the moment I'd have been creaming you every day

I'm still here too...

The worst thing is that I used to feel that there was somewhere where I always got good advice from people I respected and liked, and there was pretty much always someone there - one of the benfits of a group scattered around the globe. Doesn't feel so much like that any more and I miss that, especially in the long hours when my best friend isn't here to talk to.

It is a small and selfish thing for me to complain about but some of my support has gone, or so it feels today. Mind you, today has been a dreadful day because of The Argument (it gets its own capitals from now on), and the Ireland thing, and the impending redundancies, and the now ever-present Preying On My Mind caused by the midwife failing to find a heartbeat.

It has all got a bit much I'm afraid.

Still here too and I have far too many other websites I chat in to have the time to go and read individual blogs, let alone keep one up.

It's quite a coincidence that you should start this journal entry kelli because I've been thinking the same thing myself about the lack of people around here and was considering a journal entry of my own about it.

I've been trying to work out what it might be and I've yet to come to any conclusion, if indeed a reason can be found. But one big factor, in my opinion, was the unneccesary frenzy that a lot of Researchers worked themselves into over the profanity filter. Something that should have been a minor blip on the h2g2 radar turned into a fiasco because it was blown out of all proportion... and I've yet to understand why.

Another possible factor came up in in Ask a few days when someone asked if Ask is still as dreadful as it used to be. Azahar pointed out an all too frequent tendency of a small group of about a dozen Researchers to hijack a substantial proportion of Ask threads with topic drift, nudge-nudge wink-winkery and their own in-jokes, completely ignoring the original poster's question with banal, teenage humour. Is it any wonder therefore that a lot of people - both old and new - avoid places like Ask?

I'd also like to dispel a myth.

During what I would consider the 'golden age' of h2g2 (even though I don't particularly care for that phrase it illustrates my purpose nicely) a lot of activity went on in communal places such as Ask, the Atelier etc, but just as much went on in 'private' places such as the fan clubs where groups of Researchers only ever interacted with each other. Which is what still happens now in journals. The fan clubs were simply a conversation on a Researcher's personal space, started by another Researcher. One or two of them, like Shea's for instance, are still active.

I honestly think that this places has been eviscerated during the past 12 months or so. And I really don't like the direction that the EG is taking... but that's a whole nother discussion which I've hardly even begun to ponder yet.

I'm the quiet one who sits in the corner and pops up occasionally to ask a question, give what little advice I have to offer and occasionally add my

I don't tend to get involved in the heavy convos or indeed have much of an input anywhere other than on Ask.

However, I will always be here. I lurk. I laugh. I learn.

I also

Kelli, you live in my Hootoo life. We are not close buddies, we haven't exchanged numbers/emails or met up. However - if you left I would feel bereft. It would not be the same for me. In that respect I can understand how "losing" some of your other friends and aquaintances here must feel.

You probably have enough loo brushes now so here - have some and a

Let me also add that I'm firmly of the opinion that everything is cyclical and any group or organisation will go through highs and lows. It's a pity though to see so many long-standing and well-respected Researchers and friends no longer active here.

And there are one or two to whom I would say "Don't let the door hit your arse on your way out", but wild horses wouldn't drag any names from me

How about being licked by two very licky Jack Russell terriers - would that do it? *restrains Patsy and Eddie while they wriggle excitedly*

I think what came as such a shock Gosho, was the discovery that some of these people weren't just busy with RL (which is what I tend to assume when I don't see someone for a few days), they are still doing the same thing they might once have done in their journal but on a blogging site somewhere.

I agree about that nudge-wink stuff - makes me cringe and unsub although I do occasionally attempt to post something on topic to see if the thread can be salvaged. Particularly awful when a newbie is asking something - it is like that one stall at freshers fair that doesn't seem to actually have much of a club attached but does have a bunch of people trying to look whacky and saying "We're MAD we are". I'm sure they don't mean it that way, but it doesn't help.

Caer, I'm going to struggle to keep up with a dozen individual blogs and I don't even chat on lots of other sites! Mind you, I only found a bunch of them because they were linked to by Reed so I don't actually know if I am wanted there, blundering around. I don't know if they went there to shed the old hootoo crowd.

I can see it would be difficult keeping up with things here as well as creating/maintaining a separate blog so I guess I understand why they only stick to one.

Debs, thanks for the See, you know me very well! I don't go in for a lot of exchanging numbers/emails and don't often meet up with people either. I do watch out for your posts though

I had another couple of thoughts about 'golden age' h2g2, but J has just come in and I don't know if we are still having The Argument.

k

I started blogging not in the least as a substitute or replacement or rejection of Hootoo. It was an entirely separate venture I was happy to share with my Hootie friends. I had no intention whatsoever of wandering off. It was an addition, as Hootoo wasn't quite the venue for a particular aspect of myself. I know there are creative writing venues in Hootoo, but I wanted ownership and control not only of what I wrote, but of how it was presented, who was allowed to comment on it (and how) and also freedom to say . I also know I'm about as much use as a soap herring to the EG BECAUSE I am a raving control freak who won't give up ownership of her words and daren't start critiquing other people's for fear of ripping them all to bits and attempting to rebuild my way.

I'd miss you lot ever so, though. So I'm not leaving until I'm the last one out, with the factory cat under one arm and the light-bulbs in a box under the other.

I tried to leave, but it turned out someone had attached a bloody big elastic rope to my back so I keep bouncing back.

Kelli, while it's true that I stopped posting in a place I know is important to you, I have hardly left h2g2. As for blogging, I enjoy it for a couple of reasons. First, I can edit whatever I write there as well as the comments people leave me. And second, because it is possible to have a conversation without a lot of childish remarks spoiling everything. Also, I was hoping to have a place to talk with friends about things that interest me without having the continued presence of people who annoy me. But, you would have to be quite a bit more private than I've been for that to happen, I've learned.

I can't help thinking of 'It's a Knockout' when you say that, Gnomon