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

I bought the first computer for my home in 1999, August. Brought it home, set it up, established an internet server account and that took about an hour from opening the first box. The first Euroseek search was 'Douglas Adams'. H2g2.com was an uppermost result in the list. That's how I found this site. I opened an account. The email ended with 'beware the leopard'. The log in system was very basic and the account was a few numbers. I mostly read entries using the infinite improbability drive, while not logged in.

Then one night there was a thread that I wanted to post to. The cookie for that first account was lost a few months after opening. So, I opened an account, again. I was not the only one who lost their cookie. The five digit account was never posted from and never had a name. The next account was posted from a few times. It wasn't greeted by an ACE for years.

With a change of job description and hours, I was too busy for h2g2 for a few months and when I went back to h2g2, it was closed. A message something like 'Sorry, the site you are looking for is unavailable or cannot be found' and had a picture of a cat or something. This is the time period referred to as 'Rupert' also known as the Great downtime. A few weeks later it showed up in another search. I clicked the link and h2g2 was back, with the bbc.co.uk. added.

The first account was a lost cause. The second, which was the first account to be activated, was locked under the retro moderation process. The BBC were not only pre modding every post before it went onto the site, they were also going backwards through the user pages, guide entries and conversations before unlocking the 'legacy posts'. The instructions said 'you may post, but you will have to open a new account to do so or wait' That is where the next account was opened. The idea of wiping the legacy posts and starting over had been mentioned, discussed and so on. Some researchers had several guide entries and other things they did not want to lose. So, time moved on and eventually, the legacy posts and pre BBC accounts had been unlocked and uncovered. The new moderation system had been hashed and rehashed until the policies were finalized.

The first two attempts at reopening the first activated account resulted in two error messages of 'Greetings new Hiker, welcome to the Guide' each bearing a new shiney U number. I didn't activate those for a year or two, mainly because the third attempt regained the first activated account. When a friend was in need of a cheering section for his reinstatement as an ACE I asked how many accounts did he want me to bring there, his answer was 'all of them'. As it was his request, mainly to cheer him up, and he knew they were me, because I had his email as well. I activated the two spare accounts and they were meant as pets for the friend.

The sixth account was a shocking joke for another friend who needed a laugh and apparently a 'laughing so hard you choke' hazard for my co workers, which believe it or not, was an unintentional plus.

i didn't discover the existence of this site until shortly after Douglas Adams died. That was in 2001. A few minutes later, the World Trade Center towers were attacked by planes flying into them. All in all, 2001 was nothing to write home about. It was even hard for Dave Bowman...

Sorry, that was a few *months*, not minutes. Maybe HAL is messing with my fingers.

September 11, 2001: https://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A822737

I went through my pre Rupert account and found a post dated as :Posted Nov 10, 2000.

I went through the list on this account, found threads which were the first conversations with some the researchers that are either gone or rarely post now.

Mixed in with the race for a particular researcher to get the most posts in 24 hours and the Pub Crawl were the posts of the Mardi Gras parades and the Campsite dragon, Esparoth. And enough to be awake for a week.

When I joined in - March 2004 - there was a running side panel showing who was most prolific right now. Some of us had a lot of fun with trying to stay on top for even minutes, which was aided by quite a number of lively word games on the go.

Of course, 2legs often held the top spot.

Why am I not surprised?

The No 1 in that list was known as the 'most erudite'.

Sorry - that was no comment on 2legs. He's more educated than I am, for a start. In fact, I may be the only one here who doesn't have a university degree.

Officially, I was a high school drop-out. I did write an equivalency set of exams when I was about 25. And based on training courses and experience, was titled a Certified Engineering Technician - CET.

So while I have been on a number of campuses (college and university), I've never studied at one.

~ ~ ~ . .. ... . .. ...
~ experience is the best teacher ~ and the most expensive ~

Paul, were you around when Rat and Theory would marathon post? Rat had a goal of 500 posts in 24 hours and he almost made it, with AW, Theory, Candi and me all post all replying in different threads (and posting or IMing to each other) that was Jan. 2002. This is one their warm ups: https://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/classic/F74046?thread=156967 It's also where they tested the moderators. TC, good to see you around. Hello Gingersnapper. :-D

Yep, I remember Rat and Theory's marathon. I met Theory a short time later. There was also a fight between the Cats and the Dogs. I think Dragonfly was shaken by that.

I remember the Cat and Dog wars, just a bit of role playing, same as the Pirate ship and others.

I remember the campaigns for and .

And, Theory hating </smiley>s. So he would type s with tags instead.

I was part of the campaign to create a smiley.

I campaigned for and some of the others we now have.

Also made some table smileys and a few images on the graphics tablet including greeh and cookies.

It's shocking that never became a smiley.

Did you ever see this? https://h2g2.com/entry/A5317102

A would probably have caused a whole vs. argument that could possibly surpass the cat vs. dog wars.