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

Change is not always a bad thing.I think H2G2 is just evolving into something better.I too have been around since pre-Rupert and I notice some researchers have left,others have left and come back and some just never leave.As for unpleasantness I think there was more of it after Rupert because a fair number couldn't cope with the moderation rules.In fact it got so heated I had a sabbatical for a while until it settled down.
I personally think that things are pretty good around here.Apart from the creepy nighthoover threads that is.

Incog

Take Not The Name Of Nighthoover In Vain, For He Shall Return As The One Who Is Nighthoover...

Oh b****r! I had to mention them fool that I am.


Incog.

You've gone and done it now Incog...

n i g h t h o o v e r l i v e s o n

>offtopic<

Stop picking on me! I'm a super fast reader & reactor, I haven't been on all day, and I'm neurotic enough to play the *no reply* game. Yes I do sleep so leave me alone you big sack of poops!!

Tsh. Anyone else would be GLAD of my company. You'll all have to start paying for it soon enough.



>/off topic<

n i g h t h o o v e r

ACE greetings often are far too impersonal. I remember encountering people who thought the greetings were generated automatically by computer code, which can be done, but it defeats the purpose of having living, breathing people performing the task.

I did the job for a while, way back when, and it was always my approach to read the user page and journal, have some sort of reaction, and work that reaction into the greeting. It doesn't get any more personal than that. Then I'd wrap up with a "here's some things that'll help you get your bearings... ."

If Aces aren't going to take the time to be personal, then it would be better to turn the job over to the system programmers.

not another nighthoover thread...

put nighthoover to rest NOW!

unsubscribe!

Replay to Marjin on Post 33

Accually I did some more interior research and talked to some close assoicates, and I have come to the result that I and a few close assoicates are the only ones who accually see the circumstance I put forward in the first post.
We've been around awhile, sure here there doing this and that, writting, some editting. But since we really didn't have a huge base of associates on the guide, we've become has-beens.

Dorian

I always thought that the point of ACE's WAS to provide a decent introduction service. I don't remember getting anything near to that, and that was nearly a YEAR ago...

Shake up of the ACE system is needed methinks...

n i g h t h o o v e r

Let's see... I've been a researcher (devoted and addicted) since - uh - June 2000 I think...

Yes, the site was different in the 'good old days' - I remember writing journals, and people I had never encountered before would pop in and reply!

But I think that the site growing bigger has resulted in it being split up in smaller 'sub-sites' or maybe rather clubs, pubs and other more or less suspect points of gathering...

I originally joined purely for the joy of conversing with like-minded people - people who've enjoyed reading DNA's books, people who have a sense of humour, people who have a *very* vivid imagination - and I loved it, and still do! Somehow I ended up writing entries that got edited - I'm still not sure how that happened...

Oh - and yes, there are 'cliques' - but they are not closed to newbies - I remember diving in head first myself in the beginning, and slowly getting the hang of it...

...not long ago I introduced a - at that time - new researcher to a 'cliquey' place, and she fit right in, and now it feels as if she's been around for ages...

...you just need to find the right place, with people you can connect with, with the same kind of interests...

...and as for ACE greetings - it's impossible to squeeze *all* useful information into the first welcoming posting - the newbie won't know where to start - I think one idea might be to follow up the original ACEing about a week later, to see what the researcher has done meanwhile, and maybe leave a more personalized message once he/she has actually made some postings that will give you an idea about the person...

Oh - and Saturnine - if you think the ACE system needs some shaking up - why not volunteer to become one yourself and change the system from within?

I thought of being an Ace, but I never had the time.

Dorian

I tend to think ACE greetings are a bit impersonal myself. And that's coming from an ACE.

Unfortunately, we often have little to go on as to how to greet someone - a merely activated page or a couple of lines is rather hard to get personal with. I usually try to mention any kind of familiarity I have with the person's interests if they've listed them. And I always try to make my greeting as chit-chatty as possible - like I'm just talking with a friend.

Links are another story entirely. I think they're an unfortunate necessity on a website community - how else are you supposed to find your way around? As I say to "my" newbies - "this will be painful, but it's for your own good..."



Another question as an ACE - multiple ACEs on a single newbie greeting - good or bad? Just curious what the community thinks at large.

Try it out! It's good fun.

Well, I don't know about you, but if h2g2 is gonna try and die, I'm going to make sure it does it kicking and screaming, eh? I won't stop posting until everyone else is gone.

Anyone with me?

Oh, and multiple aces = good to a certain extent.

Hope you don't mind me joining in.

I'm still a relative newcomer (Sept. this year) but I was welcomed pretty well straight away, and do try to join in most days in my own limited way.

I really hope H2G2 doesn't fold. It seems to be the only place on the net where you can have a half decent conversation. The chatrooms I have been unfortunate enough to see appear to consist mostly of monosyllabic idiots with sex on the brain. And, as a relatively old newcomer, it is nice to sit down for a good old chat...once you get over the initial shyness of talking to total strangers!

William.

*thinks paragraph 2 of post #34 was quite insightful.*

There has (at least since I first materialised from the ether) been a split between The Guide proper and the Community that created it.

However developemnts in the community side (the introduction of the volunteer groups, The Post etc.) are not symptoms of a dying community at all.

h2g2 is improving. The community spirit is good, the quality of articles going into the guide is improving and we've got over that bad patch we had about a year ago caused by some researchers who took it all too seriously.

And my hair is its natural colour, thank you very much!

Hear hear!