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

I class myself as a veteran, having signed up when H2G2 was first announced on Tomorrow's World. Having been around that long, I've taken part in over 1000 conversations, many on Ask H2G2. These have ranged from weighty to trivial, and I've got into a few disagreements. I've even posed a few questions myself, ranging from 'Why are US and UK pint sizes different?' to technical queries.

I gauge whether a conversation will interest me by the subject. Then I usually read the backlog on a conversation before joining in. Sometimes I don't join in the 'weighty' conversations because they are *too* weighty or because the subject doesn't interest me. But then, the same applies to some of the trivial conversations, particularly the 'What's wrong with...' type.

I think Ask H2G2 is the perfect place for the kind of conversations that are going on. There has always been a mixture of trivial and weighty conversations, and that's just how it should be.

That signature should have been

I think the beauty of H2G2 is that it suits so many different types of people. There are researchers of all ages from all over the world and I find it amazing to be able to connect with people I otherwise wouldn't have contact with.

If you're into serious and heavy debate you can usually find one to join. If you just want a bit of light relief from the RL hassles that grind most of us down a wee bit - then that's there as well. The fact that a 'trivial' game like 'Next Word' has had over 14,000 postings speaks for itself. I get a kick out of finding that someone else playing at the same time seems to be on exactly my wavelength. And I've often subsequently contacted/had contact from these people on another part of the site.

I'll agree with earlier posters that the current political/military situation and the resulting moderation angst seem to have had an effect on the number of serious conversations going on at the present time. This will probably rectify itself in due course.
Another factor here is that a lot of the more serious stuff is often driven by whatever's in the news. And the tv/radio news is mainly w&r reportage these days.

I think it's unfair to assume that researchers participating in the only the more lighthearted/trivial conversations are somehow intellectually inferior lightweights. We may not post to the serious debates but we can and do read them. I can only speak for myself here - but I find this medium difficult to use for heavier debates. Give me a face to face conversation or a pen and paper though and I'm more than capable.

There's more than enough space here for all of us - we've got life, the universe and everything at our disposal!

The time difference has an affect too. Being at GMT +12 I need a lot of energy to wade in on something that's been going on all night.

Well said, Teuchter. Something for everyone. I also agree with Mother of God - poorly presented postings are difficult to read and I tend to disregard them, especially if they are lengthy.

Flake 99, what are the courtesies you regard as stupid? In my experience, courtesies usually oil the wheels of communication, keeping debates civilised and preventing them from becoming slanging matches.

If someone wants an intellectual conversation, all they have to do is start one. One of the difficulties I've noticed though, having been around a while, is that such debates tend to peter out fairly quickly when all those interested have expressed their point of view. Many subjects crop up repeatedly, albeit in slightly different wording, with few fresh comments being made.

There's also a problem if you're not able to log on frequently - the conversation may well have moved on significantly from a posting to which you wish to reply or someone else has already made the same point you thought of making.

I think we have lost the balance a bit. There have always been some funny threads here and some interesting threads on the simple things in lfe as well. (I really enjoyed the "what's in your fridge thread" for example.) What is new is perhaps the sheer quantity of the overtly pointless threads and the word game or similar threads.

A good debate on serious issues does seem to be a bit lacking at the moment. I don't agree with Blues Shark that the more serious debates in the past here have necessarily been spurious or intellectual posturing. There have been some good quality arguments.

I am hopeful that they will come back when we can again talk about what every one else is talking about, if you see what I mean.

Sprout

I think a lot of debate has moved away from Askh2g2 for example the recent talking point on euthanasia was very good and allowed everyone to come at the subject from all sorts of angles and was on the whole very polite and respectful.

My point was not that *all* serious debates here have been mendacious and pointless, but that *many* of the ones that are often classed as being proof of the intellectual worthiness of the participants (and particularly one which was quoted by Flake99) have been mendacious, pointless exhibitions of self righteous nonsense.

hey, i dont claim to be an intellectual elitist. not at all.

and as i said, i have no problem with the trivial threads, i've participated in some and even started some of my own.

and as i said before, im not really calling for 'Ask' to be changed into some debating forum.

im glad that researchers have set up their own debates in other parts of the site, but im not really interested in joining a debating society.

and what thread have i "quoted"?

Mentioned, then.

I'm not going to elaborate further.

*reads backlog*

Interesting thread...

I have to say, I don't have an issue with the dumber threads (and I say this as a major contributor to some of them ) because they are easily ignored. It is a concern that there is a lack of serious debate or Q&Aing recently, but I think this can be ascribed to h2g2's 'silly season', where people realise how nice the weather is getting and start mowing the lawn and going out in their free-time, rather than huddling over their keyboards.

Also, a lot of the serious debaters, the 'heavyweights' if you will have had their noses put out of joint by the Ir*q Policy. However, by boycotting the site or askh2g2 (if that is what they are doing), I can't help but feel that they have reacted somewhat childishly, to the detriment of the Community in general.

While we're on the dumbing-down debate, I would however be quite happy to shoot all those who don't take the time and care to use the English Language to the best of their abilities while online, even in the silly threads.

B

is my pUNCtua'tiON being attacked? Is this better?

actually, now that people have mentioned it, i am going to make a special effort to not use capital leters at the beginning of my sentences.

i hope this is a silly season, but i haven't been around long enough to know. i'll accept your judgement. and if people are leaving the site over the ir*q thing, i agree with you.

i always liked the idea of hiding intelegent comments in the funny threads so you get to appreciate them on so many different levels.
sort of bringing intelegence to the funny, and humour to the inteligent.

CF

Actually, poor spelling and punctuation annoy me too.

Ok, so I'm not a hotshot with my apostrophes, but COME ON! We should all be educated to a level where we know where the capital letters go...

nope.

When it comes to capitals it depends if I'm in a hurry or not. In a fairly long structured post I'll use capitals.

if it's a quicky then I often wont bother

It pays to bear in mind that English is not necessarily a poster's first language.

I don't have that excuse though