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

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I believe a similar argument was used by people who turned Jews over to the Nazis - that they hadn't been the ones to turn on the gas.

I have not made any personal or insulting comments against aka or Saturnine. I am only speaking about the action taken by them, which I find deplorable. And I believe I have a right to express my opinion.

az

A long while ago, someone at work told me about a thing called Audiogalaxy. You could get pretty much any song ever recorded, for nothing! It was great. I downloaded some old stuff I'd been wanting for ages, stuff you simply couldn't buy. I also downloaded loads of other stuff. Then one day, it didn't work any more.

Did I complain? Did I scream about the injustice? Did I hypocritically moan on about how I should have been allowed to continue, even though I knew what I'd been doing was wrong? No. I just downloaded Kazaa...

I used to get my internet from BT. Then they started clamping down on people who were online for long periods (people downloading lots of stuff, for instance). They cut off my internet service, because I was online for 18 hours at a time, reconnecting automatically when the line dropped. This was in breach of their terms and conditions, so they terminated my access to the internet.

Did I moan? Did I complain to them? Did I wail at the injustice of being found out and sanctioned for breaching a legal agreement with them? No. I went to Freeserve, and found them to be much better, and cheaper, more helpful and less prescriptive.

If the Telewest users don't like getting cut off, they have that beautiful freedom of the capitalist free market economy - the freedom to get the service from someone else.

So why all the whining? If any of these people give a s**t about h2g2, they'll find another way to get here. If they don't, then they're no loss. Either way, I don't see any problem, other than a mildly inconvenient temporary interruption to the service, and h2 has had those before...

Well, perhaps Telewest would have discovered this 'digibox abuse' at some point. My take on this situation is that Telewest was informed of this matter by people with an apparent personal grudge against people who used digiboxes here, believing that they somehow interfered with their own personal view of what h2g2 should be. And the fact that these instigators are past digibox users themselves certainly smacks of hypocricy, to say the least.


az

'Well, of course it is. The problem: Defrauding a UK National company. Not of money, but of resources. Resources vital to the smooth operation of its services. Resources which, if overtaxed, can and will result in the service dying. The service which, when dead, will spike lots of calls to Customer Services, complaining.'

Poor, poor big UK National Company. They never mis-used their power, they never cut-off people who have paid their bills, they never come out after heavy rain to twiddle the phone junction box in the road because the box is so full that is brakes their own rules, after said complaint they never take over a week to bring back the service which only failed because they have broken their own rules on crowded phone junction boxes.

Telewest are such a wonderful company that I can see why aka feels it should be protected, by people such as himself.

NOT

Just out of curiosity, am I right in thinking that Loup D'argent went to great lengths in order to set aside a small corner of h2g2 for the benefit of Telewest digibox users that were apparently due to lose the chat site they had been accessing? I would imagine that would have taken considerable effort and would not have been achievable without the knowledge and I'm sure very kind assistance of the powers that be a la h2g2. Which would also mean, from what I can gather, that they will also have known of the methods being used by digibox users in order to access this site. Now, if that is indeed the case, and in keeping with the 'so called' motives for informing Telewest of the dreadful wrong being done to them, surely it follows that Telewest should also be informed that h2g2, and by association, the BBC, having full knowledge of this loophole and in effect assisting digibox users to join and contribute to this site were also culpable at least in their neglect to inform Telewest or for that matter the digibox users themselves, that a 'crime' was infact being committed. If that is the case, surely in what is being claimed to be the spirit and reason for informing Telewest of the digibox access loophole, it follows that h2g2 should also be held accountable?

I loved the snotty kid fable, I was expected an alternative ending though where all the kids were banned from the playground, as it was deemed the only way to get rid of the one oh so naughty kid.

>If you wish to call me any names, you can do so on my Space. Don't bother in this thread.<

Here we go again... aka telling us in which threads we should post or not...

I actually think this thread is as good as any other when it comes to post how we feel about the whole affair... very much...


I won't call you names aka... Not that i don't have several in store that would fit you to a t but because as i'm an ex-Lder i would do a great desservice to the other ex-LDers on the site if i was expressing how i really feel about you and your actions... I certainly don't want you to come out of this one as the victim and the ex-Lders as the bad guys...

One thing that surprises me though is that you went public about telling Telewest even so you must have had an idea about how it would be received by the digibox users and their friends... Or was it the idea?!... After all, you are not that stupid that you thought your little bomb would be gladly accepted and that we would all come thank you for it?!...

loup[in mourning]

" believe a similar argument was used by people who turned Jews over to the Nazis - that they hadn't been the ones to turn on the gas. "

Hm?

"Poor, poor big UK National Company."

Am I Telewest's biggest fan? No.

Am I a Telewest customer, one of many whom have been impacted by loss of service induced, very probably by the total amount of server resources being used, when they were never supplied for such usages in the first place.

Imagine you have an electricity generator. Several machines are linked up to that generator, and then suddenly, you decide to buy more, power-hungry, bigger machines. The power is needed for the new monster machines more, so the little puny machines suffer. In effect, this is what happens when sites like h2g2 are being requested by so many digiboxes at a time. The service suffers.

Not only does this affect Digital TV, but more often than not, it kills Broadband Internet. A PAID service. If nobody ever reported abuse of service, by the way, no company would bother with having an [email protected] e-mail address.

I am a digibox (or was), and I do not understand why these two researchers have gone out of their way to destroy the access, I've read all of their technical points, so please don't reply to this message with a load of technical jargon, they have a personal grudge against people using digibox, an elitist point of view, in my opinion.

You may not have technically banned people from accessing this site, but you have destroyed peoples enjoyment of H2G2 and blocked an entire group of people from using it, I for one am dissappointed that this seems to have been instigated by an Ace, people whom are supposed to be upstanding members of the community.

While trying to stay very calm in this discussion, I repeat from a previous post, let he who is without sin....and I hope that the two in question can live and sleep knowing what it is they have done.

Xander...lucky enough to have a freind with a computer.

Oh. Good post, Member.
Certainly down to Earth.

I am on telewest broadband, yes I know its a paid service, I pay for it. I still wouldn't have closed the louphole, cause I am not a petty spoilsport. My broadband service is fine, it very rarely goes down, I do not believe that the digibox users afected my braodband usage.

The 'loophole' was just there. And it was being used. And if it truly presented such a massive problem for Telewest I can't imagine they wouldn't have looked for the source of it themselves. I cannot see how it was BBC's or anyone's responsibility to inform Telewest of it. It is certainly not a 'crime' to take advantage of a corporate loophole here and there. Less than totally honest, yes, but a crime? No.

So, what if I know my neighbour upstairs is watching television without a license? Major crime, right? And I am bound by social duty to report this scoundrel, right? Wrong. The only reason someone would bother to report a neighbour in this scenario is if they had a personal grudge against them. And especially if they had previously spent time watching television themselves without a license this accusation would be .. . specious? Hypocritical? Just plain nasty?

az

Malevolentlala,

According to short correspondence I've had with h2g2, they seem to have been unaware that the digbox access was unauthorised, and as soon as they realised this they did in fact inform Telewest on the matter.

Is the Beeb to blame? Was it my e-mail? Did they find out for themselves?

Loup,

I'm telling you all to go to my Space to insult me or make stupid comments, to leave them out of this Thread. "You are a nasty person", or stronger words to a stronger effect tend to get mixed up in a sea of at least carefully thought out posts. You may bicker elsewhere. However if you wish to stay here and get some points answered, which I would hope is the majority of people in this Thread, then please, do.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It would be better if we could have hindsight before the action, but that would be playing with the fabric of time.

In hindsight, it would have been better for access to just 'stop' one day, and nobody would have to have known who contacted whom. However I think it was a good idea to inform the digibox community that what they were doing was technically illegal, and against Telewest's will, and to ready them should their access be cut.

Nobody took any notice anyway. Oh well.

While I disagree with the actions of aka and sat, I applaud that they had the courage to bring it up in advance to see if anyone could be persuasive enough to disuade them from this action, and to face peoples ire when they took it having not been disuaded.
Imagine how it would have been had they never brought the topic for discussion yet still done the same act, we would have lost the same people from the site, yet would be unable to know why.
So I have to acknowledge their bravery and honour.

As I said I disagree, but bravly done.

Math

aka,

Oh, good post Member? In fact, it seems that Member missed the point. It isn't about Telewest suddenly changing their service. It's about them suddenly doing this because you and Saturnine made them aware of this because of a personal vendetta.

az

Kaz,

Dial-up, or actual Cable Broadband? Blueyonder now just call themselves 'Broadband' but they still offer dial-up access. This would not be affected. The way the Internet is delivered to your Set Top and your Cable Modem is the same you see.

Azahar,

It was not the BBC's responsibility to inform Telewest, they just did. And so did I.

I may have been the only one being affected by outages induced by digibox access killing Broadband accounts, (which I doubt), but the problems seem to have resolved already.

Again, my telewest broadband usage is fine, I do not believe that the digibox users had any effect on it.

My telewest phone though, brakes down a lot, but that is because telewest brake their own rules on crowded junction boxes.

Whatever, azahar. They still could not have approved.

Cable broadband, I do know the difference. My husband runs the It dept for granada tv, so credit us with knowing the difference.

Kaz,

You could be using a service that would not be affected. Do you dial-up Blueyonder Internet, or do you have a little box with four green and one orange light on? (The latter is ACTUAL broadband. The former would not be affected)