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

I still even now think that the whole debacle was handled pretty badly by tptb.

Simply by saying how to contact EP 90% of the anger would have been reduced I think. A couple of people would have sent emails into a black hole and probably either never got a response or would have got one months later that didnt answer the question. Probably pretty much end of story.

It was the arbitrary nature and the seeming lack of and avenue of response that had most people hot under the collar IMHO.

While maybe not 'intimidating', I'd imagine some of the repetitive in-jokes put people off. You know the stuff I mean - nighthoover etc. In one way the element of quirkiness is part of what h2g2 is, and I'm not advocating turning it into the encyclopedia Britannica, it can be irritating. At a guess, I'd say the barrier to understanding what on earth regulars are actually going on about might put some people off.

In reply to B's original question, I lurked for a small while (days not weeks) then I think I was browsing various PS (via Who's Online?)and left a few messages to friendly looking people.

And that was it really. There was one social type of thread where no-one ever seemed to respond to me (just jumped over my posting and carried on with their stuff) so in the end I abandoned them, but mostly it's fine and I agree that 99% of folk are very careful, even when disagreeing with you.

Occasionally someone whose first language isn't English can come across as rude or abrupt but you can ignore that if you know they aren't a native English speaker.

So that's my experience for you.

Jules

I think that it is often possible to feel like all your posts are being ignored in a thread even when you have been here for a while. I know occasionally it happens to me.

On the other hand particularly on fast moving threads which move in several different tangents I often only post in response to a certain part of the thread so that is I assume how it happens.

No.we are really ignoring you
i know what you mean that little strip of convos; and no little red boxes with highliting

Ok, now that we are a bit reflective and serious... as a non-native speaker with limited understanding of culture in general and British culture in particular, who also has limited access to the internet so that he cannot do enough research, I dare to ask: who and what is nighthoover?

Y.

There's always that feeling that you're butting into private conversation (even on Ask or Forum threads), that put me off posting in some threads for a while.

I imagine all the Nighthoover and Badger stuff could put off some people by confirming many peoples belief that the internet is full of weirdos.

The other thing could be that some threads can get quite heated, with some quite venomus abuse hurled between hootooers. (especially on the forum)

That and some people aren't exactly friendly to newbies.

you had to ask didn't you ?!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/Search?searchstring=night+hoover&searchtype=goosearch&go.x=17&go.y=9

Or this:

F19585?thread=143046

However, to get the full feel of nighthoover, you have to read the backlog - all 4307 of them.

Re: "A Gentleman's Guide to Home Made Adult Entertainment" (which is what the title ended up being when it made Edited status - your rendering of the title was correct for the original, B)

"there was the MOST ENORMOUS hoohah about it, with people firing off hate-email to very senior high-ups in the BBC. "

I'd just like to point out that I was not one of those people. All my complaints and correspondence about the affair happened right here on site, mainly because I was by that time already experienced enough in the ways of the BBC, and its relationship with the content on h2g2, to basically know that trying to get the decision changed would be like attacking a lunatic asylum with a banana.

That other people were... overzealous was in some small part gratifying, and in another small part depressing, and in the main unsurprising.



I thought at the time that the Powers behind the Towers were being ridiculously paranoid, thinking that, responsible as my entry was, and obviously humourous as the tone was, nobody would take offence at it or use it as a stick to beat the BBC with.

However, in the light of the recent activities of the worthless scum of Christian Voice, in particular their linking to this website decrying the suggestion in an edited entry that one way to avoid getting pregnant is to try homosexuality, I have to say I now begin to see their point.

It is a shame that mature, rational, literate people must pander to a backward, superstitious lowest-common-denominator (and IQ) organisation like Christian Voice. But when you're faced with this kind of violent, reactionary scum it really isn't (in my opinion) worth having the argument.

I realise freedom of speech is an important priniciple, but if some Christian was going to publish my home address and telephone number on the internet if I didn't retract a joke, I'd retract the joke and principle could take a hike. Call me a coward if you like.

I'd also adjust my opinion of Christians. ALL Christians. And if you're a Christian, and don't like that - tough. Now you know how Muslims in Britain feel about being tarred with a same brush as a minority of violent fanatics.

The BBC are operating in a particularly sensitive atmosphere right now, with ignorant, violent, superstitious fanatics in their THOUSANDS squaring up for a fight. I don't like the fact that it got my entry pulled, but I understand their position. Christians are an unpleasant fact of life, like syphilis. I don't envy the BBC their position.

H.

Gets a and waits with baited breath.

While we wait, can i just say that talking, as we were earlier of Justin, i kind of miss the fruitcakes on this site

I can't remember all their names, but we had the one recently who was onsite for a few weeks trying to recruit people to a new utopian country that he was about to form. Then there was Liam, and the bloke who was continually forming new 'advice' pages all over the bleedin' place...

Nope, apart from the odd looney religious nut on the religion threads, all has been pretty quiet in the absurd researcher department. Oh well, on the plus side, I can't say i miss the sight of '150 new posts' when i get back from work...

I started posting as soon as I happened upon h2g2 - on a thread on the front page at the time about fears and phobias - though it took a couple of days for me to get the hang of the place and get my PS set up.

It was the first time I'd ever participated in an internet forum so I had no idea that I was supposed to feel intimidated.

Anyhow, just celebrated my two-year hootoo anniversary and hate to think what my life would be like now if I hadn't found my way here.


az

ps
I don't miss Justin at all - he was always such a waste of time.

*jumps in boots n all*

I joined up, did a coupla posts, then buggered off for 3 years because I couldn't get accepted by the clique.

But now, there's no clique.

I think.

I spilt milk on my boots.
HF

I discovered this place through Babbelfish when I was still trying to figure out what the internet *was*, immediately wrote a personal space and a journal entry, then started bouncing around raising all sorts of hell. I think if I'd had any *idea* that such a thing as nettiquette existed I'd have been much more cautious.

<>

Nettiquette??? Wazzat?



az

I've been here about a year and I still don't really feel 'part' of the place. I think that's just me though, not because of others' reactions. Doesn't everyone get ignored *sometimes*?


(finally posting the 3rd time)

*waves to Ben* Was this one for me, too?

I signed up and then said very, very little for a very long time ... six months or a year maybe. I'd never been to anywhere like this before and I wasn't sure how to join in - I could tell there was some sort of etiquette, but I couldn't work it out, and the sheer depth and breadth of what goes on here had me reeling anyway. But I knew it was a place I wanted to be in.

So mostly I lurked, occasionally dipping a toe into the water. I think PR was what drew me in the end, and then suddenly somebody made me a Friend, and I felt a bit more involved. I still don't know how H2 works, and I still blunder, but I don't worry about it so much. I also still read and think about what's written more than I post (despite appearances) ... subject to there being enough hours in the day, of course.

Mol

I think I was here about two years before I stopped feeling like a newbie.

I joined in June 2001, and posted about July... It was a much more welcoming place then, but since, it's become almost hostile, from about the end of 2003, the beginning of 2004. I know people who have left because of that.

There are certain viewpoints that are more welcome than others, and that can be off-putting.