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

What puts people off posting is very personal to them, some people have problems with spelling which, when picked up by others, can knock an already weak confidence, which is a shame as it's usually still possible to work out what they mean.

Also, it can be quite difficult to follow conversations when a lot of differant people are involved, but perhaps the main reason could be some of the replies caan be very sharp and sometimes hurtful....which could put off old and new users. Although I am sure there are worse places than this.

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I've never noticed anyone calling a person on their spelling (other than Della with blicky, even though she misspells his name as blinky). I don't think most people here would do that, though they might take exception to txtspk and someone not using any punctuation as this makes their postings almost impossible to read.

I have politely asked a couple of researchers who post VERY LONG postings to at least paragraph them. Not a personal dig, just a helpful bit of advice, because otherwise most people won't read what they've written.

The thing is, if someone is very insecure or else easily intimidated in RL then they will probably find the same thing happening for them here. On the other hand, these people are quite anonymous, so I think they should feel a bit more empowered here than they may feel in RL - being able to speak their minds without anyone actually knowing who they are.


az

Another friend is lurking a little bit these days but she has not joined or posted yet. She did ask about the etiquette of jumping in and posting on other peoples threads and did say that they do move pretty quickly.

I have no idea whether the Aces actually explain that you can pretty well post on any thread you want to but start off being polite, make sure it isn't a thread like Lil's that has a few rules and then get on with posting.

It is also important for us to welcome newbies in but not back down on points they have made and saying they are wrong.

If people do stick with it and post - even with the jibes flying at them they should come away a better stronger person...and we aren't that scary are we?

As I only tend to use the forum/community I just need to know how to find the most recent threads and sort them out on my home page along with the automatic new threads thing that sticks them in your space.

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Yes, they are usually around peoples views rather than the people themselves and they have every opportunity to come back and rebutt the replies. However, as a newbie they may not realise this - again this might be worth an Ace explaining - comments aren't random but are based around what people have said and done...so they only have themselves to blame when they get some stick!

Oh, to answer the thread question. I lurked for years as I enjoyed the interplay and learning from the others. I felt I couldn't add anymore to other posters who were saying exactly what I would. For some reason I got dragged in on one thread and you evil creatures kept me here...grrrr...no free time to do useful things now...need therapy...KEEP AWAY FROM THAT REPLY BUTTON YOU INTERNET CHATROOM FREAKS! I WILL NOT BE ASSIMILATED!!!!!...bugger, I have been. or I have not decided which yet.

>You are right that some people will be puut off self reference, back-bitting and obscurity. It is a shame that people are.<

Or perhaps it's a shame that some people admit it happens, acknowledge that it will alienate some potential users of the site, and refuse to modify their behaviour.

Take your pick.

The spelling one can be a bit tricky. I am a poor speller (is that a real word?), but if I really concentrate I can spell most of my words right.

However as soon as I get excited and try to type quickly (which happens a lot here) my spelling and punctuation goes out the window.

I think my problem is that in RL I am very much more articulate than I am here, but my typing and spelling skills dont match up. This combined with a poor attention span for typing means I get frustrated and end up posting half my point and forgetting the other half frequently.

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Hmm, I am nearly the opposite - I waffle around subjects in RL and writing it down here distils what I am trying to say on the whole. Hence, improving my verbal precising of ideas.

Use the site to improve your typing and spelling skills that's what it is here for: to effect one's growth into a more rounded and better person.

Indeed, however I cannot help but think they have got worse. I started reading my posts from the "edited Entry they didn't want you to read" thread and I think I typed better back then?

I put it down to having far more active threads these days and in limited time at work it is harder to keep up with them all.

Normally I wouldn't have posted on this thread because I am definitely a "fluffy" type, and I have been perfecting the art of not pushing post when I see a really argumentative thread, for various reasons which its not really worth my going into.

When I first joined it took me a few days to find people to respond to me; i remember the delight I felt when someone finally replied; also I got irritated pretty early on with someone I felt was being condescending, but happily resisted the temptation to reply rudely. (a few years later I understood why this person treated me in that way back then)

Then I got lucky and made a couple of really good friends, and have enjoyed myself pretty much ever since; conflict on the site has mainly passed me by.

When I first came here, when the earth was young and the beer was bitter, I didn't post much to start with as a few people above have said. This was mainly as I was 'getting a feel ' for the site, 'getting to grips with the 'tone' ' of the place etc., which can take a fair while, especially as you are also getting used to the layout of the site at the same time.

I don't think anything put me off posting in particular, except not wanitnt to make a of myself, by posting somethign without having gotten to grips witht the tone and whatnot of the site. Of course as soon as I decided being a was what I did best I started posting and since then I've never looked back (I think the vertibray in my neck have fused after having sat here and looked at the screen for so long) The dust did put me off posting a bit at fist, but the dust seems to have mainly gone now

"I've never noticed anyone calling a person on their spelling"

I've seen lots of places where typos and spelling and grammar mistakes are used to beat people round the head with, althugh strangely only one name springs to my mind.

It's in the 'House Rules' of the new site I'm on not to pick on spelling and typing - it's considered to be a personal attack (although as it's a reactive site I'm not sure how much goes on that isn't reported).

I've called people on spelling but only in circumstances where spelling matters, eg Peer Review or the Atelier (which has an additional House Preference for literacy).

I've probably teased or patronised or used spelling to make cheap jokes, in my time. But then I will use *anything* to make cheap jokes, so there's nothing specific there.

And anyway, I'm a fine one to talk, because even when I *can* spell, I can't always type.

but i do get irritated by lower case and, random acts of, punctuation. I aim to eschew ambiguity.

B

The fact that a few posts ago Az said something very sweet about me (thanks! ) beautifully illustrates the point I came back here to make. The one reason I'd encourage all intimidated newbies and anti-fluffs to persist witht his community is that it is THE most supportive online community I have ever come across. Yes, on thread A you'll find the heavyweights at it hammer and tongs over big deep important stuff and frankly getting quite personal and satirical; and on thread B they're all twittering on about what drink their badger is listening to now on the altar of Nighthoover while playing Mornington Crescent in an enthusiastically amateur manner and being just about as arch as you can be without being a viaduct. NEVERTHELESS, people, even the haranguing heavyweights and religious zealots and dithering bunnies, will give support and advice and reassurance in lavish dollops.

Possibly it is because this is such a large and diverse community, possibly it's the anonimity and objectivity this brings (mind you, the reverse holds equally true), possibly it's the benignant ghost of DNA himself, but despite the fights and cliques and fluff, people here really seem to care about each other.

OK, you may all now laugh and point at the rose-tinted spectacles I wear...

Sounds true to me

Ag, that is such a good point. The kinds of threads vary so much that you can get a rounded picture of many people because you can see them playing as well as being very serious or heartfelt.

Now is that unique in Internet-Land?

B

Possibly. And I would endorse what Agapanthus said. A few buffoons aside (and a few specifics incidents aside), HooToo is without doubt one of the most supportive sites I've ever participated in.

Much of what i say here, btw, is coloured not by my experience (which was vastly different to most peoples anyway), but by having seen the reaction of anewbie to the3 site over the last six months.

It's been quite instructive.

"Now is that unique in Internet-Land?"

Not to h2g2 - I've seen it in other places as well.

I guess I tend to lurk more than I post - for reasons of time more than anything else.

But thinking back to when I started... I lurked a lot before I joined. I got read a lot of entries, and got into the habit of watching conversations. And then, once I felt I had something to contribute, I signed on. A week later I started my first convo in <./>askh2g2</.>. Within the next week after that, I had written my first entry. But I was nervous of PR, so I put it in the WW first. Within a few days WittyDitty popped by my space and suggested I put it in PR. That boosted my confidence no end, and I've not looked back since.

Though I can imagine that I might have seemed a right little upstart at the time.


Geggs

Where else, Mina? I'm curious.

B

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Not just playing, but last year (as many of you know) I started a journal entry about my dying cat, Lua. The support I got there was amazing - still is. And I truly would not have got through all that without the support of all those wonderful people.

As for the 'rounded picture', I have often been called *intimidating* here by some people, and I have always tried to make those people see me as a 'whole person', not just the particular posting they were referring to.

A note to any newbies who might think I am *intimidating* - ah g'wan! I just have a lot of opinions and I'm not shy about posting them. And you shouldn't be shy about posting your opinions either!

I've run the gamut here from people either loving me or hating me here. I reckon most just kinda like me and/or put up with me. Of course it's not ME they react to, it's 'azahar'. Which is mostly me, I have to say. But it does behove one to take nasty comments with massive grains of salt since they are responding to one or more comments made - one's hootoo persona - not necessarily the person.

Sometimes I think it's hard for people to make that separation.


az

"I've seen lots of places where typos and spelling and grammar mistakes are used to beat people round the head with, althugh strangely only one name springs to my mind."

Mine, perhaps? I've certainly done it. However, I do tend to limit the ridicule to people who:

1. Are attempting to say things which are factually inaccurate
2. Are attempting to express opinions I strongly disagree with
3. Have already ridiculed someone else, perhaps me, for some reason.

Very shortly after joining h2g2 I made the mistake of sneering at the poor spelling of another user, who then informed me that English was not his first language, nor even his second, but his third. Colour me chided! Since then the foreign, the young, the uncontroversial and the otherwise accurate can pritty mch spel houevr they like as long as I can actually tell what it is they're trying to say.

And that's the crucial thing: someone like Ferretbadger ocasionaly misses a leter out of a word,, does odd punctuation or puts extrsa letters in because he's typing so fast. Most of the time it doesn't matter because the meaning comes across. However, I've lost count of the times I've replied to something someone posted, only to have them come back and say "That's not what I meant!". To which I can only say - I replied to what you SAID, not what you MEANT. If you meant something different than what you said, how is that my fault?

H.