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

The other thing that might put people off is again the speed at which threads change and move on a few pages when you want to comment on something from 2 hours ago.

Like Ag's comments on heavyweights turning fluffy on different threads and Az's comment about the supportive nature of people - both are the two things I think that put this site away from others - we can be downright nasty to each other re: what we believe in but we would support that person emotionally in another thread.

Spelling: the only thing that winds me up and I would correct is the use of effect instead of affect in sentences. When you know how to use them a wrongly used 'effect' can really screw up the meaning of a sentence...did they mean to say that or *that*?

Have I put posted something I regretted later? Yes, on retrospect forn a few hours until the person I aimed the comment at replied positively and has become a good hootoo friend now. (_|_)

>And well it should! Okay, just kidding. But why can't people spell anymore?<

Answers on a postcard please to every minister of education, PM and Head of OFSTED for the last 30 years.

As to preview buttons - it's a long story, but an interesting interaction between my works servers and the servers at h2g2 makes that utterly impratical.

I was a lurker for a long while.Then I posted and then went back to lurking.That just about sums up my postings here.

I had to get over the being invisible in some convo's as well.Not as bad as those who are rude because you have somehow interrupted a private convo(on a public site too )though.

Never mind us invisibles will take over the world one day...just as soon as we can find each other.

Um... Why?

H.

Cos you knew where you were with the stoppy git. This 'fluffy' Hoo is a bit weird. Plus you know where you are with someone who won't talk to you. Now you are - it's a bit weird after about 4 years of it not happening.

"I had to get over the being invisible in some convo's as well."

I can relate to that. There was a time when I didn't post much because no-one seemed to notice. Leaving the BBC seems to have helped with that.

>> Learn Direct? Bloody ads are everywhere. <<

I wouldn't get to excited about Learn Direct unless they have improved their teaching material considerably in the last twelve months.

In one of the on-line numeracy courses the student was being taught how to use a calculator. They were given a calculation to make using the Windows calculator. The answer came to 0.01. The student types 0.01 in to the answer field only to be told its the wrong answer. Correct answer .01!

There IT module teaches a student how to connect to the Internet with ADSL. The problem is the method taught would work fine in the USA but is absolutely useless in the UK. The difference between PPPoEthernet and PPPoATM for the technically inclined.

However, if you want to improve your spelling on h2g2 get a copy of Ispell. http://www.ispell.com

It's a spell checker that will spell check any text entered into Internet Explorer. I would be lost without it as my spelling is not the best.

Donald

>You are right that some people will be put 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.



Blues, I could not agree more.

I have taken my pick. I picked a site that had those things.

I like rideing on the left, spending pounds to buy pints and talking in English when things like this in real life change as other things may change here on h2g2 then I like others will FIFO.

However at the moment we do as we please within the limits of the house rules, there is a problem for some but for others it is a case of "where's the problem?"

You cant please all of the people all of the time.

Judging by the willing participants and those who turn up to watch feuding like boxing will carry on despite the concerns of those who dont like it.

one love

However, if you want to improve your spelling on h2g2 get a copy of Ispell.

Whoops. The link should be http://ispell.com

It's not a concern of *mine* (otherwise I patently wouldn't be here), but I refer you to the title of the thread, which is not 'what I like about H2G2' but 'What puts people off posting on H2G2'.

The things I've mentioned DO put people off posting.

Always read the question and ensure you understand it before attempting to answer. You've done enough exams to know that advice to be true.

It seems to me that what mostly puts people off posting on h2g2 is their own insecurities . . . are there other sites that pander to this more than h2g2? I don't think so.

You can find threads here that are about just about anything you are interested in.

You can find like-minded people (if you look around a bit) so that you never need to participate in a thread that might offend your particular sensibilities.

What more could people ask for?


az

My point for, the people who want to make me look stupid by pointing out the title, is that often the things that put people off posting are EXACTLY the same things as make other people want to join and stay here posting.

>You can find threads here that are about just about anything you are interested in.<

See my earlier point about the difficulty of finding *anything* on HooToo if you are new to the site. And that comment was made by someone with YEARS of experience on other message boards and communities.

And Blicky, that still doesn't make it a conversation about why *you* stay. It's *still* a conversation about why people don't post.

This I know.

My point to you is slightly irrelvant, just more topic drift or a complete non-sequitor.

What Im trying to tell you is that the corcerns (whom so ever they are) that you have voiced just a few hours ago as things that put people off posting, do also make other people want to post.

<>

Point taken, Blues, though I never personally had problems finding stuff here.


az

I am now going to tell a heartfelt story entitiled 'Newbie to Amused Masses'.
When I first signed up to h2g2 it took three tries because I was scared of the house rules and the (heh) rigourous checks needed to gain an account. Then, I was awrded my own personal space and I thought, ooo what a nice feature, I wonder what happens if I...? Oh dear.

A day or so later I got a nice letter from an ACE offering help, which is possibly the best thing to happen to newbies anywhere on the internet. Next I spent a little while browsing the GuideML pages trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to go about making a mark on this glorious place via my personal page. Im still none the wiser.

Next, another couple of days later I leafed through some entries and fiddled with the search box and to my delight i found things which I could read about that actaully taught me new things. Then I made my fatal mistake. I clicked on "The Manifesto for the Campaign to Rename Thursday 'thing'" I managed to get through a few hundred posts before my brain broke and I put the N3 thread to the use for which it was intended. The responses were not helpful, the elitist bunch of goits.

Much later I had discovered the joys of Mornington Cresent and limerick pages and various other diversions I could read and giggle at. My last post on N3 has been responded with a threat to roast me on an open fire (hurrah!) and I am happily rubbishing Nighthooverism whenever I can.

I may even finish one of my own entries one of these days.

The point of this is, I realised what a lot of newbies never realise, the the H2G2 community is so vast, that even if one section is all about spouting poop, there are hundreds of other sections where learning and avid discussion can take place. There are even threads Ive posted to where I have made a 'contribution' to a discussion on stuff I actually knew about.
So this is to all you newbies, young and old, experienced and pooping pants: Persevere. There really is something for everyone.

Now I must go copy this and dump it on my personal space otherwise I'll forget I even wrote it.

"This 'fluffy' Hoo is a bit weird."

You have no idea...

"Plus you know where you are with someone who won't talk to you. Now you are - it's a bit weird after about 4 years of it not happening."

Um... I don't remember consciously not talking to you. Maybe I did . It seemed to me more like you were (and to an extent still are, much of the time) just someone I don't come across much. There are a LOT of users of h2 of whom I'm aware, with whom I'll exchange pleasantries, but with whom I don't actually interact much because they're not hanging around in the same places I am. I think I limited my circle a lot by dropping out of Peer Review. Don't take it personally.

On the other hand, if I've weirded you out... cool!

H.

"Um... I don't remember consciously not talking to you. Maybe I did ."

You called me an underline and said the only way to deal with them was to not talk to them.

Well said, bunnyfrog!


az

Gosh, yes, I did, didn't I. Blimey.

Hang on, though. I can't remember why I called you that, specifically. But I do remember that it was something to do with your appearing (to me) to have some kind of "special relationship" with the staff back then, when you were (apparently) just a user like the rest of us. And within literally a few weeks (a couple of months at months at most), you actually became one of the staff. So it's not like I was actually wrong, was it? Or was it? Who cares? It was all, like, more than three years ago, wasn't it?

Hmm.

I had forgotten the whole "Underline" thing.

Funnily enough, someone suggested to me (I think it was last year) that *I* was an "Underline". Ironic?

H.

What in Earth is an "underline"?