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

that was his new ID a ED the bonobo was lost in the BBCi fudge

I would advise not making too big a deal out of his not wishing to come back - for one, it's not about you; for two, he has plenty else to deal with.

Many thanks HI. You make people sound like a bunch of cardboard cut-outs. If I perceived things like that..rather than seeing people here as having the usual contradictions human beings have..sometimes behaving in character as you describe, sometimes not, I'd leave here through sheer boredom. The predictability of it all would be too much.

My own experience here is that it is still easily the most interesting site on the web for discussion...because of the interesting mix of people, mostly highly intelligent, hence I'm still here.

But people obviously have to decide to disappear if they feel the negatives outweigh the positives.

So I wish Ed well, but respect his decision.

Well it bothers me that so many of the intelligent debaters have left.

It also bothers me that some of the people who are still largely enjoying themselves can't or won't acknowledge that there are certain things about the debate culture here that are bad enough to make people avoid or leave. Or maybe you just don't care?

Plus what I said before about how we can't afford to be so cavalier about it all now.


HI, thanks for the great summing up.

SC, the stuff that puts many people off is not yikesable. It's contextual and you'd have to be following the whole thread to see what was wrong with it and the mods and Eds don't do that for each thread afaik.


>>I'd leave here through sheer boredom

As also mentioned, at the moment most of it I can't be bothered with. It's not about how I perceive things, it's because it actually is boring to see the same old stuff being played out again and again.

(although some of the more interesting debates I haven't been able to stay in or get back to for lack of time, but those don't seem to be the threads that last. I wonder why that is...)

<< The generally moderate people like Gif, Clive, kea, Taff* (*not an exhaustive list) >>

what did i do wrong to get on THIS list?????

<>

no that was me!!!!! by having the audacity to vote tory!!!!

I have to say that I find hootoo at its worst to be by far the most pleasant of places on the intertubes. Of course, I actually post to the comment forms on Fox News, which are a deeper, flabbier, filthier underbelly of the internet than even 4chan.

That having been said, I have been known to explicitly announce that I'm going to take a year off hootoo to read Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy' (haven't finished yet). And just today I ended a multi-year absence from Peer Review.

We all have stuff in our lives. Chances are very much than any individual's absence from hootoo is the result of something other than what happens on hootoo.


Ed, if you see this post, and even if you don't, I hope you're doing well and having a good time whatever you're doing. To say anything more would be being more self-indulgent than I've already been.

Rudest Elf - You ' lurk ' and learn.
You should also 'lurk' around before you post.
You would learn who 'Whoisit' (who just swans around h2g2 ) is and how and why he is so against AB.
You could judge for yourself whether AB has caused 'Twonames' to take time out.
Believe me Ed the Bonobo has survived far more than AB's odd jibe or two.

Lurk back to post 1 to find that it has happened before.
His reincarnation as 'Not the Monkey' was not really to his liking and the powers that be seem to have done little to help him reclaim his true identity. If I was treated in the same way I would be truly p*ss*d off.
Having been locked out once and having lost one or two entries that I made to 'Book of the Future' I know how he must feel.
He last posted as 'Not the Monkey' two weeks ago and that posting seems to have gone missing.

So, he logs on without sending a message, to send a message?

Oh, all right...just one valedictory post.

Nah - I've given up on hootoo, I'm afraid. I was finding there were more and more 'toxic people' around with damn all worth saying. Rough and tumble I can take...but only if there's interest and intelligence in it.

That doesn't apply to all of you, of course, and thanks to those who've shown concern. I'm well, happy and doing other things. Och - who knows, I might pop by from time to time. If you think you're someone I'll want to hear from (and probably you are), feel free to use edwardthebonobo squigglything gmail dot com.

And since I *always* enjoy blethering about books - by special request from SpaceCadette, amongst the books I've enjoyed recently are:

'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob Van Zoet' - David Mitchell
'Tokyo Year Zero' - David Peace ('The Damned United', 'Red Riding')
'After The Flood' - Margaret Atwood
'Italian Shoes' - Henning Mankell (not one of his Wallanders. Would make a good Jim Jarmusch film)
'Things Fall Apart' - Chinua Achebe (why did I leave it so long to read Africa's most respected and most widely read author?)
'Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned' - Walter Mosley (Bill Clinton named him as his favourite writer)
...and a few more I've temporarily forgotten.

Currently reading 'The Star of the Sea' by Joseph O'Connor (estranged brother of Sinead). It's the best - in terms of literature - and most enjoyable book I've read in a while.

Nice to hear from you Ed, and glad to hear you are going well Feel free to drop by my PS if you're ever back this way.

Thanks for the new recommendations, Ed...nest time I come across something good, I'm email you! I'm glad you're leaving on an up note (although I'm hoping you'll cruise by again sometime).

We'll still be here, should you decide to visit

lil xx

Oh come on Ed, what are you playing at? On the one hand you say you've given up on hootoo. And you haven't been here for months, so we'd all guessed that. Then you suddenly re-appear and talk about 'toxic people' - no explanation..just leave it as an impression hanging in the air, and then disappear again.

I don't like it.

To my mind you either stay away altogether, or come back and say what you mean up front and discuss it with people.

And so you leave us lucky people with a book list.

~jwf~