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

I don't think I've ever heard it described quite so well Gnomon!

I agree, a very good description.

Very Pilgrim's Progress.

We all follow the straight path though as yet I've not figured out where the wicked .. err wicker gate is

I thought the pearly gates were guarded by Saint Peter, not an Ewok.

Oops... that wasn't an Ewok... I knew I should have brushed my hair today

But you never see St Peter and an Ewok in the room at the same time...

Have to agree with deb. I see cyberspace as a social medium.

>> I'm vaguely aware that the coffee house is in a much larger building
(I like the library analogy) but I rarely feel the need to wander off in search
of any other rooms as there's always plenty to listen to in the Ask coffee house. <<


Over the years, the full potential of ASK has been neglected.

An intelligent social medium can be so much more than just a playroom.
The original remit of ASK was for sharing info with Wit AND Wisdom.

ASK has been disdained by those who have a preference for traditional
scholastic, academic and encyclopedic media. The full value of interactive
online resources has never been properly realised. Instead, it has been
allowed to become a fun bit of a free-for-all for clowns and trolls. And
as such it's barely tolerated by the more serious and rigid intellects.

There came a sad period when too many serious people simply replied
to serious issues with a curt directive to 'Google it!' showing impatience
and intolerance for anyone asking a serious or technical question.

Google it? Egads. That's the kind of advice one gets in a bad car club
when questions are met with "RTFM" (Read the fracking manual). This is
not a positive response to legitimate questions. Fellow members ought
to be able to help diagnose and repair antique automotive problems.
What is the point of joining and supporting a car club or a sports club or
even a sewing circle if your fellow members refuse to offer advice or to
indulge legitimate questions from newbies. Or to engage in speculation
and new ideas from proven experts.

Yes in the beginning ASK had the promise (and still has the potential) of
being a wonderful source for Socratic interaction. Discourse and debate
are better teachers than text.

If there are thousands of hits to the Guide it is likely because young students
have discovered that the unconventional Guide to Life, the Uni et al offers
original material which can be easily borrowed and be less recognised as
plagiarism when lifted holus bolus for a school paper. Schools have programs
which teachers use to search for materials plagiarised from Wiki and Britannica.



So, how about turning ASK back into what it was intended for, a communal
resource for information.

ASK still has the potential to be a Forum for students (either professional students
or hobbyists or the merely curious) to gather information on the broadest range
of subjects from an international pool of expertise.

Like deb, I live in hope and continue to hang about in ASK where the true potential
for learning lies awaiting some nurturing.

As a long shot (which I despair of being taken seriously) may I suggest that every
guide entry page have emblazoned upon it "If this article does not answer all your
questions please pose them at ASK the h2g Community Forum where thousands
of experts are waiting to discuss any subject in detail and no one will tell you to
RTFM or Google It."

Or words to that effect/affect.


~jwf~

I have to agree, "google it" and rtfm are two of my pet hated phrases.

The beauty of Ask is you're getting personal views and guidance, not publicised opinion.

That suggestion is a very good one - a prominent link at the bottom of each entry directing people to Askh2g2 if they'd like to ask any further questions.

Then again, there is already a discussion space at the bottom of each entry. Would this then be redundant?

No not redundant at all. After all, the incoming inquirer
is asking a question that has not been considered by the
Peer Review group who have already massaged the entry.

In ASK a question would have a wider audience and not just
the Peer Review group attached to the entry - who, yes, may
offer only redundant answers and fail to expand beyond the
material already agreed upon in PR.

And the neat thing is of course that lurkers would be encouraged
to sign up as h2g2 Researchers to ASK their question. And people
like deb and I could sit back and smoke and drink coffee and gloat.


~jwf~

But if a thread is started at the bottom of an entry, only the very few people who are subscribed to that entry will ever see it.

But on the other hand, the people who have read the entry will know where to find the discussions about it.

Cute kitties?

I'd rather have than the conspiracy theories that seem to grow like mushrooms after a rainstorm every time there's a tragedy somewhere in the world. By the law of averages, we're about due for another one.

~jwf~ I'm not sure how I put over the impression that I'm waiting in the hope that Ask develops it's true potential for learning. What I was hoping to put across was that I absolutely love Ask just the way it is and so never feel the need to go anywhere else.

I'm not a "learned" person, I never went to university, I don't want to read long discussions in which people air their superior knowledge using long, obscure words, so I tend to move on from those conversations. They should still be here though. And, honestly, sometimes it's fun to lurk in these conversations with your mind boggling. Sometimes it might even prompt me to investigate a subject more.

But I love the huge variety of questions posted in Ask. Washing machine broken? Someone on Ask will have an idea how to fix it. What sort of gift to buy an elderly relative? I bet someone in Ask will have a good idea. What's a klein bottle? Shall I google it? Nah, that'd be too dry and dusty. Let's Ask - along with a proper answer there'll be some fun to be had too.

Just wanted to clear that up before anyone thought I was one of the cognoscenti!

Deb

The good thing about, ask, for asking questions, (r rather than googling them), is its ideal for those questions, where you don't know what the question is, and hence can't google them... err...
I dunno.... like a question, about fitting a washign machine, when you don't knwo what the parts are called, or the style of washing machine is, to be able to google the actual question, hmm... if that makes sense

Do we have an Entry on Sleep Depre.. ummm... Lack of Sleep?


I'll have to look around once I've woken up properly


lil x

Yo, deb!

>> Let's Ask - along with a proper answer there'll be
some fun to be had too. <<

Yup. That was the point.

>> I absolutely love Ask just the way it is and so never
feel the need to go anywhere else. <<

Our expectations are exactly the same.
More or less. Sorta. In a kinda similar way, like.




~jwf~

Wondering what the question really is? That's a job for

Deep Thought!

Except that we don't have six million years in which to wait for the result.

The question is whether to question, is it butter or is it spread, can we but curtail, our instinctive curiosity, or should we face the curtain, masking the unknown, revealing truths, half-truths, and the ever-persistant conspiracy theorists, and sometimes, just sometimes, revealing those truths, behind teh curtain, which we cannot, and do-not, want to face, or make real, by their inception into our thoughts and waking notions of self and self-portance within our individual universes of perceived reality

To look and search, and find, to turn over the stone, and reveal the truths, or let the stone remain, un-turned, and hide from those truths to which we will all one day face

hmmm... or something... innit