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

I haven't been on h2g2 for ages, I got fed up on FB and was searching for an alternative, then remembered h2g2 - also remembered my handle and password!

So I tried FB in the early days and found it annoying/interrupting and left it for years. Now I have an account under a pseudonym, this allows me to choose who I 'friend', mostly for family/close friends, but it has grown as I also have 'friended' friends of friends (mostly artists/poets/musos ... some I know in real life, some I don't) ... I also like pages that post interesting stuff (birds/animals/archaeology/science, etc)... I've had some interesting conversations, I do enjoy political/philosophical debate so I'm a bit top-heavy on that and have been criticised for my 'overly-political' posts - my feed is becoming a tad boring/banal, I think because I've accepted too many 'friends' so may have a cull shortly.

I use Twitter occasionally ... sometimes it's the best way to get action from utility companies, etc. It's also THE place to be for news when a major incident has happened like the recent Paris attack for example.

Anyway I've got a lot of reading to catch up on :D

I joined gransnet when I became a gran, but the threads on there are mostly repetitions of the threads on here. With more typos.

"I can't stand the inanity of so much of the social media."

I can believe that.

I don't have many social media accounts.

I have a Facebook account with a number of connections whom I know from different areas of life: family, friends, work friends, internet friends who have become real friends. I keep my profile locked down pretty privately, and only accept friend requests from people I know. I do sometimes limit the visibility of some posts (e.g. I might exclude certain family members from seeing posts of a political nature as I know they'd pick an argument, or I sometimes exclude more casual acquaintances from things that are vaguely “personal”). I do like being able to see what friends and family are up to, to communicate with them collectively. And I admit I do like a fair amount of the fluffy nonsense stuff – and cute animal photos/videos – because it's nice sometimes after a long day's work to see something cute, fun and/or uplifting. I also find Facebook useful for coordinating group activities or disseminating information about local news and events. My husband is a musician in his spare time, so networking with other artists, venue owners, and booking agents this way is a lot easier than passing out flyers and doing phone trees.

I have blocked people on Facebook, mostly people who are “friends of friends” who post offensive (sexist, racist, homophobic, etc) stuff, and I just don't want to see it. An “ignore” button, really.

I have a LinkedIn account which I use for professional networking. I only add or accept connections from people with whom I currently or have previously worked or done business. LinkedIn proved more than just useful when I changed jobs last year. When the corporate headquarters of my previous employer relocated to another state and I opted not to move with them, I found a very similar job in the same industry with a rapidly growing company, and without the extremely toxic office culture of the old one. I saw their ad on LinkedIn, applied on a Tuesday, interviewed that Thursday, and they extended an offer the following Tuesday.

I don't have a Twitter account. I'm not opposed to it as a concept, I just don't have a lot of free time to kill, and it would probably prove to be an enormous time sink. Likewise Snapchat, et al. I tried Google+ but didn't see a point to it, so I inactivated my account. Now that I have an Android phone I suppose it's live again, but I don't use it.

I have an old MySpace account which I rarely look at. MySpace was actually much better than Facebook for the music/band networking, but it kind of fell to the wayside and I keep it live mainly for archival purposes.

I've never considered h2g2 to be a social networking site, nor have I ever treated it as such. I did at one time post pretty regularly to my journal, but for a variety of reasons eventually decided I'm not really comfortable talking about much personal stuff if I can't limit the audience, and don't see much point to making lots of journals about impersonal topics when there are places like The Lounge and The Post with a wider audience for that sort of thing.

Ugh... LinkedIn...


It looks like my future employer (same job,new NASA contract, new company) might require us to have LinkedIn accounts. They mentioned something about it during a "meet & greet" last month. They said one of their goals was to have a huge presence there.

It just doesn't seem like something that would interest me.

Nor me.

On the other hand, I can finally accept the invitation that I was getting weekly from a Scottish friend of mine.

LinkedIn seems to bear a resemblance to The Hotel California - you can check in, but you can never leave.

I had an account in 2011 - when work contracts fell apart - and though I have closed the account, I still get regular e-mails asking me to 'link' with this person or that who might have my e-mail address.

I get those - and I've never even been to the LinkedIn website.

I get them, too. Some are from people who live a few doors down from me. I run into them in the street [well, not literally!], so why would I need to visit some website in order to contact them>

Maybe because they have not the social skills to face others with the mask the internet provides.

I remembered something else that makes me keep a low profile, is to avoid patients looking me up anywhere. I've looked up professionals that I've seen!

For PaulH:

LinkedIn is not for chats or conversations, but to add to a list of people that know and recognize your professional skills. When head-hunters are on the prowl, having 20 to 70 people of similar skills connected might have some weight.

You and I are retired, and our present "weight" is probably very little in that reguard.

You've summed it up well, Nick.

The first social media I used was this h2g2. It fascinated me. Then the perfum vanished, then I tryed to find out other essences, sometimes I found jewels, some others I got dissappointed.

I´m a discontinuous user, in fact , these are my first posts since last september.

The second, Facebook, I use it mainly to keep in touch with English. I receive info about teaching, politics, botanics, news pages, sciences, crafts for children and cooking.

Some hootoers are facebook friends, the rest of friends are also virtual ones, there are only 5 people who I really know in real life.

Enough for me.

Welcome here whenever you come, Maria. I remember with pleasure your posts about the grassroots political movement in Spain. I was sorry when they lost.

how do I love Twitter?
I'm writing an essay for uni. And I do a bit of research and want to quote a recent Daily Telegraph article. And the bit I want to quote has, I think, a mistake with a date. It says 2010 but I think it should be 2020 - it makes no sense otherwise.

So - I tweet the writer and ask her directly. Within hours she came back to thank me for picking up a typo and to confirm I was right

That closeness sounds exciting, Sho.


Gracias Paul,

There´s now a similar movement growing in France. The nuit debout is called.