Journal Entries
I'm free!
Posted Jun 7, 2001
No more exams!
No more revision!
No more work! (for a while)
No more stupid questions like "Can computers think? [20 marks]"!
No more doing less important things than h2g2!
No more sobriety! (till I have a job)
No more getting up before midday! (till someone says I'm abusing flexitime)
And I voted! (and soon, no more not being able to say how!)
*starts jumping up and down in an absurdly overdecorated dancing outfit*
HAPPY DAYS!
Discuss this Journal entry [3]
Latest reply: Jun 7, 2001
On the importance of words.
Posted Jun 4, 2001
In real life, I'm a person with hair like this, a body like this, and fashion sense which is, like, nonexistant. And all these things go together to make up /me/. Online, there's only one thing which makes up me: my words. Oh, and normally any pictures I use - so on h2g2 that'd be just my words. So if someone changes my words, which means the moderators, they change me. And hugely unsurprisingly, I don't like this, and want to fix it.
For example, if I see [copyright material removed by...] under my name, then that's essentially the moderators accusing me of being a copyright thief, which is like being a normal thief, but shows a lower level of intelligence and will be punished in a much worse section of Hell. Starred words imply that I was deliberately offensive. Other stuff just makes me look like I'm deliberately breaking the rules and being awkward.
Fortunately, there's a solution to this problem: the moderation helpdesk. If you've been mismoderated, you can post there, and the italics will sort it out. And so, caring about my words, I used it every time I was mismoderated, plus those times I thought I'd been mismoderated, but wasn't, because the rules are deliberately vague and unclear. And up till now, they've done just that. "Good", I thought, "the system works".
Or so I thought. Peta has just informed me (in not so many words) that the system only works if people don't use it, and she's rather annoyed by my continued use of it. Now, myself, I'd be inclined to blame this on the designer of the system, rather than someone who just uses it, but that's just me. While I'm being 'helpful', the obvious improvement to the system would be to allow users to use the yikes button to complain about their stuff which has been failed when it shouldn't have been, as well as to complain about others' stuff which hasn't been failed when it should have been.
So, I'm going to go on to doing what everyone else does: Edit...Update entries until they pass; posting lots of different URL indirections till one gets past the mods; and kvitching in the same place rather than taking it to where it supposedly ought to be taken, but it seems it shouldn't be taken after all.
I'll be making that "Unofficial House Rules" entry after all...
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: Jun 4, 2001
The smallest things
Posted May 30, 2001
It's amazing how sometimes the tiniest things can really throw your hackles up - the tiniest disagreement lead to the bloodiest flame wars (and real wars, I might add). In election methods, the question of IRV versus Condorcet versus Approval has a huge amount of flamage associated with it. In programming, trying to get people to have a rational discussion about the merits of C and java is doomed to failure. And the Unix/Windows debate won't end till one or the other of them dies.
Hackers call such things "Religious Issues" - matters of faith which cannot be rationally debated. The irony is that actual religion is much less likely to cause such debates than many of these "Religious Issues": by and large people can realise when they're going down a blind alley in such cases, but when we talk about which type of 
is best the same sensors simply don't kick in.
I care about h2g2 - I'm one of those people who thinks that the idea of a repository of knowledge created by the people for the use of the people is a good idea on it's own. Of course, in the real world such blatant communism doesn't work - but the ideal is there at least. And I think that the repository should cover everything. Nothing should be too controversial, too important, too insignificant, or too obscure to get an entry in the Guide if someone puts the time and effort in to create it. And the Guide should do what no other reference work has done before - be impartial, authoritative, and high quality.
That's my manifesto, as it where. That's why I volunteered to be a Scout when in every other online entity I've stayed as far away from any kind of semi-offical role as possible. That's why I spend so much time here. And I'm afraid for me it's a Religious Issue. We're building something marvellous here, people: let's not lose sight of the pyramids for the blocks of stone.
Discuss this Journal entry [5]
Latest reply: May 30, 2001
Spys...
Posted May 16, 2001
...they're everywhere. Why, these very walls have ears... 
Allegedly, my sisters are spying on me here on h2g2 - in my 'native habitat', as it where. It's a disgrace: I tells ya - it's not that I mind them spying - it's just that they might at least come up and say 'hi' to me... *mutters under breath*
I mean - that's just impolite, right? 
Discuss this Journal entry [12]
Latest reply: May 16, 2001
I'm not a Zaphodista...
Posted May 8, 2001
... but I have just signed the Petition for Freedom. Because I want to read foreign languages, see images, and mention acceptable URLs. And, most importantly, because I'm tired of the moderators getting it wrong. I'll send a paper copy off later today, and write my personal thoughts on the back.
I hope that it'll help: maybe it'll help emphasise to the BBC that people do care about h2g2, and do care about the moderation. Who knows: they might even listen. The petition can be found at the URL below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A544943
Discuss this Journal entry [1]
Latest reply: May 8, 2001
Martin Harper
Researcher U129960
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