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

*a bit miffed*

So... I start this conversation on a user page, just me and the researcher involved in the conversation...

...apart from a Lurker who not only reads everything we post but also yikes postings before I get a chance to read them!

I'm a grown up! (even though I might not always behave like that)
I don't need anyone to protect me from postings that might (or might not) be breaking the House Rules!

I find it pretty... pretty... impertinent (to put it mildly) by said Lurker to meddle in our conversation!

The researcher I visited seems to have a self-appointed Moderator hanging around - and I say 'self-appointed' because frankly, if said researcher had been making a lot of postings breaking the <./>HouseRules</.> then he/she would have been put on pre-mod by now, right?

But that's not the case - but still several of his/her postings have been yikesed - if I'm lucky I'm online and fast enough to read them before they disappear (and the one I did catch before it disappeared certainly didn't seem to be breaking the rules or being offensive or anything like that)

So what the is going on, and why have those yikesed postings remained hidden???

But when you started feeling grown up, did someone like your Aunt not always treat you like it? Pinching your cheeks and annoyingly patronizing you.

Well that's my analogy for Auntie Beeb And I'm darned proud of it

Oh yes - there was even this old lady who insisted on calling me by the name that was actually my first own attempts of pronouncing my own RL name, right until the day she died - terribly embarrassing, I thought...

Anyway - we are past those days when BBC-employed Moderators read each and every one of our postings - but someone has appointed him-/herself this researcher's personal Moderator, checking each and every posting he/she makes - that sounds like pre-mod, doesn't it? But in reality, it's someone self-righteously exercising post-mod - and that's what's really bugging me!

As I've expressed elsewhere, I'm not particularly fond of either yikesing or moderators, apart from those really 'obvious' cases of foul language and so on...

I know. All I had was the analogy

Doesn't yikes misuse result in chastisment of the one who yikesed inappropriately?

And unless those postings were in violation, they should eventually be restored...

Has the yiksed researcher replied to the moderation e mail to alert Abi and Mina to the problem, if they really are being removed unreasonably then I'm sure they'll look into it.

Good luck

It sounds like the lurker/yikeser is being spiteful. I would think the italics could help out in this situation. What an unpleasant experience for you.

Definitely sounds like spite and I hope they get remonstrated with.

I am the lurker. I monitor a certain researchers postings for what I consider to be very good reasons and if any of you really need to know more, please contact me by email. I am not acting out of spite - just taking a reasonable precaution on behalf of the Community Artist group.

Here's the important bit. I did not yikes the posts in Titania's thread or those in the original hub thread. I have not yikesed any postings by the researcher in question since April. I only yikes posts that break the House Rules. As a guru I do occasionally yikes posts. The last time I yikesed anything was in the middle of July. I yikesed a posting by a newbie encouraging the taking of Class A drugs. Does anyone have a problem with that?

Amy

Thanks for letting us know Amy, I found it surprising that someone on h2g2 would be acting the way Titian described, it's always nice know both sides of the story. Or at least a little more about it.

Then there must be a second lurker. One with different motives. As long as Ti has been here, she would recognize a post that contravened the rules. And she wouldn't complain if they were yikesed. Is there a way for Ti's friend to find out from the italics who it actually is? Or would the italics need to deal with it directly.

Given the nature of the yikesed posts (I read two of the three) my guess - and it is only a guess - is that the posts were pulled by the Italics themselves.

So have things been yikesed since July, T? Then as Hypatia says, there must be another lurker.

Amy, I know that you wouldn't yikes out of spite, so obviously some of the postings must have been in contravention of the house rules and, whether we like it or not and if we want to use the site, we need to stick by those rules.

That is the one drawback ot hootoo, it is an open site and perhaps there are times when we need to be a little more circumspect. The problem I find with that is that occasionally I will post something and then realise too late that perhaps it wasn't such a good idea .

We're talking about events in the last day or so, Caer.

It's worth noting that one of the yikesed posts - the one in the thread begun by T. - hasn't actually failed yet. It's pending. It was aimed at the Italics and was not, in my opinion, polite but they've left worse on site. It isn't against the House Rules to post an opinion that most wouldn't agree with. I wouldn't be surprised to find that post reinstated.

Oh, I also meant to say that the researcher in question and I are subscribed to many of the same forums. Guruing-type things on the whole. That's why the original threads begun by Titania were on my space. I didn't subscribe to those threads by hand. Remeber I'm a Guru on h2g2 and a Hub Guru. Normally I would have deleted the private thread from my list shortly after it appeared but then it took a turn that was directly relevant to me, so I didn't. I think the large overlap of interests may give the researcher in question an unwarranted sense of persecution but that can't be helped.

I've only recently become aware of this researcher's postings being yikesed, I don't know for how long it's been going on.

Let's see how much I remember of the only posting I managed to see before it got yikesed - it all started out pretty harmlessly, with me trying to customize my user page for each and every DNA site.

Said researcher said that there are more sites than listed in one of the DNA hub entries and something about the BBC staff probably had not added those additional sites deliberately (my guess is because they're still under development/testing).

Being one of the BBCi testers, this researcher probably knows about a lot more things than I do - things that maybe aren't meant to be spread to people outside the testers' group.

The trouble is of course just how you decide to interpret a posting, how much you read into it, how much info you think others will get out of it. Someone seems to do his/her best (or worst, rather) to read all sorts of things into the postings, and manages to convince the Moderators of it.

So - no, the posting I saw didn't break any of the House Rules. However, it might have contained info that was meant to be confidential. Unfortunately, there is only one automatic message for postings that have been moderated, and that is:


This Posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way.


...but that isn't always true - there are obviously other reasons not mentioned in the House Rules that will allow a posting to become yikesed and moderated.

Thanks Amy, you're more observant than I am - I hadn't noticed that the posting in the conversation between me and the researcher (and no one else involved) was still pending. Lurker? Oh, now I get it, thanks!

However, someone is going through a lot of trouble to keep up with each and every posting this researcher makes, or it wouldn't have been yikesed to begin with. That's what I don't like about this whole thing. And if the posting is re-instated, then the yikeser is being way too over-zealous.

When I read the first of the yikesed posts I didn't think it broke the House Rules. I did however suspect it might be pulled nevertheless.

What conclusion have you come to about the motive of that researcher in giving you the information that was hidden?

I hadn't thought of a motive... hmmmm... can't think of anything positive... which is a pity, because just before I started the DNA hub conversation, the researcher had been very helpful to me

Cor! What happened to Post 16? How fascinating.

What I was going to say before that nasty shock distracted me was that I'm tempted to post in that other thread. I try not to post in threads occupied by Titania's friend because I know that the researcher in question finds that annoying but I so want to reassure Titania's friend that there is no 'gang'. I didn't press the button and I didn't make anyone else push the button. There are no secret email plots that I am aware of. It is all such a shame.

Ah, it's back. As is the post in the other thread as I predicted.