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

After being away for a year he is back as Blatherskite the Mugwump @ U49720

Alji the Magus

Good, isn't it? Let's hope he finds it all less frustrating than last time.

B

Tattletale!!

Hey Ben, I just read your user page. It sure does sound familiar...

As you know, I gave myself a year-long break from this site to allow myself and everyone else I was involved in heated exchanges with an opportunity to move on. It wasn't intended to be a year-long break... I just decided that I'd been away long enough, I wasn't bothered anymore, and the friends I'd made were worth coming back to.

Besides, I was getting good at my job, so I had a growing amount of free time on my hands.

One thing which had been getting stretched for quite a long time before was irreperably broken the day I trashed weeks' worth of assiduously researched articles, canceled other works in progress, levelled a fairly good community resource (my old clubs page), and gave away my beloved FFFF. I ran out of give-a-s**t.

I don't care about this place anymore. I'm here on my own terms, to use this site as I want to use it, with no concerns for the BBC or the vision of DNA as realized here beyond whether I can get through the proxy server. I don't care if it ever adds another user, or if it ever adds another quality Guide entry. I'm just here to talk to people. And if I feel any particular urge to write something, I will. I think I can safely say, though, that the possibility of my taking on increasingly complex University projects is nonexistent.

Too bad for them. They would have gotten some fantastic stuff on the Revolution, stuff 99% of Americans don't even know. And I might have even taken up the Civil War after that.

In this respect, I might as well be as absent as Hoo and Lucinda.

I'm sorry it's continued to make you feel like you feel. I'm sure that my "I don't care" attitude to this place isn't helping you, either, because the root cause of your problem is that you *do* care, so very much, that the direction of this place wounds you personally.

I've been there.

But even though I have nothing but apathy for this site, I do care about you. I'll break with tradition and send you a heartfelt icon. And if you need to vent, on site or off, you know where to find me.

You may have noticed, I'm pretty good at venting.

It was the venting that I missed the most when you went, I think, Blatherskite. (Where *did* that new name come from, btw?)

I do care and I don't care about the site. I am enjoying it much more now that I am using it the way I originally used it, as a forum for discussing things, and a way of contacting people.

The two sets of episodes which bugged me were the way in which Mark and Peta handled the early manifestations of LeKZ, and more recently the arrogance and restricted vision of the editorial (ie not the community) staff. Mark and Peta learned a lot from the Lifetime Suspension thread, and changed how they did things as a result. It will remain to be seen how Natalie shapes up. Which reminds me, I owe her an email.

I just hate to see something done badly when with a little more thought and a lot less effort it can be done well...

But yes - one of the ways in which I stay here is by not actually caring about the site or the guide. Which is one of the reasons I like GTB so much - he is so much more focussed on the guide, that we have subtly different perspectives on the thing.

I still miss Hoo and Lu though. But you being around again goes a long way to compensate.
B

Blatherskite and mugwump are both antebellum (meaning post-Civil War) period slang terms. A blatherskite is a loud-mouthed braggart, so it's a self-deprecating joke. A mugwump is someone who "keeps his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other," which basically means an indecisive person or someone who chooses not to have an opinion. In my case, the mugwump part means I'm not going to get involved with conflicts on this site that don't directly involve me. It's a self-reminder to stay out of other people's business.

I don't know what's going on with you and this Natalie person, but I do know this place had serious editorial issues long before she ever arrived. That's why I jumped into the University concept when it arrived, because it gave me an opportunity to choose a sub that made the effort, and who would work with me. What happened after that was beyond my control, but at long as it was very little, I could be happy with the result. I've been *very* unhappy with the final results of some of my work prior to that.

End rant... the moral of the story is that the editorial scheme was not working long before Natalie. Maybe she's broken it in new, fantastic ways, though. I wouldn't know.

GTB has appeared to me to be quite remarkable throughout this whole time. He's shared the opinions of myself and the rest of the vanishing majority, but through it all he's the only one who has never threatened to or actually carried out threats to curtail his contributions to the site. He must really believe in the cause. I admire his dedication even though I don't share it.

I had heard the term 'mugwump' before, but I did not know what it meant, or what its origin was.

My main issue with Natalie is her invisibility, though Constructively Banned (ie David) and ~jwf~ put forward some cogent arguments that the people who run the site should be *more* invisible, not less invisible. I have not really thought through the whole of that one, and these are the sorts of debates which wound me up, so I am now avoiding them.

To be honest, I had issues with erratic censorship before the BBC took over. I don't know if you remember or were involved in twophlag's entry on 'God' - or with Con's entry on Cunnilingus, but in some ways it was worse because there were no rules. I have never seen pre-rupert as some pre-lapsian golden age. On the other hand, I have mistrusted the bbc for years, so I was not surprised by moderation and the other restrictions.

Hey ho.

I *do* like your name!

B

Well, I've always really liked yours... maybe that's because I was already familiar with "A Boy Named Sue," and didn't have to think about where it came from.

On the FFFF page there's a bit talking about how proud we are that some of our articles are *not* accepted into the Edited Guide. If I recall correctly, I added that bit as a direct reaction to the treatment Twophlag's article received. The article was quite popular with the group, and so we all followed its history quite closely. Twophlag's original "God" entry is linked there, with a "H2G2's Most Rejected!" honor beside it.

On an unrelated note, your comment about missing my venting caught me by surprise. You've always struck me as the level-headed, so-reasonable-you-can't-possibly-disagree-with-me one in the arguments we presented... so much so that I could see a mental picture of you shaking your head in resignation and muttering "Cool it, dude, you're not helping" at some of my posts.

And then I wandered over to Hoovooloo's space to see what people were saying about his departure, and saw the arguments you were having over there. I didn't recognize the person doing the posting. It certainly didn't sound like you.

Unrecognisable? Blimey, that is scary. Hoo told me over a year ago that he had never seen me have an argument with anyone on the site, and praised my diplomacy. I am not entirely sure where that diplomacy went. It certainly is not true now.

2002 was long and arduous, and I lost my sense of humour about half way through. It is slowly coming back, but it has taken some time. And I really do dislike it when intelligent people are stupid. I think I am giving people much less of the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully the changes I am making to the way I am leading my life from now on will help me regain my serenity. And it helps to remember it is only a website.

I think the reason I said I missed the ranting is because I like passion, and I like intelligence, and I find the combination of the two very compelling. I am always interested in what intelligent people have to say. I may disagree with it, but I like to pay attention to it, if they are *that* intelligent they could be right, after all. Opportunities for education and learning and growth are too important to miss because you disagree with someone.

B

"if they are *that* intelligent they could be right, after all." - Or they're just not as intelligent as they appear.

You said you hate to see intelligent people act stupidly... maybe you don't want to spend too much time around me.