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

Hey guys I'm aware its difficult. I'm not expecting a perfect diagnosis all the time..and hell people will have enough to do, especially when new people get here. I'm not expecting anything that special.

But I'm just really drawing attention to it as something that I shall actually welcome..and after the disaster of whats happened with this episode..I would hope I would request it myself. You might think why wouldn't I have the self control to just not post..but when you're manic a desire to communicate is hugely increased. That's why I cut myself from people in real life when it happens.

So I'm fairly sure I'll spot it..and then you just pull the plug for a week...

And we all know everything is new..but people have good intentions to the new site.

And I would hope someone like my excellent friend anhaga would tell me if he thinks a section is in order.. And yes its excellent to look out for people.

OK Z..about the talk..but no pressure..but yeah probably not yet. Things are still a bit fragile in general.

Mrs Zen something you said earlier on that other thread got to me a bit. You said kea kept people 'honest' in that context of what you were doing in that system/structure..which of course was essential..and stopped muddle. I entirely understand that.

But to point out in other contexts 'muddle and chaos' is essential. For creativity to occur you need to break stuff down and let it jostle around and put up with a period of muddle and out of that all kinds of creative things can emerge. Everything is then up for grabs. I suppose the ultimate example was the primeval soup from which life emerged.

Of course later one get down to the skill stuff..in fact its essential..I wouldn't have built that wall with no bricks with 'muddle'. In fact it was a hell of a lot of working out with 'reality' to make it work.

And that's what I've been doing in my journals of late. Letting muddle happen. This is something I might like to encourage people on noohootoo in their journals..then stuff might emerge that they'd like to use in more structured areas of the site.

Okay this has got more rambly than I intended..but I wanted to put my case..cos you and kea have your cases sussed.

And I'm not being critical of others way of doing things..in fact I think people with different ways of thinking coming together can be creative in itself.

It's yin and yang and you need both.

Can be explosive though if they both go to extremes

In terms of myself internally I'm trying to get back in touch with the yin..with mixed results. Ravel's piano music has worked best so far..Bach would be good as well I think.

Try Spem in Allium by Tallis.

And I'm sure I've got some Tallis. It takes me half an hour though to find a CD. You won't be surprised to know that I have them in a mass all at crazy angles on a shelf like a piece of sculpture.

Also even Vaughn Williams, 'Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis' would be brilliant.

I think Tallis is just a bit too yin at present..but I'm working my way towards that..cos my favourite poetry is in that tone..if you know what I mean.

But a variety of classical Spanish guitar music CD is excellent at present. Very expressive but in a sort of gentle way.

I really wish I'd listened to Bach's well tempered klavier stuff before the Spanish guitar music. Its the ultimate sense of order..and total heaven. All constructed on ordered principles.

(Hope you don't mind me keep posting here about music? No response needed but its fun).

You talked about yin and yang earlier. I wondered if you knew about the Greek tradition of Dionysus and Apollo. I think that's more my

Its been mentioned here that in noohootoo people will be looked out for and wanting it to be a safe place for everyone.

Last night I was subject to a particularly unpleasant piece of Wind up Merchantry which I've found very psychologically disturbing as I was posting totally honestly and in good faith and then I had the sudden realisation I was being deliberately wound up.

Will this kind of thing be addressed in noohootoo..because of course its impossible to yikes?

Well done for realising what was goung on.

To your question - Yes it will. In the short term it's likely that we'll still have the current yikes button, but a yikeser will be able to say in the text box what is going on. This will draw it to the attention of the Community Eds. They may or may not intervene publicly, ("hey dudes, it's a bit tense here, cool it") and they won't be able to say to the yikeser "we're emailing WindUpMerchant about his behaviour" because of confidentiality, but it WILL be possible to draw their attention to it, and attention WILL be paid. there is some other stuff we will introduce straight away which we are discussing right now, and some cool stuff we are planning on introducing when we can.

In the meantime

Ben

Man what a relief. Thank you. It means the world to me that I wasn't going mad.

I'd kiss you if I could..

Really it has upset me so much because its so abusive of good faith and trust in posting.

I know you like chocolate.

I didn't see the thread, btw. But self-awareness and other-awareness is always good.

And nom nom nom on the chocolate - calorie free, my favourite kind!

The thread was pretty hideous. Utter humiliation for me. But its not the first time he's done it to me. Lots of times before. But its to do with my vibrancy and optimism. Then it comes.

But I'm not changing.

But just so long this is given priority on noohootoo.

Thing is we can all at times be a bit playful and not realise the other person isn't getting it..but then when you do you hopefully change your stance...not carry on with glee to the other person.

I'm more angry about this than I can express.

I've had it in real life as well.

I think they call it envy. Envy is the most destructive of emotions..and has little to do with jealousy.

Actually it was top quality Belgian chocolate I'm afraid..and decidedly non low calorie.

You say self awareness. But its too late when you're too trusting..you've been well and truly shafted by the time you realise. And the person knows that.

I've found the thread now. I think it is one of those where there are swirling subtexts which a lot of people - some of them the participants - don't see.

Do I think ntm was needling you in that thread? Not proven, I'm afraid. (You were very upset and didn't explain your dislike of LOLcats very well, and I assume you saw one or two particularly crass ones. They vary from the super-cute to the frankly bizzare).

Back on topic. Do I think ntm singles you out for needling? Not even slightly. He needles everyone pretty much indiscriminately. I am saying this here where he may or may not come across it, but then I called him on trollish behaviour yesterday. Like the baby in Alice, "he only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases". It's a free internet.



Yes, we do want h2g2 to be safe and to feel safe, but a lot of that is helping people breathe deep and walk away. (Note to self, should perhaps have done this on Friday).

I'm not comfortable with the idea of an h2g2 run on a "'elf an' safety gorn mad" basis. I don't want people to be bullied, but on the other side of the coin we can't have one rule for one person and one rule for another. In practice, it's damaging if individuals are over-protected too and are thought of as teachers' pets. That's demeaning for them, and bad for the site.

*sigh*

The complexities here make me really unhappy. You are a real person with vulnerabilities, feelings and rights. But so is ntm, and so is everyone else on the site.

*sigh*

So - kudos to you for unsubbing. And super-kudos to you for writing up in your journal. Very, very well done.

As I said a couple of posts ago, there will be ways for someone to make sure the CEs see behaviour that they're concerned about, and this applies to any user of the site, anyone can press a yikes button.

What happens once the CEs see something is up to them at that time. Someone may post in the thread either explicitly saying "cool it" or just in a way that drags it back on topic. Nothing may happen at all. Or emails may be sent, but confidentiality means the only people who know that will be the person who receives them. But every yikes will be considered.

Yes, we want to protect the vulnerable. But no, not at the expense of stigmatising people who are unaware, socially inept, bad at expressing themselves, non-empathetic or just innocent. (This is not a coded description of any researcher, btw).



I am sorry that you got so distressed last night. Only you know the full reasons why. I'm impressed with how you handled it. And yes, the CEs will consider as much of the full picture of any situation as they can.

I think this may be less than you want from me, but we do need to be as fair as we can to everyone who uses the site, even the ones who wind us (personally) up.

It's early in the day, but I could do with a

Ben

Well I've decided that as its a writing site..I'm going to be writing about stuff. That makes sense. More people should be doing it in journals. This is the thing I've talked about before. Why are people so prissy with journals? If something horrible has happened here to me I'm bloody well going to write about it from now on.

I've written since I was 7 when I had the terrible pain of that move from the countryside. It more or less saved my sanity.

I think this is something we could push as part of our identity. Somewhere for people to write stuff in journals about their lives that they bottled up and couldn't talk about. Once you get through the painful personal stuff..other stuff appears which is a lot more vibrant and real and can be shared..instead of all this 'oh i need to write a nice poem' but I've got all this angst I dare not write about.

Good plan. You are right, our journals are an under-used and under-recognised feature of the site.

Take care. I really have to go study now.