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

The front page has a quote:

'Like a lot of folks I believed the Canary Islands actually had something to do with canaries'

Of course this person was correct to believe this, because the canary islands have got something to do with canaries. They are where canaries come from and that's why the birds are called canaries.

I set my nickname to

Gnomon [The Canary Islands _have_ got something to do with canaries.]

The moderators weren't happy with this. They reset it. The reasons they gave were that it was one or more of the following:

Contain website or email addresses
Appear to impersonate someone else
Contain swearwords or other words which may cause offence Contain no character breaks, so stretch the boards Break the general messageboard House Rules

(That bad format is not my doing, it's what was in the e-mail).

Now I can't see which of these categories my nickname falls into.

I've replied to the e-mail looking for clarification.

Apparently the problem is that it is more than 50 characters. But the rules don't say that it has to be less than 50, and the e-mail I received doesn't mention this as a reason either.

If that is the reason, then the rules should state it. I've asked the Eds to change the rules to mention this specifically.

Well - I was loving your long name, specifically because of the canary that flew into my house on Saturday. He has now been rehomed, and I miss him.

Co-incidence, yes, but

You should go back to Gnomon though, I'm easily confused at the best of times.

You're not alone. This new unstated policy is upsetting quite a few folks. See this thread for more: F19585?thread=7336214

I think it's a pitifully short name to be yikesed in that way. I got the full 150 characters in there before mine was banned.

Here's the link to the rules about nicknames. Note the absence of any mention of the 50-character restriction.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/messageboards/newguide/popup_house_rules.html

The last I'd officially heard was that the Ed's were trying to get an h2g2 specific fix that would allow us to have longer (if not as long as we like) nicknames. I don't know if that's still in the works as I haven't heard anything about it since shortly after the BBCiD change other than people getting reset. Some get moderation emails when they get reset, some don't.

Imagines all the Entries that you've been written and edited, Gnomon, suddenly having the links changed whenever you update your details.

I'm seeing cogs and wheels turning and machinery grinding - no wonder the h2g2 site keeps crashing ( well it has been for me this afternoon )

Besides asking the Eds to put the rule into the rulebook, I've taken two other steps:

- I've changed my nickname to Tonymon.
- I've increased the size of the Buddha on my page by 33%.

Judging from the thread Count Zero linked to, you might be safe as long as you only stay on h2g2 and don't post on other BBC sites.

Easy for me, since I've no idea what the other sites are about, being a foreigner (meaning I haven't had any possibility to either watch or listen to whatever it is that people are discussing)

That's what I thought, Ti, but it's not the case:

F127730?thread=7358160

I got that message a couple of weeks ago, too. I then squashed my name into less than 50 characters, by means mainly of eliminating all the spaces, thus breaking one of the rules given in the e-mail. It's been fine since and I haven't had it zapped any more since.

Now I've changed it to Tony's Child instead of Trillian's Child, out of solidarity, I'm well under the 50 characters.

So it seems that the 50 characters rule is more important than the actual written ones.

By the way - I'm sorry if my "long" name has messed up anyone's reading of hootoo. Please complain if this is the case and I'll sneak a couple of spaces back in.

It's odd how hit-and-miss the whole nickname thing has become. Somehow, Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcup & Spoonswinner, Cheese Namer & Zaphodista) is still managing to get away with it

Truly odd as he's also being very prolific on the Archers' boards, with the long name.

He must have found the god-mode cheat.

Or developed the programming equivalent of quantum tunnelling.

I discovered that brackets weren't accepted when I tried to alter my name.

I just got 'signed out' That never happens normally.

The Eds say they are not going to write the 50-character rule into the official rules, because those rules apply to all sites and the h2g2 eds don't control. So they are asking us all nicely to keep ourselves to 50 characters and they'll have the h2g2-specific modification along really soon.

That makes sense. Better than the official rules saying "Don't do this thing that you didn't know you could do anyway."

Even without showing my solidarity, I was already over the 50 mark

Oh! I mean my tag, not my age