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

Are you clumsy by nature, Matt, or just ?

Ah, that's okay, it was on it's last legs. *Trips over his penguins and knocks a wad of 4th Century manuscripts into the brandy decanter*

Oh, balls.

Drunk? Moi? Nevver. Wash gabe you dat impressario?

*giggles*

Anyone for a suck on some ancient text? Mine's dipped in brandy.

I'll leabve it to lil to answer that one, you impressario.

Goodnight all.

*sits down on his muskrat and murmers*

Ah, the penguins have escaped...reminds me of a time when I was....mmm...yes. But then I was very, very...yes. Ah dear. Radishes of time and all that, I must away. Queen Mab pulls at me toes. Sheep well my frenzies.

Goodnight Bel..


*looks at Matt*

Aww Bless him.. *drapes the new Matt over him*


*turns out the light*

OK, so I'm a naught but an intermitent lurker these days but perhaps that gives me the benefit of being objective. Pin is right, it's writing like that of ianhimself and others that proves there's still life in this old horse but then again this sort of high quality writing has always been here. But...how many writers of this caliber remain? More importantly, how many of the like are being drawn in?

It is just this sort of thing, writing of such a nature which drew me in and held my attention long enough for me to become addicted. Here I am, a year removed from ANY post and I'm still checking in, a quick peek here, a longer one there. I'm not current but still, I've kept my finger on the pulse and boys and girls I'm here to tell you that it's fading fast.

The real question is why and the answer is the same now as it was when I departed...passion. There must be passion to hold interest in a realm where you're only a click away from the next 'Big' thing and it's that very same passion which is lacking and has been for some time.

That the likes of you can't see it is that each and everyone of you still retains the spark which drew you in, the ferver and commitment as strong as ever. And there in lies the crux. The failure here lies not in drawing new blood into the fold but rather keeping it long enough to infect it with that very same passion which keeps you all here through the good times as well as the bad.

The potential for greatness is there, just within reach. Sadly that has been the case for far to long. Peer Review has no one to blame for it's own misfortune other than itself and lies fully in that court. Time and again those with vision have attempted to breath life into what has become nothing but a corpse, stale, stuffy and starting to smell. And what was the cause? Pedantics!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for truth, fact finding and double checking but ladies and gentlemen there comes a point where enough is enough. Who amongst you reads technical journals for fun? It matters little how accurate the context is if no one reads it! Without something to draw attention and, once captured hold it there's little if anything to keep the reader interested. If you lose interest once then it's unlikely the reader will return for another go, but if he or she does and faces the same then, well game over I guess.

That's if you can get someone to write to begin with. We all face enough with the trails and tribulations of daily life, but to put your effort into a piece only to have what are essentially a bunch of strangers pick it apart with little (if any) regard to the authors feelings, well that isn't the recipe for a repeat performance, especially if those in question happen to be of the younger generation, those whose emotions have yet to develop the calluses which come with age.

Personally I gave up on the whole thing long ago and instead put all my effort into the one place which still showed some spark of life, that being the AWW and the UnderGuide. This was my home, my sole reason for being here for so very long and it made me happy, content to do whatever I could to generate enthusiasm and engender passion for this, the very thing which was the basis for our founder's fame and fortune...creative writing. It's that very same passion which now brings me to write this missive in the hope that someone, anyone, will pull their heads from their backsides and do something. I see a serious lack of output in what was once so full of life and quite frankly it scares the bejesus out of me!

The answer is the same as it ever was, the only change being that the timeline for a resolution has drawn to the nub end. Changes no longer have to be made, they MUST be made if this site is to survive and the time for talk has come to a close. Stop talking and get to doing! If the prime mission of this joint is still 'The Peer' then start there. Relax the rules and allow passion to take precedence over pedantics, give researchers a reason to do what they do and if that CAN'T be made to happen then do the right thing and simply walk away.

Perhaps if the 'Powers That Be' see the old guard say enough is enough and leave in protest things might actually go from talking to doing. Just like in real life, sometimes it comes down to a quality of life issue and the humane thing to do is pull the plug and this is the decision before you now, a slow and lingering demise, a quick death or...a cure through the use of decisive action and radical therapy.

And that's as clear cut as I can make it. Nothing that hasn't been said time and again, just a final call to arms before the curtain closes forever. Fight the good fight people, fight it well and fight it hard. Fight for what has been and what yet could be. Fight as if your very lives depend upon the outcome because sadly they do.

Oh, and just in case there's any doubt yes, it is indeed I, Spy, barking at the moon loud and proud as ever

Honestly, I turn my back for five minutes and just look at the mess you've made. Next time I leave you lot alone I shall obviously have to get a baby-sitter.

Anyway.

Well for my part I'm not sure I can agree with all of that. First of all, no, I don't read technical manuals for fun, in fact as a man I think it should be perfectly obvious that I don't read them under any circumstances. But I do read guide entries, whenever I have time. I once read an enjoyed an entry on some restaurant in American somewhere, a pizza house or something, that I am almost certain never to make practical use of. But I enjoyed it, I like the entry, I like the knowledge and I like the feeling it gives me of being closer to bits of the world that are a long way away. I'd take the accuracy and surity of that over any greater range of information you may get *ahem* elsewhere. As far as I know the uniqueness of the guide isn't any one aspect, but all of them. If I go (as I have done) to Ash H2G2, even though it is not a unqiue resource in itself, I can respond to any of the answers I get by peering into the personal space of the respondants and reading their journal entries and their guide entries and their underguide entries and stuff. It's not just an online encyclopedia here, it's a genuinely wide ranging online community unlike any other I know of. That's why I'm still here a year later, and why, frankly, I'm probably here more often than I should be. If nobody else wants to turn up and join in the fun, nuts to them, that's what I say, they're missing out.

Granted h2g2 isn't just the Guide, but the Guide is the flagship, and when the flag begins to waver, the sailors get worried.

Anyway, Mr I-don't-read-for-fun Moore, I challenge you to a race that might get your fingers moving over the keyboard. We both seem to be bogged down in middle of uni projects. I have two and a half entries left to write and 3 that need significant tweaking - dunno what you're up to. Race you to the finish?

Ah well now that's an interesting challenge. Depends, because I have an entry outstanding from a certain individual that I'd have to chase up first. Matt?

As to the Guide dying, I've been here for 2 years as of last month (I actually missed my own aniversary but that's neither here nor there (typical man eh?)), and I remember what drew me in. When I first arrived it was because of Douglas Adams. I read about h2g2 in one of his biographies, I think it was Salmon of Doubt, and a while later I checked it out. I remember joining, wondering, not really knowing and then I found it. The people. That's what drew me in and that's what's kept me (Thingites I think it was). Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm lacking in entries for one who's been here this long, so far I'm only on 8, 7 of which are on the same area, but now that I've done all the play around RPGing and idle chatting I can see what's happening to PR and I agree that people, me and others, need to pull our fingers out. What I'm saying is about keeping researchers here. The flame kept me and I hope it can keep others. But that's not enough. I went off h2g2 for a few periods because back then all it was was a chat forum to me. Then I had my work experience and was so bored that I wrote 7 entries on famous Steam Engines. And I caught the writing flame and have wanted to be writing more since then, though I haven't got round to it yet. That's the thing though, I want to write. And I want to read. And to talk. And h2g2 is good for all of those. Currently I'm doing physics coursework on maglev trains and in h2g2 there's an excellent entry on a swiss version that I will certainly include. And for a talk I'm planning on Intelligent Design for a discussion society I've found a whole hoard of entries to help me. That's what this site is about, knowledge, community too, and most of all writing and researcher participation, so we all need to contribute and save our guide.

8's not bad for 2 years.

Well it feels like 1 over nearly 2 years, then 7 in a period of extreme boredom. Amazing what you find to do when there's something else you should be doing isn't it?

As long as it's contributing to hootoo, you won't find anyone here complaining!

You'll always find someone complaining. For myself, the trouble is knowing what to write about. I want to make sure my contributions are worthwhile, even if only to one person, and finding original subject areas becomes harder and harder, I'm sure that's a contributary factor. AN interesting thing might be to explore the earlier entries and resubmit them to peer review- are they still good enough for the current standards? If not, maybe there is an engine in improving ouyr current crop, as much as adding new information to it.

How about ditching the censor in AWW? If it weren't for that censor, I'd be posting in there every week. As it happens, I write something, want to share it with people, but because the occasional swear word slips out, the censor picks it up. Ok, if it was the editted guide, I could see the point, and would happily fish through a few thousand words for the odd excretion. But more often than not, I think "bugger this" and give up.

Not that I can't write without swearing, in fact I'm writing an entry at the moment with not a single swear word in it, it just helps from time to time. Stick an age limit on it if you have to!

The profanity filter is here to stay, I'm afraid. It doesn't have anything to do with whether your work is edited or not, it's because the BBC operates family-friendly sites, and we have a lot of young researchers (some as young as 8 or 9) that could stumble on just about anything. Got to keep it clean

8 entries in 2 years isn't bad at all, even if 7 of them were in one go. I was here for at least three years before I wrote anything at all!

There's a certain youngun' about at the moment who's becoming irritating among certain journals. I suppose he is young and doesn't know what he's doing but it's almost getting ridiculous now. (sorry, very off topic that)