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

G'day Phoenician Trader, you seem to be doing more lurking than posting, which is something I whole-heartedly endorse, I'm just here to hand out some unofficial friendliness, please join in!

I am doing incredible amounts of lurking. I lurk in many diverse places but this one would be totally way out. I have never done the IRC thing but this is like a small city with a big city feel.

So it's nothing like Adelaide then, the small city with the country town feel... Speaking from Melbourne, as I am, though I did live in SA for 4 years... So what was it that brought you to h2g2?

Adelaide is actually a huge city geographically and has over a million people in it: it just makes sure it thinks small, acts small and is small minded. H2G2 has young people who know that they are on a big stage and so they play to the world. I have simply been sitting in the stalls and watching (and occasionally applauding quitely).

I came here because of an article in The Register (.co.uk). Unlike most sites I drop past I have stayed here.

Well, I was only a kid when I was there... There are some older people on h2g2 who know they're on a big stage, too... It can be a very powerful tool of cross-cultural communication, can h2g2, both in its community aspects and in the spread of information from one side of the world to the other. It is still rather 'western-centric' I guess you could say, as (and this is just from observation) there don't seem to be too many people from any of the Asian countries registered, and that is one area it would be nice to see expand...of course, access to the internet is generally lower in some countries, but it's a goal to be looked at, anyway. So what are your plans as a researcher? Just to lurk, or join in, or contribute articles to the guide itself?

Lurking mostly - but even then I find it a bit scary. It is so easy to track a person through everything they have read or written - it is all there. I will try and write up some guide articles. There are heaps of great things around in this part of the world that travellers need to know about life, the universe and everything. I have recently come back from Melbourne (and Sydney). Some of the things there could do with a guide entry. An Essondon/Richmond style Saturday 2pm "G" experience is something everyone should fit into their time here.

It is easy to track a person through every posting they make, though it would require substantially more effort for some people than others... But then, you can be as anonymous as you like, or you can post up personal details, it's all up to you, though no matter how discrete you try to be, some information will inevitably seep out. Are there any questions you want to ask, things you need cleared up, anything like that? I'm not an official expert around here, but I have been here a fair while and should be able to help with anything you might need clearing up. I just did a quick search, and the only entry i found dealing directly with footy is http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A138368 so there's plenty of room to write an entry about going to the Footy at the 'G...which would have to include things like "Do not, under any circumstances, attend a North Melbourne vs. Fremantle Dockers game at the MCG, as there will be roughly 85000 empty seats around you"

Who said local footy was dead in Melbourne. The good old days of 10,000 person crowds can still be with us if you can get the rights teams on the oval.

If you have any sound advice on going wine tasting in Victoria I will try and work it into my Wine Tasting in Adelaide effort (which is in the outline draft stage (1st half) at the moment).

As for the anonymity aspect of it all: that is part and parcel of remote communications be it newspaper journalists, pen-pals, email, news or web sites. I doubt if anybody is clueless about leaving real personal details - but I saw St Emily being asked to name which school she went to when Girl8 interrupted the converstation and changed the thread. The moderaters may have removed the reply (if St Emily made one) as well.

Human Beings can be mighty attractive: especially the sorts of people who are here. It can be fun to watch but I do catch my breath occasionally. Maybe I am overly pessimistic about the world.

At least Colonial Stadium's picking up (not that I've ever been there) I don't actually know any good wine tasting areas, the closest I've been was when the Rally of Melbourne (which I worked on) had its final stages at the deBortolli winery... I don't know the thread to which you are referring, but the moderators would have only removed the reply if it contained specific personal details like addresses and phone numbers, and the post number itself would say 'removed', it wouldn't just be deleted...basically, if you want to tell people where you went to school, or where you work, or your real name, that's entirely up to you...

What is the Rally of Melbourne. I presume a car race or a bicycle race.

Car race, one leg of the Australian Rally Championshps...Goes all around Healseville, Marysville, up around there, and finishes at a winery...