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

Well, yes, more Guide Entries. I've been as guilty as anyone of rustling these up recently.

But also...

F19585?thread=7174762

Threads started by people, and involving people, that we know, like and trust. I'm an infrequent poster these days out of lifestyle choice, and I'm sure many else are too. If we want hootoo to thrive, we need to keep these up alongside - I note - the 'Petty Hates' thread (F19585?thread=242934), going strong after six years.

Now, in honesty, I'm reaching a point of indifference about hootoo, despite it having granted me a spouse and a whole bunch of people whom I would consider friends. This question is asked in a purely non-rhetorical capacity: are we going to do anything about it?

B

Hear hear!

Wow, not seen Two Bit around here for *years*

well mu beta
if you specifically were going to do 'anything about it'
i would recommend you not coming into innocent threads
and attacking people...
ie being mean spirited does not create a welcoming atmosphere
nor does judging that someone doesnt warrent kindness or politeness

calling someone stupid doesnt help much either

Oh, piss off.

B

That's the spirit.

Well, if fluffykerfuffle is talking about the thread that B was linking to, there wasn't a single instance of personal attacks in the entire thing - it's been a great thread *because* people with different opinions are expressing them without attacking others.

Great thread, B, thanks for the link. I'm only lurking though. And you are completely right - these are the sorts of threads that makes h2g2 stand out from the crowd.

We ought to do something, obviously. Not sure what it is, though.

Maybe the people who could turn this round (such as B himself, to mention one of many) aren't the one's who feel sufficiently possessive about h2g2. The best contributors can take it or leave it, and presumably in the stale times they just revert to their RL-options. The foreground then gets left to the self-pitying types who don't seem to have a RL-option. The feel of the place degenerates into Depressing Terminal Wallow, and what do you know? We get stuck in self-perpetuating decline.

The post #4/#5 exchange says it all, really. Happy New Year to the majority who are ready to work to make it one. A heartfelt what-B-said to those toxic types who use this site as their place to moan.

That one on the kids of today is excellent. I must contribute.

Fluffy puzzles me. I'm sure she's said something that wasn't a moan once or twice, but rarely.

(One of the oddest things I saw on hootoo was someone who thought fluffy was an alter ego of Hoo. What?!)

TRiG.

I don't think Hoo would be able to bring himself to swear off normal standards of capitalisation and punctuation.

B

I keep on having phases where I think I'm going to leave completely (in fact I did for a year or so, about three years ago). A few months ago I nearly did the same thing again, and then had an idea for an article so ended taking part in Peer Review for the first time in aaaaages.

Ideas are what keeps this place going; ideas for Entries, ideas for good conversations, ideas for societies or what-have-you.

Speaking as a fellow Indifferent...

In the late spring, I found I was too busy to keep up all my commitments here. I dropped a few. Then I realised I was doing them because they were commitments, not because they gave me any pleasure, but because I felt I'd pushed myself into doing them. When I started prioritising the things I loved doing first, I found h2g2 was quite low down the list, and that's been the same ever since.

I guess that for me, until I start enjoying being here again, h2g2 is always going to be a fairly low priority. I did too much EG stuff at one stage to ever really love writing or editing for it again. The response to the Aviators was pretty disappointing. And the last week or two of Post editing felt like hell. So I only ever really pop in because I enjoy the conversation with the likes of you and Gosho, and little bits and bobs like the beerfests. Until something really excites me about the site, that's probably the way it's going to stay, I'm afraid.

I'd argue that that's the way it should be; we all have times when we can dedicate more time to the Guide, and then RL should rightly take over when things change. The problem is, we don't feel like we can sit back and let others take the reins. It's not because we don't trust them, more that there aren't enough of them.

Better to see you infrequently, Rich, than not at all.

I need h2g2... like a drug... I NEEEEEEED IT!

Not most of it, of course. I almost left this place myself a couple of years ago, back when that wolfy fellow was making the place a right nuisance. But rather than toss the whole thing, I pared down my conversation list. I dumped all the things that were annoying me and what was left was quite nice.

Now, looking back, I'm so glad I remained here. In my so called 'real life' there are very few intelligent conversations. Here, even the banal and trivial convos I frequent are more intelligent than the general blather that makes up public discussion over here.

I am about to end my experimental experience with facebook. While I abhor that cesspool, it has, if nothing else, made me appreciate the general level of discourse here greatly.

Apparently he just died. I bring this up only because he hadn't entered my conscious thought for months and then two mentions today.

I agree about the quality of inane blather here though

CZ - fancy a Facebook suicide pact?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/31/web-2-0-suicide/

B

Heh, just 5 minutes ago (before reading your post) I put in my request to delete my facebook account. The suicide machine may be a better way to do it as facebook just promises to delete your account in 14 days, but you have no way of knowing if it actually deletes everything. They do state in their TOS that they may keep any images you upload to facebook even if you delete your account. (I never uploaded any images, I just gave links.)

Even finding the delete request page isn't easy. I found it from an article I read somewhere else. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-complete-guide-to-facebook-privacy/
The last item in the article has a link to the delete request page. Note that this is different from facebook's "deactivate my account" option that is easy to find but doesn't actually delete your info.

Unbelieveable. I'm all set to sign up for Facebook suicide, and the site is being blocked by Facebook. As soon as they get around it, I'm doing it.

B

Well, I like Facebook. The new privacy settings thing was a disaster but I just went back in, fiddled around and changed them all to super secret status again.

I'm guilty too, but life hasn't been that good for me lately and I've had to put my attention elsewhere.

I know in the past things like EV's pop quiz, or GD's FF had me logging in each week just to maintain those, and then I'd do a bit of peer review or join some convo's.

There are rude people about, but some of us fight back or ignore them.