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

Low Flyer - Welcome to My Space this is as near private as we can get.
I prefer to keep private/contraversial discussions out of main line forums.
Please feel free to open up.

Not sure if I'm in the right place or not, AB, but I got the feeling that PJ had misconstrued some of your postings, and it might be easier to leave it for a while. There's plenty of other space in h2g2 to play in, I would have thought...

LF

You've hit it Low Flyer.
Thanks for your advice and concern. The lady is like an old hen clucking around her chicks. You Message Boarders are an introvert lot and The Archers Mustaland group take the cake. I can see no point in going in there again although I may lurk around the areas that Katy and Peet have created in h2g2. I joined h2g2 around the time of the BBC take over and did quite a bit of investigation into the events taking place at that time. I like this virtual life and thecharacter that I play is not that different from my real life. As I say in my space 'The name says it all'
You may be interested in my early personal space entry - F93527?thread=199676
Ancient Brit

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:12:14 GMT, In reply to: Ancient Brit [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F93219?thread=1329491&post=15329393#p15329393] Well, TA is full of hens - it IS an everyday story of country folk after all! What it boils down to is that the message boards, and h2g2 are really for different groups of people. I don't remember there being any friction when the MBs were on H2 and h2g2 was on DNA. People could be members of both if they so desired (and some did). I guess the BBC needed to save some money so merged the two. But it's still an uneasy marriage if you ask me. LF

Low Flyer - There one or two cocks in among them.
The move over DNA is necessary because h2 is past it's sell by date. May well have been that the BBC came to the rescue of h2g2 in order to acquire its power house. Moving the Message Boards over to DNA had nothing to do with h2g2. Peta Haigh and Jim Lynn moved over to the BBC at the time of the take over they now have an unenviable task of masterminding the h2/DNA change over and all things DNA but they go back to a time when DNA the man was alive. You may find his view of h2g2 ( Year 2000 ) of interest - A550955
I had hoped that the move over to DNA would have induced integration but it seems to have had the opposite effect. I lurk the DNA sites as part of an on going internet learning curve. My computer is a hobby taken up when I retired.
You seem to be posting to this link via the ML Board. It puzzles me why this should be. I realise that the personal space has not been fully implemented on the Message Boards. Would you mind tellin me how you first managed to post to the DNA Hub ?

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 11:23:34 GMT, In reply to: Ancient Brit [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F93219?thread=1329491&post=15342184#p15342184] I first found the hub because someone posted a link to it which I followed. Getting back though, is usually a case of lots of clicking on the back button! The message boards don't have anything to do with h2g2 as such, but they both sit on a DNA platform, and the BBC has chosen to loosely integrate them in terms of a common log-in and a common database. I see no reason why a wholly separate database couldn't have been created for the message boards - I can't believe it would have cost them much more (if anything). I post via ML, because that is where I spend most (too much) of my time. I don't really have any interest, at this stage, in the personal space and h2g2 philosophy. I'm supposed to be working full time! LF

The only connection between h2g2 and the message boards is DNA. The implementation of DNA to the message boards is the responsibility of the DNA team, h2g2 have no direct involvement in it. The only thing that concerns h2g2 is that whilst the DNA team are tied up with the message boards h2g2's requirements are put on the back burner. ML complains about loosing h2, you must realise that in the going h2g2 lost DNA. Up until the BBC take over DNA and h2g2 were as one.
The whole shift to DNA goes beyond the message boards.
Click here :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hub/A785315
Hence my rant that the whole of the BBC members DNA sites, message boards and all should be cosidered/linked as one whole community.
I realise that you have a busy life. So if you want to drop this connection please feel free to do so.

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 19:27:08 GMT, In reply to: Ancient Brit [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F93219?thread=1329491&post=15412602#p15412602] That's not strictly true. The message boards and h2g2 are connected at the database level. If I want, for example, to unsubscribe from a conversation, it is not possible from Mustardland. I CAN, however, log on to h2g2 and find all my Mustardland conversations listed there as well, from where I can unsubscribe at will. I would far prefer the message board to have it's own mechanism for this - it is obviously already built into DNA, but for some reason Auntie has chosen not to make it directly available. Had they chosen to implement DNA properly within the message boards, then there need never be any overlap between them. Message board people (from whichever board) and h2g2 people could carry on with their lives as they want. LF

As a programmer you are technically more qualified that I am to talk about the technicalities of the system. I do not pretend to understand how things operate at data base level. I would imagine that servers have finite capacity and the whole system must depend upon some wierd and wonderful data classification sytem. It would also seem to me that when DNA and h2g2 were hand in glove problems were much easier to resolve. I would also imagine that as long as each of the many groups call for their own specific issues to be dealt with and until each of the many groups agree among themselves just what it is they want then chaos will exist. The first need is to get the system up and running and in some way try to get an overall understandind of what is required so that specific requirements can be dealt with in some form of order. As I said earlier the DNA team have my sympathy.
As I understand it teh message bords could not carry on their lives in the way they want because the system could not cope. H2g2 can carry on with their lives allbeit that the pace of evolution as suffered a set back. Auntie has chosen to implement DNA the implementaion of it with all it's implications at this moment in time rests with the DNA team.

Mon, 31 Oct 2005 20:47:56 GMT, In reply to: Ancient Brit [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbarchers/F93219?thread=1329491&post=15420636#p15420636] I am far from being an expert on the DNA system - you want to speak to Peet for that I reckon. BUT, as I understand it, DNA is just a messageboard system, similar to the Howerd2 and various others. H2G2 is implemented on DNA, as are the message boards. A couple of MLers are members of a teacher's message board that also, apparently, is based on a DNA system. Although the message boards are based on a DNA system, they do not implement all the features available (many of these are configurable). H2G2 implements more of the available features, including the ability to remove conversations from your personal space. Since message board users can see their conversations through either the h2g2 or the MB interface, it follows that the underlying database is in fact the same. All that is different is the view of that data, as provided by the implementation that Auntie has provided. In short, they've muddled the two together for reasons best known to themselves. My sympathies are with hootooers who feel themselves neglected, but my primary concern is with Mustardland which has been altered almost out of recognition. It may well be true that the H2 system was creaking under the strain, but the DNA system doesn't seem to be much better. I do not remember ever having a server error on h2, but I regularly get them on DNA. My worst to date has been 15 attempts to add a post to a thread. Personally, I'd prefer to take my chances on h2! LF

No wonder DNA is creaking under the strain with so many Message Boarders hell bent on self destruction.
Anyone signing up now will not have a clue as to what is going on.
Most of them only want a 'chat room' sort of system and couldn't care less about the problems of h2 or DNA.
Here we are living in a virtual world, with the internet as the only means of communication. Like the real world the virtual world living conditions and surrounding environment is greatly influenced by technology. As technology advances the real world and the virtual world come closer together. Real world problems spill into the virtual world and unfortunately the virtual world has to look to the real world for the solutions. Sadly the real world is pretty much in the same boat, with it's laws, it's global warming and it's perscuted minorities, all claiming their rights.

Hi Low Flyer - Just curious to see if you pick this up.
From here :- F94020?thread=1979731&latest=1#p23437238
I doubt very much if echomikeromeo would 'sue' the BBC.
Her roots are in h2g2. ---- U929375

The Message Boards do not support the Personal Space feature so this thread does not show up on Low Flyers conversation List. However somehow he managed to post to it when the link was first set up.