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

I like Hypatia's idea of a competition.

I also like hootoo the way it is. I also use facebook, but am getting very tired of it. It's a nice way to sort of stay in touch with RL friends you wouldn't normally stay in touch with (for whatever reason) but I'm getting very tired of the applications that want you to invite 20 people before you can see your results in whatever inane time-waster your doing.

I agree with Hypatia, Hootoo is a place where I can live in my imagination and escape all those RL people. I did introduce a friend to it once, and she stayed for a while but then went away.

I also like the fact that we actually communicate with each other and not just attack each other with zombies or send hugs and gifts. We actually use words. Some long lost cousins found me through facebook which was great at first, we caught up. Now they just send me cocktails or attack me with vampires or invite me to join 'hotties for sale' (multiple times over).

Hootoo all the way for me. As long as there is a few of us still hanging about, I'll be here.

Oh, I nearly forgot. I had another thought. It seems one of Douglas Adams original ways of sending people to h2g2 was through his column in 'The Independent on Sunday'. Do we know anyone who writes a column that could direct people here?

I like the competition idea, too.

Also, I agree with the above in regards to Facebook (even though I don't use Facebook). I started a MySpace page a couple years ago to keep up with busy RL friends and the local band scene (which involves many of those RL friends), and have a couple of people I maintain email contact with. And other than bulletins related to band gigs, etc, I get a lot more of the same silly "hug" type stuff than any kind of discourse or real interaction. I have at least a half dozen email contacts who send or forward me humorous stuff or links to web pages without bothering to write in a single line of text, not even "hi".

So I'll still keep coming to Hootoo for that, for as long as I am able.

I agree with both of you. I don't come here for instant communication, but for some long-term conversations. It can be a bit like a proper cricket match sometimes - takes days to get a result

The other thing is I've been here a few years now and there are folk who have helped me with their words and considered thoughts when I've been having rough times in RL. I value this place and I value my hootoo friends.

I'll be around as long as any of them are here

That's my other pet hate. People who forward endless 'humorous' emails. Most of them are jokes I've seen a thousand times before. Or they're some sort of sob story suggesting if you don't send it on to at least 10 more people little Timmy will die or I'll experience some sort of horrendous luck. Those all get deleted, sorry little Timmy but if your life hangs in the balance of an email, you're on pretty thin ice anyway.

And I can say that here without having to add the disclaimer, "But of course, I don't mean you. You always send me only the really good emails."

I agree with Frenchbean too. I've been here for 6 years now, and my hootoo friends have also helped me through some rough times. I too, value this place and my hootoo friends.

I don't know if I'm allowed to do this or not, but I stole the logo off the front page and put it on my blog as a link to hootoo.

By the way, I love our logo. It took me years - literally years - to discovered that it actually says 'h2g2' (I had thought it was simply a neat looking spiral thing and didn't give it much thought) but now that I've discovered that, I think it's one of the better logos I've ever seen.

I love it too! I did notice straight away what it was. Though I can't be too smug about it. Australia Post has had the same logo for as long as I can remember, and I was in my late 20s before it was pointed out to me that there's a P in it. Go here to see logo: http://www.auspost.com.au/ I always looked at the outside. The blank area in the middle didn't register as a P until one day I asked my Mum where the Post Office was, she pointed up the hill and said, 'There, where the giant P is'. 'What P?' I asked. Then it was all revealed.

BTW, if you want to see the logo on my blog-
http://crystalconundrum.blogspot.com/
Scroll down, it's on the right. I made it slightly smaller so as not to overpower the other links.

I've been bringing in a couple of my friends from rl and I think they'll stay but it really isn't that many people. I'm also currently looking for other DNA related websites to post about h2g2 on and am thinking about mentioning it on pardus.

I'm glad I'm not the only enlightened soul to ditch poor Little Timmy into the eternal email dustbin. Those emails drive me nuts. Them and the ones that ask you to add your name for a cause. I'm sorry, but when I feel strongly about an issue, I do something rather more meaningful and constructive than put my name to an email

I love the Ausralia Post story, Taralome I can see why you would have missed it. There's an insurance company in Britain (can't remember which one) which has a logo of two flags overlapping. It wasn't until it was pointed out to me that I realised that the edges of the flags were profiles of faces

Fb

I'm very very fond of hootoo, despite my occasional negativity. I wouldn't have hung out here for five plus years, if I weren't.

There was a time where I found it very hard to keep up with all the conversations I was subscribed to on hootoo. Now there are days where I log on and there's been no activity at all. It occurred to me today that part of the reason may be that my friend list has dwindled. It's down to only 6 people, 3 of which haven't posted anything since 2005!

So, it 'seems' to me that the hootoo community is dying, but perhaps I'm my own worst enemy here. Perhaps what I need to do is go back to reading some actual guide entries (rather than just keeping tabs on my conversations) and make some new hootoo friends.

I added you as a friend!

...or increase your friends list, Taralome?

I just did the same, JEllen

I think that's why my conversations are less active, too. Half the people on my friends list visit once a week, once a month, or less. Then again, sometimes I can't get on for a couple of days, either. Which is why I no longer "subscribe" to Ask and other forum threads. I just pick and choose when I have more time.

But then every so often I meet (or get to talk to, finally) more hootooers I haven't known before. Like here. So I'm not sure the community doesn't still have a fair amount of life left. We just need to "reconnect" with each other, or something...

"So I'm not sure the community doesn't still have a fair amount of life left. We just need to "reconnect" with each other, or something..."

The community lives. But its meeting places, to me at least seem to have dwindled somewhat. Maybe you may disagree with me, but I don't think things like Peer Review are good meeting places - or if it is its not encouraged. There used to lots of silly little groups, which some people used to be a bit sniffy about, and perhaps put their noses up at, but kept people talking and getting involved. But it seems even that great institution the Thingites, seems to be losing ground. It's still going but some of the outposts of the empire seem to be receding. So maybe the council of elders need to come out of their hiding places...

I don't know, it is self-promoting. One of the things that used to astonish me about this place was that people would just get involved in things for the hell of it. But then I think some people felt they were being used - except the ones who are still here obviously.

So I agree we need to reconnect. There are still people out there... but maybe we need more meeting places. AskH2G2 is too big, and PeerReview is too intense. We need tribes... actually maybe we could all have little badges to say which tribe we belong to (other than Scouts, Ace's... etc), although am I stealing that off Harry Potter? Would give people something to talk about anyway...

I loved some of the silly (and not so silly) little groups. They sure have dwindled quite a bit. I've taken over the Vegetarian Society from fords, and she and AlecTrician are the only regular posters there besides myself.

The Bookworms Society, Keepers, Muses, etc... those groups were all fun and great venues for meeting like-minded folks for those of us who aren't interested in rehashing the same boring political and religious debates that don't go anywhere.

I've been thinking for ages that I wished some of the old groups could be resuscitated. I've been doing my best to do that with the Veg group, even if I wind up just talking to myself or a couple other people for a while.

Love the "badges" idea. Some groups like the Thingites and P.U.D.D.I.N.G. already have them, no? (And I'm sure the Musicians' Guild does, though I don't actually have it on my PS )

Speaking of little clubs anyone up for trying to get the anime/manga shack running again?

I'm fairly new to manga/anime, but if you'd be so kind as to drop me a link I'd love to at least take a look.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A724484
sorry don't know how to do just copy paste