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

Is Ragnarok too northern-hemispherically biased?

I'm not sure I get it - Norse armageddon and rebirth? What's the bit about it never happening?

The reason I thought of it was that all these things were foretold for the future, and before it ever happened everyone got distracted and started believing in other things instead. Possibly a bit contrived, yes!

>>started believing in other things instead

Like climate change?

Ragnarok has a nice sound to it though, as if it's from a scifi novel.

Nah, wrong way around - isn't it climate change we prefer to ignore?

What's sci-fi about it, the sound of the word itself or the idea, you mean?

The sound I think. Probably because of Ragnar from Battlestar Galactica.

Just for the crappy day you're having. There's something stronger in the fridge if that might do the job better.

Thanks KB and should do it Maybe something else at the end of the day...

You think we were a tad over-optimistic in our naming attempts?

Ahem:

>>
Ragnarök (Old Norse "final destiny of the gods") is a series of future events, including a great battle foretold to ultimately result in the death of a number of major figures (including the gods Odin, Thor, Týr, Freyr, Heimdall, and Loki), the occurrence of various natural disasters, and the subsequent submersion of the world in water. Afterward, the world will resurface anew and fertile, the surviving and reborn gods will meet, and the world will be repopulated by two human survivors
<<

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarök

It seems very prescient now, doesn't it? Well, the "occurrence of various natural disasters" bit, anyway.

Let's keep our fingers crossed for the "anew and fertile" bit.

Did you see AOL have taken on the Huffington Post? Apparently they've been doing quite a snatch-up of hot properties in cyberspace lately. Wonder if they've got us in their sights...

I'd have very mixed feelings about that.

So which two hootooers should repopulate the place?

Are your mixed feelings about AOL and the HP, or AOL and us? I haven't really followed the HP sale, other than I saw someone comment that they paid the x millions so they could get Ms Huffington on their board, or sumthink.

I don't know much about AOL either other than that most things I've heard over the years have been negative

Well if there's any repopulation going on, I'm sure 2legs will find his way in regardless of which two are nominated.

About AOL and us, really. I never really looked at the HP unless someone posted a specific link somewhere. But I think with a company like that - apparently Time Warner are even bigger than Murdoch's crew - would lead to a culture change for the worse on hootoo.

I wouldn't be against a buy-out in a knee-jerk way, for the sake of it - but I'd like to think whoever it was *got* what we were about. And I'd also have concerns about them pulling a BBC stunt on us a few months down the line if they didn't like the stats they were getting.

Have you followed what Nick Reynolds has said? Basically that whoever buts the site has to get what the community is about.

(I've pointed out that Nick and co might not understand the community well enough to protect us, still waiting for a response).

The potential of a second disposal is serious, I hadn't thought about it in terms of it could happen soon if the stats were bad (although of course the community has a lot of power over the stats in terms of to what extent we keep the place functional). It really should be part of the process in an upfront way - what are the expectations of the buyers etc.

Also, I think we need to have a real say in copyright of the EG. Can we take the entries with us if we jump ship (the ones we've written)?

Oh yeah, we can take the Entries if the original authors allow us. I think Dmitri and maybe Bel and a few others have already set theirs up on blogs elsewhere. The tricky bit is with Elvised people...or co-operative Entries with maybe 20 authors - who owns what in that case?

I've seen Nick Reynolds saying that - it's good to hear. I do think they basically have good intentions, but part of me still says that their goal at the minute is to secure their divorce, and if their ex has a happy new relationship, well and good, but if not it's not their problem. I'm being kind of , but you get what I mean?

But I'm far more optimistic about things from the community side. I heard the news that day before going to work. When I was at work, I was going through different ideas in my head about the community taking it over. I was thinking I'd have a pretty hard fight to make anyone take the idea seriously. Then I got home, checked hootoo, and *so* many people had had exactly the same idea, and the consortium thing was already in full swing.

So I'm hopeful. It will continue - no doubt it will be different, and we might even need to take a step back first to go forward, but too many people care about it.

Anyway. We can't shut up shop just yet - there's too much you have to teach us nordies about NZ, still.

Haven't been around for a little while - how are you getting along with everything that's going on down there?

I must have missed your post way back then KB! It's been a country changing year here, and many people are still having a hard time. But lots of resilience too.

Ain't it nice to be back home though