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

Today is monday,the 9th/february/2004.I am posting this necause i need to express the emotions that i am feeling at the moment,and why.
I am sad,because i will miss my dear friends that are digibox users.
I would like you to know,whoever is reading this,that although i do have a PC,i cannot use it for more than a few minutes.I have health problems that prevent me from sitting at the screen any longer.I am disabled ,and go out very rarely,and h2g2 is the onl;y form of social life that i have during the long days.I was a digibox user,that has been taken away from me today.
I know of others in the same position as me,and i feel for them.
I sincerely hope that the people that have been so vindictive as to make the majority suffer,because of the minoritiesactions,are pleased with themselves.this may sound very dramatic to you,but believe me,you have no idea how much distress your actions have caused me.
I hope you will excuse me for not putting capital letters.punctuation marks,etc,in their correct places.but i have spent long enough trying to type this entry.It doesnt make me any less a person,or a "dreg",i assure you.

Am I missing something here? Why have you had the digibox taken away from you? Who has taken it? What are you being punished for?

Will e-mail as soon as I get home, this is not good.



UG

no, not good at all sal!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F19585?thread=379145 The latest link. Not sure you would want to read the others that came before....

to hear about your trouble Sal Why are they taking your box away?
Im disabled as well, and spend a lot of days here on line & H2. If you can join in , why dont you try and get a second hand PC? It wont cost a lot, I saw one on E-Bay went for £50. It doesnt have to be a big maga! one, with stacks of RAM & the like. You could probably get one for less than £50, as a lot of folk throw away the older ones, rather than upgrade them?
I started off with a small one that only had 6GB hard drive, I got it for £40. The one I have now was bought by all Mk2s family for my birthday! as they know i use it a lot.
Any way, chin up Sal, something wil come a long, even if you advertise for one on the Net, thats how I got Mk2s electric scooter
SMudger.

She has a computer smudger but it is too painful for her to use so she got digibox for herself.

Nobody took her box.
There were complaints by h2g2 researchers to Telewest about the illegal access of digibox.

There has been a loophole by way of email links that allows those with digibox to enter h2g2. Due to the recent complaints to Telewest the loophole was taken away.

Some are saying that the loophole affects this site and keeps it from running smoothly.

Those are the bare facts as I understand them.
I hope they are correct, I do not want to distort them.

I haven't noticed any improvement in accessing the site though


I've just lost many online friends in a few hours...

I cried a lot before taking the courage to come back online...

I don't hate those who contacted TW... It's some of the comments made by them to justify doing so that i hate...

I also used the digibox to check my messages in the morning after night work because after almost 10 hours of physical work my back can't stand sitting in front of the PC for too long... Fortunately it's only in the morning for me... But that bit is to say that i understand...

I... stop here because i'm still too full of anger and frustration...

Talk soon...

loup[in mourning]

This sad and wrong, I shall miss you around here sal

There are many people who cannot use a PC for various reasons, and our friend sal amongst them. for these people H2G2 has been a lifeline and a solace and now they are prevented through the actions of a company so devoted to bad service and idiocy that it actively makes me want to give Rupert Murdoch money by subscribing to sky. They are apparently concerned about the digibox users affecting their bandwidth, they seem to be so concerned about bandwidth that they limit the image quality available to their TV subscribers (seemingly) to provide superfast internet access. It was apparently an ilegal action on sal's part to access the site via her digibox, and over on the thread abbi posted a link to this is being hotly debated, well excuse me, but a small ileagal action is a part of many peoples everyday lives, how many of the critics don't have something like Kazaa or Grokster on their computer? Or perhaps have indulged in a bit of home taping a few years ago. In short, I don't think this is at all fair on people like sal.

Perhaps a laptop would suit you sal, if you can get one, at least you would be able to have it on your lap on the sofa, like the remote is now.

I'm sorry if this is the last chance I shall get to post to you, it saddens me that the 2 hooters who reported the loophole are so bsessed with their own guide experience that they feel they must remove the access of others.

Abbi, please give sal my e-mail address so at least we can stay in touch.

i sal and anyone that reads this, im down but not out, as long as there,s a pc in bradford i,ll be somewhere about

ive sent an email to the h2g2 support to see what they have to say, will forward on the reply(if any) to anyone i email jim

not yet gone, and never will jim

Hi Smudger,

I am sorry we havn't talked for a while, I have been doing stuff which has taken we off-site but making me a stronger person. This has hit me though and made me realise I must take more care in my friendships.

I am also sorry that you cannot use the pc for very long and relied on your digibox. I am angry and sad, you are of more value to h2g2 than the people who did this. That maybe a petty statement, but its true for me, I know who I would rather have on this site, and who I would rather have chucked off.

Sending feelings of sad, angry strength to you, hope you can use them to stay on the pc for an extra minute.

The big mega workstation, and the Telewest digibox, are not the only solutions available - you will find something to suit your disability. Whether that be an official TV Internet box, or a basic PC and infra-red keyboard to go with it.

End of the day, access from Telewest digiboxes is removed.
Find another way. It's not difficlult or overly expensive. In fact, you may actually save money in the long term with an official Internet solution, after dumping your Telewest account, if that's what you want to do.

what a 'wonderful person' you are 'aka'.

said with much sarcasm.

what gives you the right to destroy our lifeline?.
im one of the fortunate ones who has a pc to fall back on, but here were times, when i was left stranded without means of getting in touch with my friends.

its people like you who have given us (LDers)the bad name that we now have.

why cant we be left in peace?????

"what gives you the right to destroy our lifeline?"

It was never your right to HAVE that ing lifeline!!
No, don't argue. It wasn't.

I maybe completely out of place here, but as smurfles can't get on here much anymore, I will risk saying it.

aka it is completely insensitive for you to post in this manner on this persons journal entry. Please could you save your bleeps for somewhere else.

one day, you might end up in the same situation as
many of us on here.

lets hope that your words come back to haunt you.

I have a pc but will not be able to talk to my friends who only have diggiboxs so it appears that aka is a right Pratt with a very large capital p ands to sal

aka... A troll with a badge [or two] is _still_ a troll... It is my opinion that by posting uncaring comments, knowing how a lot of us are badly affected by the digibox access being blocked, you are acting like a troll as you know damn well that they will provoke some emotional responses...

loup[in mourning]

i am in contact with sal and i am passing on all of your best wishes and comments.

she appreciates it all.