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

First of all what is this page? what's its aim? Is it like the private chat?
OK, well, my problem is that my keyboard had something wrong with its buttons, they work sporadically, but I was not aware of that so when I wrote my password to enter the message board, I didn't realise that, so my password was written incorrectly three times and for security reasons the BBC responsibles didn't allow me to enter using the same password and the same nickname unless I answer the secret question which of course I forgot it completely, it was years ago, how can I remember it. I had to make another user name, it's ok but the problem is that they treat me as if I were a new member. All my messages should be moderated first and this very boring to wait all this time to start a conversation or reply to any message so please help me and tell them about that.
Thanks OG

I understand your problem. I don't know if the rejection is permanent or if it will 'time out' and allow you once again to enter your user-name and password or if it will forever insist you enter the secret answer.

It is a nuisance because it separates you from your earlier self. There are three of me, too!

But, email the BBC as I suggested, give your name - raneem - and your U number - 4224221 - and the email address which you used when you created that identity (because that's the one on record in 'your details' or is it called 'preferences'? I can't remember.) and you should be able to sort it out.

I'll post this now and write a little about this place a little later.
PS buffalo is here, too.

Have some cake and a cup of tea .
See you later OG

OG what is this page? You didn't tell me and why do you prefer to write here and not our message board?
Thanks for the cake and the tea, you know I'm tea addected?
By the way OG, can I ask questions here or this is not allowed? I know it's a private place.

Hello Raneem.

I didn't explain about this place because it isn't at the top of the list of priorities. But I will.

First, did your write to the BBC?

Have you had a reply? It sometimes takes a while to get a human response but you should get a machine acknowledgement fairly promptly.

Yes, of course you can ask questions here. It is allowed. In fact, I encourage it. But you are pretty well only talking to me, here. Unless someone else finds it, which can happen because it is not private, but which is unlikely because they mostly don't know where to look.

More in a minute....
Have another cup of tea

I don't particularly prefer to write here rather than on the Ask a question board. But that isn't the place for me to be trying to help with your ID problem. And this place is always open and not moderated so, as far as I know, we can write in Swahili. Well, we could if either of us knew any, but you know what I mean.

Now, what is this place?

This is BBC's H2G2, commonly known as Hootoo. It is a long story. It has many aspects and no real beginning so it can be confusing...

The link I gave you on the Ask a Q board linked you to the Personal Space of Old Goat and that Space provided you the opportunity to leave a message. You left a message and now it works just like the other discussion boards, just like Ask a Q and the other BBC forums. Except it is not nearly so publicly accessible.

Your postings here are included in your list of "Your Discussions" unless you delete them. Lots of members, learners and everyone, on boards like Ask a Q don't realise there IS a list of their discussions, never mind how to get to it.

You also have a Personal Space. Actually, you have two. One for each membership you have.
Before I go any further I suggest strongly that you don't even visit the second, at least while you are signed in. You don't need to be signed-on to come here or go anywhere in BBC - you just can't do anything.

More later.... have some more tea

A bit more.

I still don't want you to go to your 'new' Personal Space. If you learn much about BBC boards (with or without Hootoo) you'll see why. But you should go to your 'old' one. I do hope you can get that old one working because it has so many of your messages attached to it. U4224221 is your old U number and from within Hootoo it is a link. So, although you will be like any other person you won't be able to 'open' YOUR Personal Space, you will at least be able to see something of what's there, what facilities it might offer.

Last time I looked, buffalo - big fan hadn't opened hers, either. But her presence here had been noticed, as yours will probably be, and she'd been welcomed, as you will probably be. She is at U2276523. You could have a look, read her messages , leave her a message.

I must run

See you later.....
Goat

You can change this by clicking on the 'My Space' button, going to your Space, clicking on the 'Edit Page' button, and entering your own Introduction - it's highly recommended! This is what I found in the link you've given me.
where is this space button? I want to make like you ?
OG, what do you mean by "Wasahl" do you know Arabic? It sounds like Arabic.Did you make the page for me 44224221 or it's already there, I don't mean my ID, I mean the link you've connected me with?
Anyway OG, you said that you can give some personal information here, so go ahead and tell me about your son your job your life in general.
Ib sent an e mail to the BBC about my problem but they didn't reply up till now. You know I'm very upset because of this. All my messages and contributions which I consider as a reference when I forget a piece of information, I go back to my messages, all this will be lost one day as I will not be able to rcall them abain.

Hi OG, could you please tell me how you created this, I want to make like this on my page, please teach me."...Home of The Old Goat
Welcome, raneem, to my humble fold.

Old Goat aka OG.." You are really excellent, I don't know why I can't do such things on my own.

Hello Raneem.

Where is the 'My Space' button? Good! You are beginning to find your way around! The explanation is:

You were either not signed in OR you were signed in as 9365745. The page you were looking at is the Personal Space of 4224221. So, as far as Hootoo is concerned, it wasn't 'your' space therefore it would not let you edit it therefore it didn't show you the button!

I have no real interest in spending much time doing much on My Personal Space, or homepage or whatever it's called. I have fiddled with it a bit on occasions but I am not at all creative in that way. Let's get your ID thing sorted out before we get into that. I think you will learn all that stuff very quickly; probably find it very helpful with the students, too, because if they have Internet access they can come here too!
-------------
I'm really hoping you can regain access to your first ID, the 4224221 ID. IF your keyboard works properly now AND you know your password for sure, you should sign out from 9365745 and try once more to sign in as 4224221. The refusal may have 'timed out' by now, I can't remember if it does that.
Whatever way it is made to happen, I hope you can regain it all. Because it is less inconvenient. But your old messages will not be lost to you, ever. Even if you can never 'get back in' you can always read those messages at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mble/MP4224221


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No, I don't know Arabic. I don't know anything, just ask sdgnour

I don't recognise "Wasahl". Where did I write that?

No, I didn't make any pages for you. When you make your membership to post on Ask a Q (or any of BBCs boards) Hootoo makes a Personal Space (PS for short) for you. But it doesn't tell you! You now have two IDs so you have two PSs.

Everything you do or have done as 9365745 will forever remain attached to 9365745.
Everything you do or have done as 4224221 will forever remain attached to 4224221.
That's why I'm trying to discourage you from 'opening' your 9365745 PS at least until you find out if you can continue with your first ID as 4224221. It is inconvenient to be one person in two forms.
------------
Plenty of time for

Hi OG, this is the word you wrote and I thought you know Arabic,"as far as I know, we can write in Swahili.." Swahili, what is that?
Ah, well I understand now, I was signing with my new ID in the OLd one. I got this message when I signed in with the old ID
Access to your bbc.co.uk membership is temporarily locked

Your password has been entered incorrectly three times.

As a security precaution, and for us to ensure it is definitely you who is trying to access your account, please answer your secret question...




raneem's secret question:
who is your favourite character?

Anyway, thanks for trying to help OG, you're really very kind.
OG, I have two things to say, the first is a question," I want to say ..you don't need to buy me this precious ring, but it's more than enough if you bought me a very cheep one as a memorebila, I mean something to remind me of you." How to say "memorebila" of course this word is wrong in this context and also "souvineer" is incorrect .
2-The second thing is " why don't you like this board and either the Q board.
Bye for now

Hi.

Last things first.

1
The question about the ring. I don't mind in any way that you ask this here. BUT it is fine to be asked on Ask a Q board - Many would see it there. Here is just or mostly only me.

OK, now, the question:
a) 'precious' is OK but I think in this context 'costly' would be a better choice. (Because you intend to make a point about the cost.)

b) memorabilia (note the spelling) is a mass or uncountable noun. Her I think you need the word 'memento'.

c) Your sentence could be:
"You don't need to buy me a costly ring. It will be enough if I have a very inexpensive memento to remind me of you."
----
I've changed quite a bit to avoid sounding like asking for something. I used 'don't need to' because I think the purchase already exists. I used 'It will be' because that part doesn't exist yet.
-------------------------
Swahili is a language used widely in East Africa. I referred to it because I wanted to say we could speak any language we want to speak.
But that isn't really the case. Although the moderators here (yes, they are everywhere!) are not likely to complain if we use a little non-English, it is always best if any non-English is brief and accompanied with English translation.
If you wanted to explain an Arabic phrase on the Ask a Q board the moderators would most likely remove it. If you do the same thing here, they most likely will not, as long as the meaning is made clear in English.

------------

Your second thing: -- " why don't you like this board and either the Q board."

Each has its uses.
The Q board is a completely public forum. An excellent place to ask a question for it to be seen by a huge audience; not restricted even to those who have memberships. Rather like putting your question in a huge lighted sign on a tall buiding in a busy place.

Here in hootoo is also public but much more like a small group having a discussion or conversation.

Your secret question for your 4224221 ID is 'your favourite character'. Can't you remember who your favourite character is?

Anyway, if you have sent your user name (raneem), your U number 4224221 and the email address which you gave when you created your membership the BBC should be able to reset your account. They may or may not issue new password but it makes no difference because once you 'get in' you can change anything you want.

More later, I must

Thanks for your answer OG, me too I'm going to drink a cupppa
Bye bye

Hi OG, could you tak about yourself, your age, your hobbies, your family..etc stuff like that or I exceeded my limits?
I'm all ears.
See you

Hi Raneem.

Just while I remember, the sentence:
"It will be enough if I have a very inexpensive memento to remind me of you."
We don't need to say 'to remind me' because that is just what a memento does. The sentence should be "It will be enough if I have a very inexpensive memento of you."


talk about yourself, your age, your hobbies, your family..etc stuff like that or I exceeded my limits?

No, no limits. I'm not much interested in talking about myself because it doesn't matter much. I like to solve problems. I quickly lose interest in activity or conversation which seems to me to be without desirable objective. Some people become irritated with me because I insist everything must have a point or I think its a waste of time. Don't get the idea I think others should think this way because I don't! I'm a good deal older'n you, long since retired from an unusually varied career, live happily alone far from children/grandchildren/ex-spouse and spend a fair amount of time in the nearby library where I can enjoy pleasant company or not depending on needs and moods! I'm a good cook and like to do it, especially for others, but do little entertaining of recent years.

Have a cuppa I'll be back in a bit...

Hi OG,
I do respect you and don't want to be boring, if anyone asks me to talk about myself in Arabic I won't be encouraged to do so, but OG really I feel I need this, to talk with a native about anything, just to acquire the language. You know I studied the English Literature at college for 4 years, then after my graduation I became a teacher of English. I taught many syllabuses"or should I say syllubi" and aquired a lot of vocabulary, I also had a course at a school in Oxford,I applied for"is this use ok?" the IELTS Test, I got 8 out of 9 in the writinh , 8 in the speaking, 6 in the reading and 6.5 in the lietening, but I STILL FEEL that I'm NOTHING in English.I want to improve myself and I think this won't happen unless I communicate with natives. So OG, you said that you like to solve problems, consider this a problem and try to help me, or at least ask anyone of your friends to be my pen friend or to communicate with me on this board, you know I don't like the communicate part of our board because all the people there are not natives.Also, I need to know the western people better because our idea about you is not true, this is what I discovered when I travelled to England and yours also is not true about the eastern people, so I need to communicate with a native for these two reasons, improving my language as well as getting to know about others culture.
Concerning problems Mr OG, I sent three e mails to the BBC through the contact us button and they did nothing, they didn't even reply to one of them, so try to help, it's really very annoying to wait for moderation for a hour before your message is shown on the board.
Anyway I'll because I know that you will stand by me to solve this problem.
Bye Bye

Hello Raneem.

All right.

There exist only two possibilities to regain access to your earlier persona. Either you remember your favourite character or BBC resets your account. I can influence neither.

The pre-moderation IS irritating. Simply post new questions (Start New Discussion) on the Ask a Q board as you have in the past. You don't need to wait for responses. Just post 3 or 4 a day. You know, things to which you'd actually like an answer. The pre-mod seems to respond to the number of messages, not the time. I don't know.

More later . . .

Hello Raneem!

Make sure names, numbers, passwords, security codes are secure and available. With a copy secured in a remote facility. Not for me to tell you to put them all together, neatly in a single document which itself is secure either by encryption or password or both. (I use only password, written only in my mind. It is the only one I remember. All others are in the 'secret' document. The document is on my hard drive, I have a copy on a CD close-by in case my hard-drive fails and a copy on a CD in a bank box in case my building burns down.)



A few different things follow, so read carefully: You already have the URL for the discussions of raneem 4224221 but I will repeat it here so you can see a property which can be useful to understand. Following is the URL for the screen you would get IF you were signed in as raneem 4224221 looking at the main Ask a Q page and clicked on 'Your discussions' --- http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mble/MP4224221. That's just the URL for you to look at not for you to go there! Notice the 'dna' which indicates which part of BBC, then the 'mble' which indicates 'message board learning english' then MP for 'Member's Posts' and finally your old U number without the U. This is the URL for all the discussions of the now-to-be-forgotten persona of the old raneem. But, it is only the first page of 20 discussions. To see the rest you must go back one page at a time. UNLESS you modify the URL. I looked and found you have almost 215 discussions. So we can tell the system to show them all on one single page, and we want to start at the beginning and not skip any. OK? Add that instruction to the end of the URL, with the necessary codes, like this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mble/MP4224221?show=215&skip=0 Note the question mark - '?show' and the ampersand '&skip'.
This sounds like a lot of trouble I know but you've learned something useful and now you can click on that modified URL then save it in your bookmarks so you'll always have it handy when using your browser.

Next, I'll tell you how to copy a Personal Space and how to modify it. But we'll do that on your new PS, OK? Let me know how you do with the above, OK?

Later . . .

Hi OG,
Really you are marvellous, how did you get all this knowledge? I think if I spent the whole of my life using the BBC site, I would never know such things. Really thaaaaanks for your help. I'll do what you've told me, instead of the hard I'll save this on my flash memory, if I had done this earlier, I wouldn't have suffered.
Thanks my dear friend, you should change this "OG" into some other name to be for example " the friend in need" or "the genius" or something else, why OG.
OK thanks

OGGGGG, you tease me with these new things you added on your page,
Lovely pictures