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

I never knew you had such a foul mouth, Bel!

Oooh, disgusting. I don't know how you have the nerve Bel.

Now now Bel

To be (sorta) on topic for a moment:

One of the things that's always amused me about moderation policy is that non-English content may be removed because the moderators "have to ensure we understand a Posting".

It conjures up in my mind a Stasi-like picture of the moderators; a bit ill-educated, suspicious of anything foreign, and convinced that if someone's speaking a language other than English they must be up to something.

I remember what this site was like in the 'old days' before Douglas Adams' death *and* before the BBC takeover. Now that was freedom of speech. There was a very active thread about a topic that I can't even mention in this site as it currently is constituted. Anyways we could insult people as much as we wanted ... I tried not to do that but I was insulted myself quite frequently. I didn't mind much, it certainly didn't drive me away. We could post in any language we wanted. There was quite enough profanity in the English to not cause anyone to worry about what was said in the other ones.

I think we should start a campaign to add ceiling fan to the list.
What about fan, it's short for fanny, isn't it? And do I understand right that that is indeed a slang word?

Its not a ceiling fan, its a suspended, electrically operated air re-circulation device.

How right you are.

I wonder if Wikileaks will release all the rationale behind moderation decisions?

I once asked an Indian draughtman how to spell 'punkah'. He looked at me as though I was daft and after several further requests said - very slowly, "F -- A -- N".

Aha. See? If we mod 'ceiling fan', we have an acceptable alternative.

Wonders how Bel got away with posting 'fanny'....

I was once told off by a Deputy Head for referring to a girls as 'Fanny'. I was newish to the school and hadn't quite learned the names of the pupils. There was a girl (Yr 10; aged 15) miss-behaving so, to capture her attention, I called, "Oi, Fanny...!"

A week or so later, when some other pieces of 'evidence' had accumulated, I was called to the DH's office to account for these mis-demeanours/indiscretions.

'Why did you call that girls [a] fanny]?.

'Because I didn't know her name bbut wanted to attract her attention.'

'Well, it's an extremely rude word' (or WTTE).

'No it isn't. It's short for Frances. There was a famous television cook called Fanny Craddock; a book called Fanny Hill...'

The worst thing to explain away was that this girl had said that I had offered to rub her . I had to explain that this wasn't true. She had complained that a boy had thrown a paper ball at her which had hit her on the . I basically told her that it couldn't have hurt her that much and SHE should go away and rub it better

Fanny Hill's probably not the *best* book to bring up if you want to get across the innocence of the word.

I know a few girls called Fanny. There is also a play by Marcel Pagnol.

In spite of Bel's best efforts, the s*** does not seem to have hit the fan...

(also had a at the use of Fanny Hill to explain away any wrongdoing there...)

I think I may have read that (secretly) when I was a teenager.

Yep, Santragenius V, with all of the foul and offensive stuff going on in this thread, so far only one posting has been moderated ...

Can I just point out the utter ludicrousness of being allowed to call myself , but no-one can refer to me by name in a post?

RF