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

Hootoo was formerly a perfectly OK place for kids, unmoderated as it once was. But lately it seems to be more and more dotted with entities who, frankly, frighten me. The atelier at A304354, which continued uninterrupted (except for the Foop) for over 3 and a half years, recently had to close temporarily because it was viciously trolled -- the last 3 or 4 LEDs of conversation 64X and the beginning of the aborted conversation 65X will illustrate.

We always thought, and it was once the case, that if a researcher didn't much care for the tenor or content of any particular forum, he/she could go elsewhere and find more congenial threads. It never occurred to me that a researcher could be so violent-natured as to want to trash a forum out of despite.

After scoffing at our appeals to netiquette and saying horrible things about me and other salonistas all over Hootoo (which were yikes'd), our troll returned without apology and continues to post prolifically. He appears to enjoy being unwelcome and seems to look forward to another fight.

As regards the house rules, some researchers are straining cucumbers for sunbeams, to determine what they may do within the letter of the law, trampling the spirit along the way. My feeling is that the house rules are designed to protect the BBC, not the researchers.

In any case, the system of punishments now in place is ineffective because it's too closely modelled on a real world office; the suspensions, the series of warnings and the close supervision (pre-mod) culminate in the offender being required to clean out his desk and be escorted off the premises. The virtual system depends on the cooperation ... and sanity ... of the transgressor.

Deceit and violence in the virtual world are incomprehensible to me. Violence and anger are highly toxic, and as things stand I would think twice before letting any child younger than 14 chance exposure to people of such frightening character.

Lil

Just ANOTHER thought... we have a common "enemy" here: the problem child Liam et al. Does it really serve any useful purpose to argue amongst ourselves? It doesn't matter who's most clever, or most tactically correct...we're trying to solve a community problem. So let's work together, can we??? Backbiting is counterproductive in the extreme.


*heads off to bed*

Jab: posting 220

After I posted "The Devil made me do it." in the 'Ask' thread... Lee came up with: The_Devil, if there is a Devil, then there could be a GOD.

Anything to stop Lee/Liam from usinig it with a U number from the current range 5nnnnn.

The subject always has stated the purpose of U565055 clearly. There is not enough to write about yet, just gather facts. Like the is a U nmber people have not repeated 10 fold in this thread.

As for posting a 'screen shot' - posting yesterdays news, hmmm just like a real newspaper

Absolutely!

Hello Guys,

Diddy I read your post - i do not know why it was removed. What did the email say? A vague "Some of this content is unsuitable etc" or was it specific?

Perhaps it was for calling 'a researcher' ill in the way you described, even though it was out of help and concern.

I don't think it was because of your personal circumstances - you didn't condone or promote anything just stated facts. ( to you by the way, for doing so well)

The health thing is the only thing that I can remember that someone could have objected, although it was out of concern and to explain a behaviour pattern to us which would help us understand him and hopefully help him


Omni - part of the reason I assumed you were Liam in one post, was because all newbies by default have a [nick]name due to SSO and have to actively reset it to be a researcher number - as you did - or the name has been removed by the mods. I was wrong to make that assumption. Had I bothered to check your page then I would have known.

It does highlight the paranoia and lack of faith I have developed over recent (not just this one) events and activities onsite.

The site has survived many things, and with a deep breath and a long sigh (or even after a break from it for some), I am sure the community can pull together and keep it going in the spirit of the original concept.

Mort

Lil, I am sorry to hear that has been happening at the atelier - that sounds horrendous.

It's interesting that you feel that the virtual violence is worse more recently. I've been feeling lately that it is much more peaceful here than it was when I first joined (a year ago). But that may be the difference perspective given how long each of us has been here.


>>The site has survived many things, and with a deep breath and a long sigh (or even after a break from it for some), I am sure the community can pull together and keep it going in the spirit of the original concept.<<

I agree Mort. The Liam thing seems to be more of a (very time consuming) annoyance - I'm sure it will all blow over. I have been unaware of other detrimental activities onsite until now.

Other threads I have been involved in this week that have been very satisfying. I still have a deep appreciation of h2.

Increase Mathers posted a very good outline of the purpose of h2 in the Ask thread on should h2 be more popular.


Jab, maybe you could put an intro on the Liam log so that people understand the purpose of the page?

Mort thank you for your kind words they are very appreciated
I won't discuss the posting i put in here we which was hidden til i prepare an email n send it to the h2g2 team. They said it was offensive but i'm glad you read into it correctly that i wrote it out of concern for Lee. It was for his benefit mostly so if he read it he might be able to confirm or deny that is happening to him.

I have been really fed up with these accounts keep appearing but i am veam very concerned for him. I've offered my help twice now n so have you. There is no more the that we can do.

The first part of my posting was a reply to you kea.

I said i totally aggree with you when you said thi this mess has taken over virtually all my time on here too. Before i got involved with this i only came on here to read guide entries about the World War 2 n i've not been able to do that for the past few days. I'm not gonna let this take over too much of my time as only the italics can really do anything about this the community has already spoken.

Star Fleet.
Well ive learnt my lesson and if i can help people i will,and if i cant i will pont them in the right direction,but what gets me on hn here is a certain reseracher has closed their page down,and has subscribed to every convo on my guest book which was private,but as you know when you are are on pre-mod(like i am)its not private,so i got a friend who done my page who i trust 100% to change it,so it makes me wonder why they would want to subscribe to my guest book,(thinking it was private at the time)it seems to me thay go in their account to see what iv ive been saying or they ge get a friend to do it.

More secret stuff... -Who is it this time?

Not only has this been excessively timeconsuming, but it has also kept me from enjoying h2g2 as much as I'd normally do. I'm glad some of you have participated in very splendid and worthwhile threads but for the last few weeks, I haven't really been able to appreciate this site, as I've always had this Liam-matter creeping around in the back of my head. I'm getting paranoid, and it ain't half as fun as a good old kick in the shins...

At this point, I don't think there's much to do that hasn't already been done. Monitor his activities, report any suspicious new IDs, etc. but please people, let's not turn this into a witchhunt. The purpose is to make sure he's not harassing the newbies, what good will it be if we end up harassing them ourselves?


cheers,
~Bistro

Nothing secret about me,as im on pre-mod,and i can assure you im not Liam,my name is Phil.

Guestbooks aren't private. I have heard this mentioned a couple of times before

What they do is create a nifty little way of either adding a post to an existing conversation (in reply to number) or creating a new thread on the users page (forum number).

It is just the same as using the discuss this entry/leave a message button, but in a way.

sorry my last post was a bit off topic.

"At this point, I don't think there's much to do that hasn't already been done. Monitor his activities, report any suspicious new IDs, etc. but please people, let's not turn this into a witchhunt. The purpose is to make sure he's not harassing the newbies, what good will it be if we end up harassing them ourselves?"

I whole-heartedly agree.

Mort,thanks 4 the the info about guest books,and i agree with you not turning it into a witch hunt.

Phil, I didn't think you were, just tried (rather poorly, I admit) to explain why I didn't respond to the post directly preceding mine... No offense meant


cheers
~Bistro

Thats ok Bistro.

Moderation results have just arrived...both the complaints I made have been upheld.

Looks like some action is being taken, then. The wheels of moderation may grind slowly, but they grind very fine.

for the heads up

As far as i'm aware nothing has happened since Sunday morning. I take that as a good sign

Less joy for me, I'm afraid - bit of a mixed bag. It seems the help pages of Junior and USA can remain. However, a certain user PS has gone. (Aren't the moderation results hard to read? Complain about a U number, they give it a complaint number, which is an A number, and reply to that. In the reply, they refer not to the U number, but the A number of the PS. Wasting yet more of my time on this issue.)

No decision yet received on my appeal against a yikesing either. I am very much getting the impression that each compliant is being dealt with individually, and no-one is looking at the whole picture in this episode.

Anyone agree with me that we could do with an announcement from the towers on the entire problem - this thread, and the other related ones?