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

Freedom is only freedom if you don't call it 'Freedom' and worship it.
Say s**te if that is the word you mean, but only if it is what you mean to say. Then argue that your meaning is lost without it.
They may be right to censor a list of pre-determined profane words, but if they censor your meaning we know they are wrong to do so, and so do they.

If it goes I bet it will be because of the "tory" and not the "s**te". There's an election in the offing, you know.

...or was it someone else? I can never remember, there are that many politicians who it would apply to....in an ideal world

Does that balance it up?

Message from Maggie, Baroness Hatter

"After the deflower arranging he did on my daughter, you can call him whatever you want."

Hi wish to register a complaint.

This posting about Jonathan Aitken wot I submitted not much more than an hour ago 'as not been removed for checking, like wot my Emma Lazarus poem was.

I would like to make it quite clear that the BBC have never called Mr Aitken a "s**te". What they have done is call Rupert Alleson "A conniving little s**t".

On behalf of myself,and the moderation team at H2G2, I wish to offer my sincerest apologies to Mr Aitken for any distress this posting and subsequent inaction have caused. Furthermore, I would just like to say, "What did you give Carol T out of ten?"

Hehehe. You've removed the wrong one ya tubes.

This post has been removed.

This post has been removed.

I see we are 'awaiting moderation'. Perhaps now we can all join hands and lower our heads ..and ..uhm ..stare at the floor I guess.

WOAH! Where do all the posts keep going? How is anyone supposed to follow the conversation if the words all keep vanishing? And what's this about editing political things? Surely it's okay to say that Thatcher was a heartless old cow obsessed with control and determined to run the country regardless of anyone else's needs or concerns? If she wasn't such a life-wrecking, sour-faced harpy then the term 'Thatcherite' would not have been introduced into the colloquial british language as a descriptive term for using brutal and undemocratic political and physical (eg. the Poll Tax riots and the police heavy-handedness with the crowds) methods to achieve your own self-serving aims... *laughs* Uh.. that aside.. um.. how is everyone today? Fine? Ah good...

Little B.

*waits to see if this can be pulled even though it contains no swear words and purely personal opinion*

In a run-up to a general election in the UK, the BBC has to take more than usual care to ensure that all the major parties have equal "air time". This used to mean adjusting the length of news items with political content so that every political party had the same number of minutes of exposure.

Presumably, they now extend that rule to the bbc's news coverage on their website and it is possible to see how someone with little imagination, and a strong sense of job preservation, might extrapolate from that to include h2g2.

However, any political party that tried to accuse the bbc of bias on the basis of words written by the general public on the h2g2 site would be committing political suicide because they would effectively be attacking free speech and we would make A Fuss. The disclaimers at the bottom of each page are sufficient, in my opinion.

On the other hand, there is the danger that a particular pressure group could take it into their heads to discredit the beeb by spamming this site. I would like to reassure T(new)PTB on that point.

1. h2g2 isn't that important
2. h2g2 doesn't have a huge readership
3. h2g2 is a responsible community; its members are capable of policing the site themselves and quietly reporting that sort of abuse to Peta and Abi

The particular form of moderation currently being employed achieves nothing more than we, the researchers, could manage by ourselves. Trying to manipulate political balance in a community of intelligent, articulate and opinionated writers is like trying to balance a pencil on its point.

Hey chaps ?

I've been having chats with Jim Lynn over at the moderation helpdesk. By his tone, he sounded pretty fed up with the moderators too, one removed a post by Ottox an the same conversation and got a from our Jim.
Apparently moderation has always gone on on h2g2 its just that posts mysteriously disappeared before. I pointed out that if this is indeed the case (and I rather doubt THIS many posts vanished before) then maybe they should consider the old system again. In fact its actually more honest now, at least you know you've been "moderated" - trubble is, it kinda looks BAAAAD! I reckon anyone visiting this site for the first time will run a mile when they see "post removed" all the time. Unfortunately the can is opened and the worms are everywhere now, I thought the moderators had quietened down until I came back here though .
Viva la revolution

The Evil Wumbe, having made plans to move kit and caboodle from one RL domicile to another on this and the day following, may have been pre-loading the workload of the moderators. In at least two F&F threads there are dozens of Wumbeevil entries with dozens of 'awaiting moderation' entries between them. Either he got talking to someone weirder than he is (doubtful) or he alternated the level of his transgressions. He should be back online for the weekend - well before many of his moderated posts I'm sure.

Hey I can say Thatcherite! Not that I would, but it's nice to know what you can say and what you can't.

Ah, that explains the unusual absence of the great weevil! I was worried that someone had gone after him with the Pif Paf.

BTW Amy I've been trying to balance a pencil on its point as you suggested above ..and I think it's gonna be a while before I get it. Is there a trick to it?

I find plasticine helps.

I don't know much about the UK political system or what election is coming up could anyone tell me about it or direct me to somewhere I could find out more about it. Please and Thank You.

Amy, what's the pif paf?

It's a brand of cockroach killer.