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

"I was furious to be assumed to be playing petty little pseudo-political point-scoring mind-games with PR, and irritated to be assumed to be part of the PRODers though given that I was and remain and UnderGuider, that is less suprising an assumption."

You weren't assumed to be playing any kind of game by me. If you were I would have accused not asked. You therefore have no reason to be furious by anything I said.

Nor were you assumed to be part of the PRODders by me.

I asked a simple, innocent question requiring nothing more than a simple answer. Please don't read any more into it than that because there wasn't anything more than that. It seems that the timing of your submission to PR was mere coincidence.

Yes, you are right, I was projecting my feelings.

You asked if my entry was an experiment in boundary pushing like the River Don entry, with the strong implication that if it was, it should not be reviewed.

Given my record of writing think-pieces which have ended up in the EG, it was reasonable of me to put it into PR and expect it to be treated as those ones were and as it is now in fact being treated.

Although I was vaguely aware of the PRODders, I had not joined them for the reasons I've given elsehwere and, having participated in some of the debates over the last couple of days, I've come to the conclusion that I disagree with them.

I was peeved to be assumed to be part of what - even at that stage on Sunday - I had concluded was an ill-thought out and emotional crusade built around very little more than Pin's ego. Since then I have concluded that what they are doing is more likely to damage both the EG and the UG than result in anything positive.

But mainly I was very very annoyed at the suggestion that I would play games in the way that Pin plays games. Having read his piece, (or more accurately 30% of it, since I couldn't manage the whole overblown thing), and having read his insoucient and frequently arrogant responses in the PR thread, I am even more annoyed that people might assume that I am part and parcel of the same movement.

I understand that all you were asking was a question, and I responded civilly at the time, despite being angered by it. It only became apparent to me afterwards, once I had read The River Don and the PR thread which related to it, what the implications of your question actually were.

But... you are right... it is my s**t, (as I explicitly SAID in my response in the PR thread).

To be honest, I am more p**sed off with Pin than with anyone else in this whole bloody debacle. The spat between you and me is just an example of the fallout of the whole ill-conceived and badly articulated mess.

Be assured, I have no specific gripe with you, I do have a very major gripe with the seal.

Ben

Thanks for your reply Ben.

It's a perfect example of how one person sees something based on their own picture of the situation whilst another has a completely different picture in their head. I'm not familiar with your other entries you see (and nor are a lot of current PR regulars, some of whom will have joined up after your entries were recommended), so I've no idea of your PR track record. Whether or not I was a Scout when they went through PR I can't tell without looking at their dates (to be honest I can't even remember when I first became a Scout - about 3 years ago I think), and even if I was, there have been so many other PR entries since then that I doubt I would have remembered.

And this a big problem I have with people who worry about how newbies view us. Newbies don't have the same picture of h2g2 in their head that we do because they don't see it in the same context. They know nothing of the politics, the dynamics, the rules, the characters, or the conflicts, and when people make a judgement about what a newbie thinks, based on their own view of h2g2, then try to berate other long-time Researchers based on this non-evidence, I get very annoyed.

Hi Oojakapiv,

Since I've no way of knowing if you unsubbed before or after my reply to your last post in the Nuclear Yikes thread, I just to reiterate that I wasn't attacking anyone specifically. I also was not attacking any specific person's behaviour, yours or anyone else's. As you know, I am not a regular in PR any more, and haven't been for years.

I was asking questions about how people *think* - you and FM and, as it turns out, Hell.

I was also trying to get people to consider some new thoughts, and to acknowledge other peoples' feeling and believe thier testaments to how they feel. As Z said, as a doctor he cannot say "Nonsense, you aren't in pain!" about physical pain, and none of us can say that about other peoples emotional pain either.

Anyway - no point in reiterating the thread here.

What I wanted you to know is that I really was not attacking any invididuals or blaming anyone for stuff. Asking questions, yes. Pointing fingers no.

Take care.

Ben