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

Hi Pegasus.
You've be around a bit but we've never truly met.
I'm replying here to your post :- F19585?thread=8284973&latest=1#p110475683 because I am not at all sure what it means.
Is the implication that you are as fed up with the drift of the thread as I am or that agree with the what I am saying ?

It annoys me that I post to your personal space and the system puts it up as a conversation. Is this a bug.

Hi AB. Welcome.

I'm not sure the topic has really drifted has it (certainly not by h2g2 standards!)? I thought the discussion was about anonymity vs. 'transparency' and a more general discussion about what h2g2 is for.

If you're asking me should researchers be *made* to put personal details on their PS, then I can answer with a resounding 'no'. PS's are somewhere for researchers to express themselves in whatever way they feel they would like to do so, which may be a very different way to how they do so in the outside world. This is the joy of the web - a certain anonymity, but you can be as 'open' as you personally choose to be. It isn't 'lack of transparency', but an opportunity to be able to express yourself. For many people, it is a blessed relief to go somewhere and feel that your race/age/gender/sexual preference/job/dress-style and any number of other choices are not the deciding factor in whether someone talks to you or even becomes a friend.

When I joined h2g2 way back in the twentieth century I relished the fact that I could meet people who I would probably never get to meet in the 'normal' run of things. Some of those people turned out to be male when I thought they were female, young when I thought they were older, and so on. For me that isn't a drawback, but an added benefit. Society tends to blinker us socially so we only meet and really get to know our 'own sort' out in the real world. h2g2 redresses that imbalance.

I'm not sure if that's answered your question, but you're welcome to ask more if you wish, and I'll answer as transparently as I feel is appropriate.

Oh, and it's come up as a conversation because I clicked to subscribe to new conversations on my PS, so I don't miss new ones if I'm looking at my conversation list rather than my PS.

'Sus

Thanks for taking the time. Pretty much the same as I see h2g2.
I have feelings about the Personal Space that you seemed to agree with in an earlier post of yours.
However I still don't get the meaning of the specific post :-

to you too
I am the of h2g2. But it does not revolve around me

It seems to have had the effect of stopping the thread, has it some magic power that I don't understand
Thanks for your point re. this post and it being put on the conversations list. Presumably it will appear on mine and your lists and anyone who is a friend or subscribed to our lists. That is why it is so useful. It may go some way towards explaining how the girls come together.

The was do with some comment about said button, being the sole (sic) mentioned. Can't remember any more clearly than that.

The thread seems lively enough again now, judging by the 40+ posts I'm yet to catch up on.

I reckon your post is great. F19585?thread=8284973&post=110478229#p110478174
The trouble is that everyone, myself included, is not as offay with the workings of the site as you, obviously, are.
I'm all for part playing and the freedom it can give.
I'm not so sure about a man playing a woman but I can live with it if there is consistency in the part they play. I have a name that says what I am rather than a fictitious character that I have to live up to. I suppose I take things a bit too seriously.
I use editable guide entries to record my virtual life. It's just as much fun and allows me keep some form of control. Maybe I'm making too much of it.
Couldn't resist a 'lurk' at you Journal, I had Tennis Elbow once, very tender and painful. Kaolin poultice was the solution.

A kaolin poultice sounds perfect for a The elbow is being most annoying in that it is not getting better, despite my best intentions. Perhaps I shall add 'elbow support' to the growing number of occasional/regular elasticated supports in my collection.

As far as the researchers here on h2g2 go, 'each to his/her own' is the philosophy. It's one of the things that makes it such a nice place for so many incredibly varied people to hang out. I can't actually think of anywhere less divisive on the web. And because of that atmosphere, many of these very diverse people have even met out there in the real world, and become real friends, with people they would probably never have spoken to otherwise. I think that's

It certainly is a great site. The fact that we can communicate at all in this way has always been the thing that was to me.
The amount of data bouncing around is something else. I'm not sure that it is all necessary and that's what niggles me.
The computer were relatively new when I left work, and the slide rule was the calculating aid up to the time I left school, with the calculator coming on the scene about the time I finished my adult education.
By and large this site has been mostly trouble free and *harmless* in most respects but that shouldn't mean we stand still. It can be said that the BBC used h2g2 to develop and enhance it's own internet communicating skills, meaning that the development of h2g2 itself was held in abeyance.
The personal space is a wonderful feature of the site but to my mind there is something that just doesn't click and I can't put my finger on it. There are so many lines of communication involved that somewhere there has to duplication of resources. Oh how I wish I had the technical knowhow to bottom it.

*ahem* Mostly harmless.

Other than the one issue I highlighted (and issues which were introduced by the BBC, which I don't know yet whether the new 'owners' will reverse), I think the PS does just what is needed for such a site.

The internet is immensely useful. It is also immensely cluttered. I love being able to use the internet. I would happily live without it, if it suddenly went up in a of smoke.

It's clutter in h2g2, the area if the internet that we 'play' in, that F19585?thread=8284973 was aimed at.

You mean you find people's PS's cluttered? Or you find it hard to dig up personal information if they don't put it on their space? Or you mean in a more general sense?

Everything written on h2g2 stays on h2g2 (with the obvious exception of modding). Luckily you don't have to wade through it all.

It's general and overall Pegasus.
There is so much clutter that cleaning up must help in all respects.
This convo. for instance involves just you and I.
Another post or so it could be over. Why keep it forever. You and I have made contact and basically I could kiss you goodbye.
I know there are posts in My Message Centre that I would agree could be removed in collaboration with others involved. If all researchers were to do it it would renew old friendships and help the new site generate a new feel.
I know that friendship has much to do with h2g2 but how many are true friends and how many are just acquaintances ?

I disagree. I like the fact that everything is here forever, warts 'n' all. I can come and post a new conversation to your PS and this conversation (if it were there, not here) would be nudged down. If we chose to stop using it, then eventually it would get nudged under the carpet (or off the PS) out of sight. But later on when I try to remember what Ancient Brit said to me about such-and-such, I can go and dig it up again rather than have the same conversation all over again (assuming we are still talking to each other!)

But if you wanted to get the post off your PS then I *do* believe you should be able to do so. I think it should be unsubscribeable just like any other conversation. Just not deleted forever, innacessible to all parties.

A can say a thousand words.

I see that you keep quite a few convo's in your sight at any one time.
The new thread on Personal Space Etiquette seems to be getting along better than the one I started..
I still cannot see why a post to your Personal space has to be opened up as a 'conversation'. This is your space, you could invite someone to join in here, and any other post that is made, it should be your option. I was a little rude and cross referenced it to Ben and Lil. You have the links. Lil has acknowledged, to me, having been her but she hasn't posted here. Perhaps she would have done so if you had invited her. Ben is not at all impressed with any notion I have, referring to it as my 'niggle' . She's very busy.
I think we have a system that defaults all posts to a conversation reference and this is at the heart of tracking them.
When those upstairs decide that the site is fully up and running I shall put it as a question to the 'site programmer'. I believe Pastey has replaced Jim Lynn but I'm not sure.
As an old man who left work around the time that computer conrol syatems were entering the work place site operation intrigues me a little.

Lil, please feel free to post here (or anyone else for that matter). Although there's only two of us at present, it isn't a private conversation. I think of this message centre a bit like my doorstep. I'll just go and pop this mat over by the door...

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|WELCOME|
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A bit over the the top Pegasus.
I thought that a post to Lil's Message Centre would have done the trick. It looks like a cry for help.
There was a general invitation to all in the fact that the message was posted as a conversation.
I was hoping to see how this conversation could be developed in a formal controlled way since you demonstrated a clear understanding of messaging within h2g2.

Cheers AB.

Another approach Pegasus
Why did you write this entry.
Keep your eye on this :- F21263613?thread=8285591&post=110482903#p110482903
I suspect that our friend knows more than he is letting on.

PS The missing Entry referred to above is A504802