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

I've just gone for a virtual wander around H2G2 and, as always, it surprises me just how much of the guide I haven't seen - how many researchers I have never heard of, how many virtual lives have gone unnoticed by me. Not that they need to be noticed by me, but so much of H2G2 has made me laugh until I cried, or made me read page after page of the sort of huge philosophical debate that I'd like to have with people in real life but just don't happen. I have seen so much of this that there must be many thousands more postings I'd love to see but I never will.

But this is not my point. Today I came across F25956?thread=149844 where, a year ago, some researchers debated whether this place "died" after Rupert. I have to say, I didn't notice anything at the time - I wasn't used to swearing or being insulting enough to have my own posts moderated often - although I have, over the few years I've been here, changed from a prolific poster giving my opinions everywhere they weren't wanted and joining every society in sight, to being scared to post occasionally in case my ideas are shot down in flames (I hate all criticism here, which is odd because I can take it in real life, I just feel very defenceless here). But I blamed that on myself, and not the site.

However, reading these people's opinions, I realised that not only is there a lot of the present Hootoo that I haven't seen, there's an awful lot more that happened in the past that I wasn't part of and I could have been. Reading that post, I felt like I was diving back into the past, into what H2G2 was. Going back to my current conversation list was like resurfacing again, Brunel's sunlight hitting my face, dazzling me for a second (just coincidence that I read that posting in Goo, and came back to Brunel).

I suppose I don't really have a point. Maybe I'm not a "real" H2G2 researcher - I don't post in enough discussions to be well recognised (hence the S.H.A.D.O.W membership), but I don't do enough socialising to have many H2G2 friends. I don't know if we lost something when the Beeb took over, but I suppose it could be worse - even more than the thought of losing everything else I haven't read on this site, I hate the thought that everything I've known and loved already will be lost.

Still no point to this journal, I just wanted to get my thoughts down on paper, or Goo I suppose.

~~A~~