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

I think its reasonable to ask you for some sort of evidence Taff as you're making these claims. Eg something like an official report saying, in no case this year involving a prosecution for Licence fee evasion has detector van evidence been used - that sort of thing.

>the BBC as it is: offering quality programming free from adverts, sponsorship and most other commercial nonsense.<

Yea Mr. D. Up until this h2g2 thing happened I'd been a big defender of the beeb on this site. I just got so upset and angry, I turned on Auntie. But I'm back to my old views now. And I'm becoming increasingly horrified by the power and influence Murdoch appears to have in this country.

Unfortunately a lot of people don't like to think for themselves... so the media, basically fulfilling the role the Catholic Church did in the Middle Ages, does all the thinking for them.

google it

its the old i can neither confirm or deny answer from the bbc,

yet there is no talk of any anti-tv detector van technology out there,

look at speed cameras, the evidence aginst speed cameras is being questioned all the time and there are a plethora of devices to spot, block and avoid them, as well as a whole raft of ways to bring the evidence into dispute, calibration certificates, location direction pointing, up hill, down hill, etc. etc.

yet there is no talk of how to detect, spot, block or avoid a tv detector van

there doesn't need to be because the BBC don't have any, it logic

electoral register Vs. tv licence list

compare one with the other and go snooping around the adressess that dont match,

if they had detector vans they wouldn't have needed to go into your friends house (they would have been able to detect that he didn't have a telly)

anhaga I know I said I'd get involved with the PR process of your latest entry, but I don't think its really for me either as it stands. But it does appear you have cracked the formula of style of writing for it. Nice sub-headings

Yes, Effers, I think I have 'cracked the formula'. It's like what I said earlier somewhere about sonnets, etc. When I write an entry that I intend to go into the Edited Guide, I follow a certain format. But my point in writing the thing is to do what I think is justice to the subject, within that format. But, I do find that there is a huge amount of room for creativity within that format.

Yes I understand what you are saying and I agree it can sometimes be comfortable to settle on a certain structure/format for a while and explore that. Like you do with your painting..limiting yourself to a certain palette of colours. But imagine if every painter in the world was also limited to just that palette, knowing full well it was an artifice ie a format..I think it might start to get all a bit deadly if there was no room to play outside that for anyone.

Seriously anhaga I respect that you have discovered a way to make it work for you, but I suspect we have different psychologies...and I need to explore a lot more before I settle down. Or maybe I don't actually, but I need to feel it is at least permissable to explore..and not be told it is somehow wrong or just not good enough. It's just different.

But I do respect what you do anhaga. I just can't stomach that PR place.there's so little banter and 'jamming' like you get in the convos. Banter and jamming is great for creativity.

I feel rather responsible for what happened in PR, as I encouraged you to go in for it. It's a shame that people couldn't accomodate you.

I didn't see your actions as related to your conditions, I grew up with artists, and I thought it was just part of being an artist.

The thing is that PR is just a collection of people, and they can say what they like, if Mal, or Tufty had been on holiday that week, or if someone else had posted it would have been a very different experience.

As I said I did like your piece. If it was selected by a Scout I would be happy to sub-edit and work with you on it that way. If you'd be ok with that.

As I've said before, I'd be more than happy to select it... so if you like Z's plan I'll do just that!

(I"m so sure that we're not meant to do this sort of thing this way...)

(I won't tell if you won't)

Okay let's put this thing to bed. I'm happy to go ahead.

Z you have nothing to feel bad about. It was entirely my decision to do it. And I've learned a lot. Many people there were also helpful and its enabled me to think better in my own mind what I'd like the guide to be, and stick in my in the discussions about it.

Besides you've been incredibly busy with the committee and consortium, which makes me feel a whole lot more optimistic about h2g2's future, even if its not actually required in the end. But it makes people feel happier in the interim. All that stuff makes my little local difficulty fairly minor I think.

So let's go.

(I won't tell either )

I'd be happy to sub-edit this as well, especially because I have a teeny amount of knowledge about caddis flies. But the Eds make the final decision as to whether they select the Entry and then to whom they send the Entry for subbing.

Thanks Lanza. But I'd prefer to work with Z if the Ed's see fit, because I've come to realise this piece, the like of which I'll never probably never write again, has virtually nothing to do with caddis flies - it's 90% about the thing as writing.

I have a feeling Z gets this and I'd feel very comfortable working with him.

I have spent years on this site and not attempted to write for the EG. It is big thing for me to finally do so..and it seemed it was something a bit weird.

Because I found some of my PR experience very unpleasant because I didn't feel people realised what I was trying to do, or respect that, as writing, I only feel able to work now on this *particular* piece with someone I feel confident who does.

But thanks for the offer. We'll have to see what the Eds decide though.

Beaten to it!

There's someone called Bastet suddenly showed up on the PR thread. I don't quite understand how his input is aiding the PR process, but heck I'm only PR virgin..what do I really know.

As far as I'm concerned the thing can go forward into the guide if picked and be sub-edited in any way seen fit by any sub editor.

It's been quite a learning curve.

His input isn't aiding PR at all is it?

Do bear in mind that even if it's recommended by a scout then it's the editors final decision whether or not it goes in The Guide. At the moment ()Scouts are encouraged not to discuss their picks prior to an editors approval as not to cause disappointment.

Thing is PR isn't an institution, just a bunch of people doing stuff. There's no secret code, it's just people doing what they do. There are guidelines but people don't always read them.

If people want different things in PR the thing to do is to go into PR and do that sort of stuff that you want doing.

I did want to disagree slightly with Kea, though. I thought she was being really supportive and very sweet, but I would hate to propagate the feeling that people with mental illnesses are somehow 'neurodisabled'. I just don't think that's true.

Most people with mental illness I know are mostly ok, and function just fine when they are well, but when they are ill there's a problem. I don't know anything about your medical condition at all, but I do have friends and colleagues who have bipolar disorder, who function fine as doctors and scientists, but have problems when they are unwell.

They don't think of themselves as 'neurodisabled' and I think that they would be highly offended if anyone treated them differently because of their diagnosis. (Both the doctors I know with Bipolar disorder happen to be psychiatrists, but that's really a co-incidence, or may be they wanted to go into psychiatry because of their illness, I don't know). I do know that some people with some mental illnesses never really get well in between periods of illness, but I think that a lot of them do.

Don't worry, he's just being a brat.

>>
I have spent years on this site and not attempted to write for the EG. It is big thing for me to finally do so..and it seemed it was something a bit weird.
<<

You're in some good company. There's been some doozies of weirdness in PR over the years (contentious, conflict-y kind of threads)

Glad to hear the entry is good to go

Z I'm utterly indifferent as to whether it gos into the guide or not now. I'm sick to death of it and shall do my best to exterminate it from my mind.

And yes bipolar is complex. It has one label and some symptoms in common with people with that diagnosis. But I find from those I've met that admitted to it, some function much better than others in life and the real world. Also it depends on age. I functioned in the real world much better when younger.

And yes it does effect me all the time to a greater or lesser extent.

I think kea's analysis was pretty spot on. That throws up tremendous conflict, because on the one hand its good to explain to people about your problem to stop too much confusion..but on the other you have to deal with the equisite embarrasement of being viewed as some kind of cripple. I still haven't sorted out how to come to terms with that.

No excuse me why I go off and get wasted.