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

Well, at one point the folks at the Atelier said we might be becoming a bit too insular, and perhaps we should go out into the wider hootoo and see what there was to see. So I went. I revisited old threads, and entered into new ones.

I didn't particularly like what I found. I found a lot of pedantic, smug, self-righteous folk who try to make other folks feel small. I've found folks who like to call people stupid and others who feel that if you reside in the US, you're automatically part of the problem.

Frankly, why should I bother trying to get involved? Is all sense of decorum and politeness gone from the vast majority of hootoo? Douglas Adams was, according to all reports, an exquisitely polite man. So why can't we be polite to each other?

Well said!!!!!


after all we are all the same *race*

Jonathan

I alomost feel, anymore, that postings like this are something of a coming of age on h2g2. After a while, one will find one's niche and try to not leave it for any reason.

While this topic has been debated ad-nauseum, it still seems to me that our host is simply not the same place it was a few years ago.

I would not like to miss out on the great conversations I have with my close friends for anything, but I still feel segregated from teh community at large.

There is still no easy answer for this. I just hope that the feelings you have for the larger site are not going to send you away.

MR, I'm a realitive newbie compared to yourself but it seems that you've been scared by getting involved in a flame war and the "What's wrong with American's thread," which as far as I can see has always been bitter and twisted. Whilst we get larger we are bound to fragment, because we can't all be in the same place.

If you do want sane conversation why not drop into the Forum ok it's not that busy, at the moment but it's aiming for intellegent conversation, which we mainly get.

I have to admit I avoid people who use text speak, shortened language or people who's posts make no sense whatsoever.

It just disillusions me that somehow things that were meant to be good things get dragged down to the lowest common denominator. i ignore the flat out bizarre postings, but i'm enough of a control freak that I want to at least try. And I was really hoping the "What's Wrong with Americans" thread would have gotten rid of the hotheads after 3000+ posts, and settled down into a realistic discussion. And it was, for a time. And then the hotheads came raging back.

I'm not leaving, but with the exception of Z's forum, I've pretty much given up on the idea of going anywhere new. So much for life, the universe and everything.

A for MR,

We could do with more sane conversation at the bookworms as well . Ok maybe I'm just doing a bit of self promotion, but still.'

I tend to meet lots of nice people through being involved in the editorial process. Every so often you meet a new keen writer, who's likes the ideas of the site etc... PRing can be socialable as well as productive.

And of course we're looking forward to seeing you at the forum..

So I am a hot head? Would a appreaciate a straight appraisal please!

Heck no, Oetzi! It's people like Tango and Apparition and SEF that make me despair, not you! You've been quite polite, and you make good points. That's all I'm asking for, people who can contribute in a polite way. It's entirely conceivable that we may disagree entirely about an issue, but we don't have to be rude about it.

(Not that we've disagreed yet...I'm just saying that if it ever occured that you saw things as X, and I saw them as Y, I would like to think that we could disagree without insults)

Thank you I like you too!

22:30hrs UK side good point for beebyes, see you all later goodnigt!

I agree that polite debate is now largely something of the past generally on Hootoo.

Although we think of today's hootoo as rather rule-infested and restrictive, I was recently thinking about the days when Mark and Peta ran the place, and if you got on Mark's nerves he would Set You Straight. If anyone else remembers, it seems to me that we didn't call them Italics, way back then, we called them gods, and there was no backchat once Mark had spoken.

It was somehow assumed that in the main everyone understood how one should behave.

Now, there are stricter rules about content, but the Italics are conspicuously tolerating all manner of c**p from young prot-anarchists and not-so-young obsessive-compulsives, because not to do so would be in violation of some charter, I guess. The permissiveness regarding equal opportunity, if that's what to call it, has attracted a new kind of fringe -- the ones who can't get a permanent billet anywhere else.

And so we have the worst of both worlds. No graphics, periods of not being able to talk about the war, and implicit moderation on the one hand. And a brigade of rude twerps exploiting officially sanctioned tolerance to the maximum, on the other.

The ongoing arguments have been very wearing on us as individuals, but good for us all in a greater sense, in that more researchers are aware of the Atelier as an oasis of netiquette. But I agree with MR; I hope I don't have to walk among trolls again for a while, after this is sorted.

As a newcomer, could someone please point me to a "time line" of H2G2.
If not in existance then may I suggest a short pastiche. Subjective or objective I don't believe it matters.

Here is somehting of a timeline of the guide.
April 1999 DNA launches the site from his company TDV or The Digital Village.
Winter 2000 TDV folds and the "Foop" or "Rupert" or "Interregnum" occurrs.
Spring 2000 The BBC ends up buying the property and adds it to it's own servers. New rules are instituted that remove the right for us to have any outside pictures attached to our pages, also limiting exactly what can be said in certain ways.
Nowadays there just seems to be a lit of bitterness.

I still think that pre-foop H2G2 was a happier place.

Well we'll just have to set about and get things happy again!

Honestly, after they got rid of the moderation for all posts at all times, the bbc has been something of a benign force behind the wall for me.

But I don't deliberately try to break rules...sometimes I just forget to add the word "allegedly" in the right places....

Montana its like giving condoms to gorillas, plenty of wet ballons, no firm bananas. They exist, so do we, so what?

Implicit threat generally means someone is scared. I ain't Are You?

At the risk of banging the same drum over again, I agree with Marv, pre foop was a much happier place. I remember when the Waterworks and Beach was the most active thread and everyone was just having a great time interacting with everyone else.

I too have tried to venture out of the Ateleir, but most forays have ended with a mild case of "why bother".

I think some of it has to do with getting settled with a specific group of individuals, however the greatest part IMHO is the lack of courtesy and respect afforded others opinions.

To answer the question though MR. Why bother? Because if we don't we let them win. I, will continue to rage agains the dying of the light, just in my own ways.

Courtesy

You make a good point, Courtesy. But in that lies the rub. If you give up, they think they've won. And if you keep going, they get a preverse sort of pleasure out of goading you. Although the Americans thread is interesting. Someone posted another ranting against Americans, and everyone rather ganged up on them and told them to shut it...and I didn't say a thing (I just ignored the post).

It's interesting. If only one person is raving or rude, everyone notices. it's when the majority are rude that it's hard to be heard above the din.

I'm still trying, of course. This was more of a "I'm tired, had a long day, and I'm sick of the attitude" moment.