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

I love this site. Some of the finest writing, the keenest observation and the most uplifting spirit I ever hope to encounter can be found among its pages.

I'm of that age now when you need to be on your guard against the 'not like it used to be' perception setting in. So the objectivity is scrupulous when I say that hootoo is not like it used to be.

We might be near the tipping point. We might be slipping into the celebration of mediocrity, just to keep the numbers up. There's too much self-indulgence here, and way too much self-pity. A thread has re-emerged in Ask that typifies the trend. Its title is: "How do you personally deal with crippling illness?"

That's an oxymoron. If you think your illness is crippling, you're manifestly not dealing with it. RL can be tough, sure, but why bring the defeatism here? Do we want that? Don't we all want a site that's bright and clever, that writes both its optimism and its pessimism large, that rejects small-mindedness?

Don't whinge here, please. Don't form sterile cliques either. The quickest way to kill hootoo will be to convince the Beeb that it belongs exclusively to a rabble of self-possessed, downbeat saddoes with no spark. Conversely, the site will be supported as long as there are manifest examples of people growing in outlook and powers of expression, and conspicuously revelling in the joy of writing.

It's the same as it always was, really. If you're not here to write your heart out, exactly what *are* you doing here?

Agreed, wholeheartedly.

Could we just post this wholesale on the Front Page, do you think?

(Perhaps apart from the crippling illness part)

B

I'm here to write my heart out but I need reviewers in PR and readers/posters when it hits the FP

Hey B, if you've got a better example of the morbid introspection tendency than the 'crippling illness' thing, then show me it and I'll happily re-write this and put it somewhere more prominent.

It's not like you to err on the side of PC-defensiveness, mind. If you think the example detracts from the message, I guess that's different. I thought about it before posting, though. As well as the nothing-but-moaners, there are people here who I like and love to read who sometimes themselves spoil it by joining in with the self-pity. I want them to snap out of it too. Possibly I'm a fluffy optimist (yeah, right), but in cyberspace nobody's a cripple, surely?

I fret a bit about being a misogynist too. I don't think I am one, but why-oh-why do so many women of a certain age turn careworn and downtrodden? Blokes don't. (And they don't down-tread any more than they did for the last 25 years either. Presumably it's an attritional accumulation of years of male exploitation)

Reading the first post back in the light of morning, it seems like one long oxymoron of its own. A whinge about whingeing. I guess a backstory to the mindset that produced it is in order.

I was feeling a bit down (doesn't often happen) last night. The slide started in my RL-work-world, where I failed to persuade colleagues that strict adherence to corporate rules is less important than business outcomes. Then I spent nearly an hour parked in the middle of the street, stuck behind a trivial coming-together, with histrionic drivers screaming foul abuse and demanding that I take their side in a non-argument about fault. Almost late to take Verm to her ju-jitsu, I nonetheless got her there, but then only four others turned up. We then had a bit of a heart to heart about whether seven years hard work for a black belt is really worth it, because it just feels empty when you arrive. On the way home, I listened to some angry soul-searching about why friends don't like you so much when you're dedicated. Finally, I tried to have a conversation with Scrof and the Weddell only to discover I was boring, next to Big Brother evictions as an alternative.

So I turned to h2g2, confident that it wouldn't be like that. And guess what? It was.

Oh, hi GB. I guess that'll teach me to look before Posting. No point pretending you weren't one of those I meant .

I nearly wrote something more constructive last night. I didn't because I had no confidence that it would be received as constructive.

It would have been an Entry on Dada (there is one, I know, but it's a poor, thin effort). It would have been written in the style of the manifestos, ie bizarre. The Dadaists thesis really is valid, IMO. Excessive rationality really does lead us astray. In truth, we all focus our yearnings through random associations instead.

My unwritten Entry would have been thrown out of PR because PR, and the EG, and ultimately everything here, is founded on the same false premise that the Dadaists and their descendents ridiculed.

I guess it comes down to this:
None of you interests me by saying what I might have said.
Each of you interests me by saying what I never would have said.

*checks birth certificate...yep...woman of a certain age...heads for mirror to look for signs of being careworn and downtrodden*

Pin, I respect your opinions and always take what you say seriously as a result. So I'll give you a serious reply. I seldom read ASK. As a matter of fact, I have gone out of my way to avoid the place for years. Not because it's depressing, but because it's often boring, shallow and sophomoric. I just took a peek at the conversation you mentioned. It is rather depressing. But I want to point out that at least one of the recent posters with a problem is male. Granted a male of a certain age.

I'm of two minds about this topic in general. On the one hand, I would like to see h2g2 be positive and filled with interesting articles, journals and conversations. On the other hand, I would hate to create an atmosphere where people with legitimate problems, including chronic debilitating illness, don't feel free to discuss them with their online friends. Therapists tell us that it helps to talk about our problems. Perhaps some of the people here don't have any other outlet. I know that it is often easier to discuss issues online than it is sitting face to face with a real life friend. Perhaps having ASK or one of the other venues here makes a real difference to these people, makes them feel less isolated and legitimately helps them to cope.

I fully agree that h2g2 is filled with talented, intelligent individuals. It also contains people with a great deal of compassion. Surely compassion and the willingness to listen and talk people through their problems is a worthy venture.

We all cope with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in our own way. Just like we all contribute to the site in our own way. All any of us here can do is the best we can in our given circumstances. The average member is never going to produce writing of as high a quality as you do, simply because most of us lack your talent.

*genuflects to the seal and resolves not to whine no matter how downtrodden she feels*

I have known Piniped to use writing in general and h2g2 in particular to < cope with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune > in his own way.

Let's remember "H2G2 is a an unconventional Guide to Life, the Universe and Everything created by a networked community"
That community is a slice of humanity, like it or like it not, and as in real life it is not possible to have 'personal' control over the environment that the community creates.