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

Well I just had a really wonderful day. I spent most of the awake bit of it with h2g2ers, at the summer meet-up. It's about the fourth meet-up I've been to, and I'd say the best. For a start there were about a hundred people there, and it was great to see so many. If you were one of them, please drop me a line, or just a 'hi' and I'll reply. Hopefully!

The atmosphere was just so chilled and lovely (except as I got more and more tense playing softball), and everyone was just so nice, helpful, supportive and loving. I guess I'm feeling overcome by metta, as the Buddhists would put it!

One of the editors (naming no names) nearly made me cry just by thanking me for my volunteering, in a way so genuine, kind and direct that I understood it was really meant completely. I haven't really been (and I guess am unlikely to be in future) part of the community side of things very much - I don't spend much time chatting on here, and am certainly never up to date on who's who and what's going on on that side. I'd never in a million years end up as an option in Abi's section of a multiple choice quiz. But I realised, totally, today how happy, proud, and humbled I am to be part of the creation of this new community. This is a beautiful, safe, warm, genuinely benign (in the positive, least banally mediocre way) and happy place. This is the sort of place where you genuinely believe no harm would come to anyone carrying a towel, or at least people would rally round them, and no harm that could be humanly avoided would befall them.

So if you ever wonder who is this 'Smiley Ben', or where he is on the site, what he's doing, the truth is I'm here, swimming around in the warmth, doing my bit sub-editing some brilliant entries, and generally feeling so honoured to be able to be part of such a site

Yes, I clattered around for the evening part of proceedings: it was my first meet, and I really enjoyed it. Just got back now.

Wow Ben - your comments really summarize my feelings about h2g2 as well.

I do try to follow the community side, but it's grown so large that it's really become difficult...

It's amazing what it's all grown into eh?



- Jimi X

You know, you blink your eyes, and the baby is all grown up and going off to university and it seems like it was only yesterday that it was born...

What's that sonny?

You'll have to speak into my good ear...