Things are quiet around the Post Office these days. In between waiting for the next poison-pen missive from the Prof (the last thing he sent me was a demo of Windows in Yorkshire dialect, so I'm employing bomb squad methods now) and admiring all the cool artwork I get to look at first (publication has its privileges), I've been mulling over the state of h2g2. After the heady days of the Big Move, things have settled down a bit. Here are a few of my random observations.

• Whenever life threatens to get boring, you can count on Pastey to introduce a new smiley. (, anyone?)
• The number of posts necessary to get a Guide Entry through Peer Review is directly proportional to whether the subject matter relates to a) drink, b) food, or c) some TV show Brits liked to watch when they were six years old. Not saying that that's a bad thing…
• Most h2g2 Researchers are individually thoughtful and pleasant to talk to. In the aggregate, however, they are an anarchist flash mob waiting to happen. For that reason, one should approach the Ask h2g2 forum with caution. Scratch that: only when sufficiently inebri- and/or caffeinated. Possibly using a sock puppet named littl3marysunshin3.
• There are guide entries on this site that can be understood by about three people in the known universe. That one of them is the author is a matter of faith. (My admiration.)
• When it comes to writing Guide Entries, us h2g2 Researchers are like kids when you tell them 'don't think about a frog'. If you say 'write about the Olympics', we immediately think about folk music, politics, historical conundra, rubber bands, and really disgusting fish parasites.
• It is possible that the best way to get us to write about the Olympics is to tell us not to. Maybe impose sanctions. Then every Ask thread will have a title like 'Occupy the Olympics', 'What Can We Blame the IOC for?', and the ever-popular 'I'm Talking About Sp*rt, Yikes This If You Dare'.
• There is probably no way to persuade most Researchers that poetry is sexy. Even making it illegal won't help. Byron, thou should'st be living at this hour – the girls would have been safe from thee. Knowing how to rhyme 'fold' with 'gold' no longer makes you mad, bad, and dangerous to know. We've tried it. The poets we have left are obvious more intellectual than the rest of us.
• Our need to write more about upcoming events in London makes this the first time I've wanted to move to that city in my life. Otherwise, I've always thought it a magical place to visit, but a bit big for my taste. Still, we need all the locals we can get, and the Prof refuses to leave the country.
• The NaJoPoMo undertaking has convinced me of one thing: h2g2 Researchers do, too, have plenty to talk about. The number of people who have been able to keep it up (quiet in the back, there) for a whole month is simply amazing. Tantric blogging. Hats off to you all.
• If US government employees worked as hard for their salaries as this lot of unpaid Researchers does at making h2g2 a success, the world's problems would be solved by New Year's, and we could start harnessing our energies for space colonisation. Next Olympics on the moon.

Okay, enough idle mental doodling. I should probably get back to my inboxes, and see what the Prof has sent me now. Where did I put those asbestos gloves?

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Dmitri Gheorgheni

28.11.11 Front Page

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