blamebrampton | The difference between LJ and Skyehawke

In one of my stories, I have a scene in which the bad guys attempt to take control of the Thames Barrier to hold it open while an artificial storm surge races up the river to flood much of London. It's told in fast snatches, but there are a number of very clear bits of information given to show what's happening, including:

The rest of Draco's Unspeakables arrive. He speaks quickly: "Thames Barrier, we think there's a team using dark magic to hold it open. Storm surge is coming, a big one."

A few people responded to its posting on LJ with "I had no idea what the Barrier was, so I looked it up, it's cool/was on Doctor Who!"

Last night I posted that chapter on Skyhawke. Today I received a comment similar to "Look, I liked it, but you'd have made the ending so much more gripping if you'd explained what the Barrier was." *

I was THIS CLOSE to answering with "Thanks very much for letting me know you liked it, but if you need more Barrier info, you can find it easily! In my day we did not have Google and you had to shag computer scientists to get internet access, so just count yourself lucky, young whippersnapper and use the tools Tim Berners-Lee gave you!"

I held back, but only because I knew I'd receive a reply saying "Berners-Lee? Who?!"

Ah LJ folk, Let me never take you for granted ...

* I should emphasise that I genuinely think this person meant to be helpful here. They were not being intentionally annoying, I am just the least patient closet librarian in the vicinity.

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It's absolutely brilliant - and the best part was that I got to see everything behind-the-scenes - all the ancient books (you would not believe the number of government publications they have!). It's amazing.

Ah, the evil ones. Figures.

Oh, you can still have hope. I sell quite a lot of books to people my age. It's the even younger ones (read: kids) these days that I am worried about. I am not going to get into that here and now or I might offend people.

I think the problem with Google is that requires a fair amount of thinking. You have to:
* decide on keywords (and they should be good, too)
* select one of the answers (one of ten, oh, the woes)
* read the content of the page and look for the information.

I'm sure it's scary for many people.

(I might print this bulleted list and give it as gift cards to all of them. call it the Google User Manual for Dummies)

Oh, totally. I can see how that's, like, scary for people. And difficult. Very difficult. Quite possibly, it's more difficult than flushing the toilet. Because, god knows, stupidity/laziness reeks. Just as un-flushed toilet bowls are.

And I can't believe there's a book published for that. Google for Dummies? (This For Dummies series crack me up.) Granted, the name is appropriate. But I fear that this might be too complicated for most people. Your bulleted list works better. :)

I didn't even imagine they would have that book.

I won't go into the flushing toilets business, because that's an issue, too. And to think all the people I work with are uni graduates. *snort*

Re: toilets... oh no. Seriously. There too? *gapes*

"Thanks very much for letting me know you liked it, but if you need more Barrier info, you can find it easily! In my day we did not have Google and you had to shag computer scientists to get internet access, so just count yourself lucky, young whippersnapper and use the tools Tim Berners-Lee gave you!"

That made me laugh so much. I definitely would have sent that reply! I thought skyhawke was a bit more 'highbrow' alas I was wrong.

You are so-o-o right! Many people are so ignorant that days (we've even had some problems with our TV programm when our higher-ups'd told us about some theme "we know nothing about it and we're not interested, so nobody will be interesed") and I don't like modern journalism in the main, cause many journalists (especially from younger generation) don't bother to check information or to find the right one, so... it's just like this comment on your wonderful story (i haven't heard of the barrier before and I checked it out too :-))

It must be an universal problem. One of the things your parents forget to teach you for the 18 years you live with them, like chewing food, not running indoors and so on.

Oh it generally is! But I think every group has one vague person who would rather someone else did it for them ...

Yes, exactly! And because we post in the internet, I think there's a tacit assumption that people will do that, because it can be done so easily. Goodness knows I look things up all the time!

I had a journalist who wrote about the problems of the Middle East and focussed her whole story on Afghanistan. I pointed out that Afghanistan was in Asia, and was told that I was clearly an idiot. Happily there was a map to hand.

You know, I've watched some very smart TV lately, and the shows that I have loved have all been surprise hits. I suspect people actually like the odd smart thing. More of it would be good!

*snicker* But not really. I despair of people - why do they not think for themselves?!

I think that our modern world is too good at keeping people alive. There are some we should just let go ...

Poor computer scientists must hate google for the havoc it wreaked on their personal lives.

Not everyone has the google fu

Because Someone Else Can Do It For Them!

I can see my Crochetty Old Ladyness approaching fast ...

Plus, from what I remember from the story, the explanation was evident from the context and the events. People know the Thames is a river, something on a river being held open that makes people almost cack themselves ... Pardon the way of putting it, but... If you can't put two and two together in a way that comes close to four... *grin*

Yeah, if it was something obscure I would not mock, but any search engine will bring you something helpful if you type in Thames Barrier. And if you can navigate Skyehawke, you should be able to navigate a search engine.

They curse Mosaic, which took Net access from an arcane art best practiced after the offering up of arts student nubility to a simple URL entry and click. Tim B-L receives hate mail from geeks who haven't been able to pull girls in black miniskirts since the mid 90s.

I think it's eminently mockable.

I'm always surprised by the number of people who haven't mastered the basic art of searching, or even indexes, come to that.

And then grateful as it keeps me in a job. :D

If the buggers could use the books to look stuff up, they woulnd't need me at all. So the google fu has to be rationed, sorry.

I commiserate. O__o;; I am beginning to despair.

I've been there since I was about 20. :/ The good thing, though, is that if we can learn to ignore their brain atrophy and not expend our energy on them, we will be the smart ones and can use our powers to ruuule the wooorllld! *muhahahahaa*

Good point. If people learned to use the language and their brains, I would be back to singing jazz standards for pennies and potatoes.

It's true. The next thicky I meet will not have me try and help them, rather, I will steal their valuables! And blame my life of crime on you.

That's fine. My cut is 40%.

Sounds reasonable. Have you seen any video from the coronation in Tonga today? Priceless.

Sorry....I'm still stumbling over the knowledge that you got a review on SkyeHawke; I thought those were almost impossible to get!

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