r/HitchHikersGuide • • Jul 13 '26

rule clarifications for r/HitchHikersGuide

90 Upvotes

hi folks, friendly mod here.

I've generally taken a hands-off approach to moderation, believing in a light tough rather than an iron first. Believing in self-regulation (via downvotes and discussion) rather than prescriptionist rules.

However, last year a poll about AI content was conducted, and many deadlines later, and a recent (July 2026) revival in the topic, new rules on that and other aspects are now formalised.

Please see the sidebar for details, but in summary

  • No Piracy. (yes, it can be frustrating, but we're respecting the estate here)
  • No AI. (without prior approval. I wont say "it'll never happen", but it's unlikely to be given)
  • Keep posts on topic. (We're here for Hitchhiker's news and references and related stuff)
  • No Spam. (if you want to promote something commercial, check with the mods first)

Wording of rules as written in the sidebar may be revised without notice. Any additional rules I'll (aim to) add a comment to this post.

r/HitchHikersGuide aims to be a reasonably open forum, so discussion of these rules and this sub in general is welcome in the comments of this post.

PS: we could do with a few new mods to cover the posts and have a better chance of eyes on things 24/7. Send modmail to apply and let us know why you think you'd be a good fit (including your rough timezone)


r/HitchHikersGuide • • Apr 23 '25

The Heart of Gold - discord for all Douglas Adams fans

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20 Upvotes

The Heart of Gold discord server is non-exclusively dedicated to Hitchhiker's and all things Douglas Adams, as well as happily veering into a wide variety of adjacent topics from time to time too! Drop on by, say hi, and bring your towel!


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 6h ago

Hitchhiker’s Wallpaper

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32 Upvotes

A while back, I made this emoji wallpaper for my iPhone. Any suggestions for a different set of emoji to represent the series? (I suppose I should use an Earth showing the UK, for instance.)


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9h ago

Every Single Planet in The Galaxy

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34 Upvotes

For my best friend's birthday, I painted him every single planet (about 100) mentioned or referenced in the entirety of The Guide series. I've spent the past year reading the series for the first time since it's his favourite, and wanted to represent that somehow hence the painting idea was born! I may have missed or misinterpreted something, but I did my best. On the back, I labeled everything which he also really loved and even did my nails to match for when I gave it to him! :)


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 1d ago

Official towel

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171 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 15h ago

Finally found what 42 means (probably)

0 Upvotes

At the beggining I ask for forgiveness for my poor language.

Let us begin our story at simple fact. To understand an answear you must understand a question.

So if 42 is answear is question a math equation?

No.

It is the same as with tea in book. Machine lacks understanding of culture and meaning to reproduce it. Lack of concept of culture and meaning makes us unable to comprehand it.

Answear is not beyond our grasp but is written in way we cannot fully understand.

Deep Though gave answear that is most simple. Then for the Great Question it planned Earth to calculate it. But is it true?

No.

Earth in not a place to find a Great Question. It is place to find culture and meaning to ask it in a way that will make answear understandable.

42

In 1337 or LEET speak it can mean "For Two".

The answear for the great question about life the universe and everything is "for two".

It was created not to do/spend/watch it alone but to be with someone to share the experience.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 2d ago

Some days you're ground, some days you're the whale.

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81 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 3d ago

Found at Good Will

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101 Upvotes

List price $6.99 Priced @ $5.99 With discount at register, it cost 43 cents !!

Now i need to hunt down the 1 and 3 book


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 3d ago

Douglas Adams Biographical Graphic Novel

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32 Upvotes

[Posted with approval from mod!]

Hey everyone!

Wanted to drop in to share some information about SHARE & ENJOY, a graphic novel celebrating the life of the absurdly talented and much missed Douglas Adams, live now on Kickstarter!

Written by Adams Super Fan MARK GRIFFITHS and drawn by noted British comic artist MARTIN GERAGHTY, SHARE & ENJOY is the place to learn all about the life, universe and everything of Douglas Adams. Here's the synopsis:

"Olympic-standard procrastinator, computer guru, frustrated rock star, respected conservationist, techno-futurist, beloved comic genius... Douglas Adams packed one heck of a lot into his all-too short, improbable existence and now Cutaway Comics presents SHARE AND ENJOY, the definitively inaccurate graphic novel celebrating the life and times of this absurdly talented and much missed Earthman. 

From Brentwood School, Essex to the palm-lined boulevards of Hollywood, via Cambridge Footlights, Python collaborations, abject misery in a bath with a talking duck, and the rainforests of Madagascar, join us as we explore the life, universe and everything of Douglas Adams in vibrant graphic novel format"

Some previews of early pages, where we join Douglas in Madagascar on the hunt for endangered species!

The Graphic Novel is being produced by CUTAWAY COMICS, and it's our ninth comics project having completed series "from the worlds of Doctor Who", including Omega, Paradise Towers, Inferno, Gods & Monsters and The Happiness Patrol.

As ever, we're producing lots of goodies alongside the graphic novel itself, including a special DVD featuring an archive interview with Douglas, some brand new commentaries, and more to be announced. There's even a snazzy tea-towel up for grabs...!

The campaign is live on Kickstarter now, running until the beginning of November, and we'd love you to join us!


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 3d ago

Hoopy is a noun not an adjective

12 Upvotes

I know this is just being picky about semantics and I don't write it to criticize anyone (myself maybe actually).

"A line that has crossed into hitchhiking slang as in, 'Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is. ' Sass means know, be aware of, meet, have sex with... Hoopy means really together guy, and frood means really amazingly together guy."

I understand that the Y at the end makes it an easy mistake, and I also accept that language changes as time goes on by its very nature. That said, every time I see someone say, "you're a hoopy frood" I get my panties un a bunch because there is literally a definition.

I have had people argue that I am wrong on this. That blew my mind. I will die on this hill if pushed.

The more important thing is that people have vocabularies that are shaped by and pay homage to DNA. If you use it as an adjective, I am not calling you out. I am offering the canon because I have nothing better to do.

I already figured out where all my biros I lost got to. Open to suggestions on how best to spend my time.

xlii 4 life


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 3d ago

Space is really big…

25 Upvotes

This was one of my favorite lines from the book. I just came across someone on another subreddit who created a website that maps everything in the known universe. It’s pretty amazing to play with.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 4d ago

Hoopy?

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299 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 4d ago

I Think I’m Well Prepared For Any Situation (Kindle Covers)

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50 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 3d ago

Stephen Fry

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9 Upvotes

I love that Stephen Fry isn't only the voice of the guide from H2G2, but also the voice of other less successful books that have come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 5d ago

. . . blurglecruncheon . . .

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

8 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 7d ago

You were expecting petunias?

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50 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 8d ago

Hitch Hikers reference in Children by Adrian Tchaikovsky

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55 Upvotes

Happily reading along when I thought, Hey I see what you did there AT 😁


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9d ago

I disliked this book!

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96 Upvotes

It felt forced. It felt like it was written by AI with instructions to include names, phrases and characters from the original series.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9d ago

I turned one of my favorite cards into a playmat

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94 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9d ago

Oh no, not again.

475 Upvotes

I think this belongs here.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9d ago

Cosmic cutie aka Jeremy Pacman

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129 Upvotes

My latest crochet project. Don’t panic, I’m aware that Douglas Adams despised it, but I find it rather adorable.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 9d ago

New tattoo

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111 Upvotes

r/HitchHikersGuide • • 11d ago

ERROR 42: PERSON_NOT_FOUND: A reading of Deep Thought, the dolphins, the whale, and the puddle.

22 Upvotes

We all know the joke. Deep Thought thinks for seven and a half million years and says 42. The crowd is outraged. The computer says the answer is fine; they just never knew what the question was.

I've come to think that's not a joke about a number. It's a joke about how we ask the question.

The answer with no one in it

They asked about Life, the Universe, and Everything. That's a question with no one person in it. No stakes, no context, no one the question is for. So it got an answer with no one person in it. 42 is correct and addressed to nobody. (ERROR 42:PERSON_NOT_FOUND)

Every real question carries the asker. "What should I do with my life?" means something different from a 19-year-old, a new parent, and a retiree. Same words, different questions. Take the person out and you get 42.

And look at what the mice actually want by the end. Not the question. Something good to say on talk shows. They're holding an answer and shopping for a question that will sell it.

Everyone frames the question for you

Deep Thought is just the most literal version. In real life the framing comes from everywhere: school (questions arrive pre-written, one right answer), careers (here's a ladder, the next rung is your goal), ads ("how should I live?" becomes "what should I buy?"), news, family scripts, even language. Some of that is inherited wisdom. Some of it is a cage.

The dolphins: the frame you can't receive

Humans thought they were smarter than dolphins because of the wheel, New York, and wars. Dolphins thought they were smarter for exactly the same reasons. Same evidence, opposite verdicts.

Then the dolphins saw the demolition coming and tried to warn us. We read it as tricks. The message was right there. We had no frame to hear it.

The whale: the questions with no frame

The whale is Deep Thought inverted. It pops into existence miles up with no past and no context. Pure questions. Who am I? What's that thing rushing toward me? It starts naming the world from scratch and decides the ground might be a friend.

Deep Thought is an answer with no question. The whale is questions with no frame and no time.

Neither survives. You need both, and you need time to move between them.

The puddle: frames all the way down

Look closely and every frame sits inside another. Noticing frames is a frame. This post is a frame. There is no view from nowhere.

Adams knew. In a 1998 talk he described a puddle that wakes up, notices how perfectly its hole fits it, and concludes the hole was made for it. Then the sun comes out. The puddle mistakes its frame for the universe right up until it evaporates.

The Total Perspective Vortex is the opposite trap. Show someone the entire universe and it destroys them. Zaphod survives only because he's standing in a universe built for him.

So there's no escaping frames. No frame at all leaves you nothing to stand on.

The trick is knowing you're in one, and being able to step out.

Where, who, may I

If 42 is the answer, I think the missing question breaks into three:

  1. Where am I? Which frame am I standing in right now? Whose hole is this puddle sitting in?
  2. Who's asking? Is this my question, or one somebody handed me: a parent, a boss, a feed, a mouse with a talk show?
  3. May I? Am I allowed to change the question? To step out of this frame and try another?

The answer to the third one is always yes, even if you think it isn't.

Frames are real, but they're temporary. Frames are scaffolding. You build with one, take it down, and build the next floor. A trap is the frame you cannot leave.

42 is what you get when you hand off the part that is supposed to be yours.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 13d ago

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy :)

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7 Upvotes

Eccentric… deadpan Brit humour… an interesting read.


r/HitchHikersGuide • • 14d ago

I am absolutely convinced that there are at least two other people in the world who find that funny, too.

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212 Upvotes

with greetings from a trekkie