"Editor logs are for you, as daylogs are for everyone. Ed logs should have something to do with editorial decisions, policy or musings. Do as thou wilt." --dem bones, in a message to the admin.
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Editor logs contain musings by the administration, as well as a record of various actions they've taken. Below contains further description of both of these, and changes to the database that affected Editor Logs. There is also a summary of Significant Editor Logs for easy access.
Editor Logs past and present
In the old days of Everything2, Editor Logs were the only place the public could find out what writeup was 'nuked', who did it, and why. Now, writers are informed by message what is removed, Node Row shows what is currently being axed and Node Heaven lets noders review the history of what they've had nuked. (NOTE: as of mid 2011-- with the introduction of Drafts-- MFD, Node Heaven and 'nuked' are bygone terms; write-ups are instead 'unpublished' and reverted into draft status.) Editor logs soon transitioned into the main public record of communication between Admins (or 'Gods' and 'Content Editors' as they were known as) and users/guests.
Presently, there are two types of Editor Logs: 'Paper trail' logs, and expositional logs.
Editor Logs have had no established policy about what to log or even if to log. There is no agreed or established protocol about what to put in a log. Just as with Daylogs, anything seems to go: ruminations on noding, an explanation of a content situation which admins have discussed that users might be interested in, and lists of writeups and nodes some editors have nuked, altered, chinged and cooled.
With the advent of Klaproth, there wasn't a need to log minor Editor actions in the Ed Logs. However, there is a strong feeling by some in the Administration to demonstrate their monthly actions by logging them. This gives a sense of accountability, and paired with the more expositional logs also helps to give a sense of what the administration wants to keep or throw out in this database.
Editors are always accountable upwards. Gods can see who nuked what. One member of the administration regularly checks Klaproth's messages. Noders can at any time ask gods about nuked nodes, even if Klaproth's 'nuke' message was anonymous. Gods can and do investigate the reasons behind a nuke, if a noder has a complaint or a question about it. (Edit: Klaproth has been retired, see Writeup Deletion for current protocol.)
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Index of Editor logs, in reverse date order
Below is a brief summary of many Editor Logs. I have listed those that contain information that might be of general use to users of Everything2, as well as quite a few that hint at various dynamics that had an impact on the site momentarily or over a long period. The summarised Editor Log can be accessed via the month's hardlink. In the summary for a month, each sentence refers to a separate editor's log.
2022
April - jaybonci helps Temp42 out by politely asking a particularly fervent monomaniac to leave, which they do. wertperch completely and absolutely coincidentally rejoins the admin team to request a Code of Conduct be formed, and (again) calls for help in rewriting documentation.
March - Temp42 interrupts the silence from admin to suggest that maybepossiblyok-come-on-already writeups that are very much a 'Day Log' may perhaps be moved by admin into that day's Day Log.
2021
2021 contained nothing that the admin felt prompted a summary, feedback or announcement as an Editor Log.
2020
nothing occurred in 2020 that the admin could bear to comment on, commiserate with or advise about in an Editor Log.
2019
nothing occurred in 2019 to prompt any admin to log something in an Editor Log.
2018
nothing occurred in 2018 that the admin deigned to use an Editor log to communicate with.
2017
March - while not an Ed log, this from JayBonci may be of nerdy site historical interest, but the tl;dr is: buncha coding stuff to make the site work better and prepare for new features.
February - Lord Brawl, prompted by the previous month's work, discusses the process and challenges on converting recipe's recipe 'metanodes' into categories.
January - Lord Brawl exposes the brutal task of cleaning out bot accounts' message inboxes.
2016
apart from a quest announcement, nothing else occurred in 2016 that the admin felt the need to share.
2015
July - The Debutante retires from Director of User Relations Duty, passing this role to mauler.
2014
December - Mauler announced some tweaks to the Voting/Experience System in a November Ed Log and here explains it a bit more fully.
July - ████ reveals that now that the site is in perfectly running order 'It is time to call it a day and retire as E2's site manager', leaving Temp42 as interim site manager, which they are to this day.
April - Auspice, who left in a huff two years before, returns and yearns that we earn our burns. haqiqat, who left in a huff two years before, returns and yearns for furnished yarns.
2013
June - Tem42 provides an explanation on how and why they reorder writeups within a node.
April - Stuart gives some writing advice on empathy, especially with reviewing one's own writing, with an emphasis on 'why should we care about this?'
2012
November - ████ does not miss ToasterLeavings, and is somewhat shocked to learn that his own inaction on dealing with inappropriate behaviour hasn't kept said behaviour from continuing. The Custodian digs into the Google Analytics for E2 and shares some interesting learning on what the rest of the world is reading on this site.
October - wertperch anticipates JayBonci's coding revamp will reap a great future for E2, asks for feedback on improving feedback and again calls for help in rewriting E2's help documentation (see also)
April - wertperch calls for help in revamping documentation to make unwritten rules less unwritten.
March - ████ is triggered by a rude thing someone said in the chatterbox, and --in typical fashion-- absolves himself of any action by asking the ChanOps group to be more vigilant.
February - Aerobe loads up Trigger Warnings, which can be activated using Display Categories. ████ supports this endeavour by promising a better way to activate them at some point in the future and also reveals the surprising news of a new site owner, which prompts in him a mild existential crisis.
January - ████ relays a bit of the ongoing history regarding the change in site ownership (actual new ownership still a mysterious mystery), users and admin leaving for related and unrelated reasons, and some other catbox drama hinted at, which gives an example to those currently reading this of the hemming and hawing and wringing of hands that was indicative of most of the governance of the site over any sort of issue, large or small.
2011
December - ████, caught off-foot by an announced sale of E2's owners, frantically calls for folk not to panic; he later mysteriously updates that a mysterious solution has made all well (spoiler: JayBonci bought the site).
November - Jet-Poop, addressing an empty room, wonders how people can help with the perpetual and worsening server problems.
October - The Debutante reviews feedback requested in August about catbox etiquette and chanops responsibilities, while also detailing their tools and guidelines; tl,dl: EDB LIVES!
September - The god formerly known as the Content Editor cassparadox pontificates on why she, and possibly you, visit this site. ████ takes the time to grace us with his monthyearly decree of what may or may not be happening with management of e2: an ongoing leveling up of functions for Content Editors which will replace 'gods' eventually, some sort of new 'core' management, and new recruits comprised of people who buy him beer.
August - Aerobe proposes a way to reach new users, as well as inviting you to help new users by rewriting E2's help docs. The Debutante explains that as e2contact were completely pointless, the group was disbanded; she invites discussion in the daylogs about appropriate monitoring of the catbox.
February - tentative discusses the increase of poetry being contributed, reiterates the importance of giving feedback to both you and others, as well as giving suggestions for explaining your downvote. cassparadox crunches the numbers of contributions to quests recently and reveals the secret recipe: "E2 NEEDS MORE QUESTS".
2010
December - tentative boldly shares their editorial philosophy with you, which includes "There is never enough feedback".
November - RedOmega lists all of last month's 'minifestos' in one place, as well as telling us of more discussions by the Content Editors. Aerobe starts the voting on a new tagline and blurbs for the site's front page. cassparadox shares their editorial philosophy with you (again). ███ denies accusations that admin listen into messages you send to other users, and asks that you trust him on that.
October - Aerobe invites suggestions to change E2's Welcome message. RedOmega shares the topics of recent discussions by Content Editors. ███ discusses: a perceived gender gap among admin, if a hostile environment exists on e2, that anyone can start a quest, and why he is shutting down the mentoring system and requiring admin to node at least once this year.
September - RedOmega thinks E2 should be more communicative, so writes about personal attacks, nuking policy, and reasons why the site isn't very active.███ says E2 will not stand for threats, stalking, or harassment, whether online or spilling into 'real life'; he also notes that reposted nuked writeups will most likely be nuked again.
August - ███ clarifies that E2 does not financially benefit from grant money earmarked to study site behaviour and chides two of the contributors who have recently left.
June - cassparadox sums up their editorial philosophy and encourages all of us to give feedback on writeups.
April - The Debutante says write!
February - ███ expresses reservations about public access to the offsite archives of the catbox and retracts the silly demand that-- although he is the current webmaster and 'voice' of this website-- all his comments in the archives be ████████.
January - alex belatedly introduces the new filter for hiding very low reputation writeups, reveals the Registries feature, and clarifies very specificly and in small simple words that when you're not cool, e2 would not like you or your writing to be here.
2009
November - iceowl, reflecting on the last decade of E2, notes that 'E2 has been one of the greatest gifts to me as a writer.'
October - alex admits that nodermeets are a good way to hobnob with the common people.
September - alex takes notice of all the excitement leading up to the tenth anniversary of e2's creation.
August - The Debutante addresses the question 'Are personal messages protected by copyright?' and reminds us to 'know our audience' and to be polite.
July - alex gives us details about the great server meltdown of '09. Oolong ruminates on poetry and spoilers in reviews.
June - The Debutante would neither upvote nor downvote the new ability to change a vote on a writeup. RedOmega is reluctant to share their philosophy with us.
May - alex invites you to write the editors a letter; he describes potential new candidates for E2 Staff as those who 'sit right' with him. The Debutante introduces us to the e2contact and hall monitors organisation.
April - alex doesn't mourn the loss of that girl's pile of kittens and uses a large amount of words defending why.
March - alex explains what E2's coders do.
February - alex gets all introspective on the true spirit of noding for the ages.
2008
December - alex was pleased many faced up to the challenge; reiterates that negative rep writeups don't necessarily mean deletion; explains 'node insurance'; and advises that if you are vexed by something to /msg him or the staff instead of using the catbox.
November - the Editor in-Chief formerly known as Pint comes to the realisation that his role is now redundant, so he falls on his sword. alex closes the door firmly behind jack; oversees implementation of the something that noders were recruited for in January, while being a little surpised that after nine months of notice people still weren't aware the something would happen; and is thankful for all the input, but now is looking forward to output.
October - the god formerly known as Apatrix (the one who recruited noders for something to do with something a few months back) takes over E2, promises the world. Oolong refuses to change his username, and has wrenched kthejoker's Lead Developer Badge of Sweat and Blood from his cold dead hands.
September - Bitriot asks returning and lurking noders to trust us again, points out that new tools make it easier to write here, reminds us we are here to learn, and emphasises that 'the quality and effort of our writing is the only leg we have to stand on.' wertperch revisits the etiquette and difficulties of giving and getting feedback on writeups.
August - Apatrix reminds us of /ignore, as well as revealing E2's policy regarding automata. In what seems to be a continuing E2 administrative tradition of announcing the possibility of something that will happen, TheDeadGuy announces that at some point soon there will be a group of admins called e2Contact, who would support new and existing users by contacting them, as well as punitatively addressing unruly or disturbed chatbox users. Augustine clearly describes what they've been up to since becoming a Content Editor three months ago, including what happens when greeting new users and reactions to removing and hiding certain new user writeups.
July - Heisenberg calls for better trolling in the catbox.
May - TheDeadGuy advises more writing as the ultimate solution to what is wrong with e2. Apatrix and the recruited noders who looked at the voting, level and Experience system and came up with a plan have had that plan approved, but they can't tell us what it is yet.
March - Apatrix and some recruited noders have looked at the voting, level and Experience system and have come up with a plan they can't tell us about yet.
February - Transitional Man likes it that people can like his writeups.
January - Apatrix recruited noders to look at the voting, level and Experience system.
2007
December - Transitional Man disguises an introduction to how to enjoy and contribute to E2 as an epistolary greeting. Jack also writes a letter-- to a podcast-- insisting, yet again, that E2 is not dead.
November - Jack avoids answering questions about the future of e2 by listing a bunch of nodeshells. borgo joins in on the diversion by using many of the nodeshells in a story. kthejoker proposes a new level system, and as no one protested it, he implemented the system in December. Lometa was inspired by this to create a survey here, and summarises the responses.
August - Jack reassures us that this will just be a flavourful writers' site soon. Apatrix argues that we are a product, that should be new and improved, to bring back GTKY, that we want more writers and artists here, and that you can't describe mona lisa's smile. shaogo is glad to be more involved. junkill says CE's are both editors and administrators. eien_meru would like more science here.
July - borgo compares recent development ideas to moths bashing themselves against lights. Wiccanpiper records an example day as Editor. wertperch mythologises e2's history. Lord Brawl discovers that now he doesn't have to write an editor log, he has the time to write one.
June - Heisenberg says a nice thing about Lord Brawl. Jack thought people were ignoring Dream Logs so figures people won't ignore them if they have their own nodetype and are in day logs instead.
May - Lord Brawl goes back to being a plebian. Jack lays down the foundation of what e2 fundamentally is by informing us he grew up in New Jersey.
April - Heisenberg and Wiccanpiper think e2 is smelling rosy again. haze gives us the lowdown on the FAQ.
March - Jack beats his breast while reiterating his view of editorial policy regarding writeup deletions. Lord Brawl goes into much more detail, while describing the process of deleting writeups.
February - Lord Brawl discusses the editors discussing returning old noders new content being dismissed as lame, as well as the possibility of a 'museum of e2', wherein those famous old writeups are stored for posterarity.
2006
December - paraclete overviews linking, and guides you through creating hard links and pipe links, and where you should use one or the other. Site news from Lord Brawl.
November - Excalibre gives you the ins and outs of how the site works.
October - sekicho gets pedantic about how writeups work.
September - rootbeer277 comprehensively overviews the inner workings of writeups. TheDeadGuy ponders the site's possible death through stagnation. More site news from Lord Brawl.
August - Lord Brawl pipes up with more site news.
July - jessicapierce offers insights about the difference between writeups and daylogs. Lord Brawl provides a bit of site news.
June - jessicapierce is purging the nodegel of any plagairized works, and has found many a nodeshell for filling in.
April - Lord Brawl decides the time is ripe to nuke sensei's writeups, and also will filter the chatbox to replace the usage of the word 'fuck' with 'huggle'.
March - Excalibre lists many of the Content Editors' powers, and explains the meaning and implications behind 'pulling an asamoth'.
February - kthejoker asks a rhetorical question about if writeups should have hardlinks in them, and yet people answer it. Lord Brawl asks for input on tweaking EBU, is slightly bemused at people answering kthejoker's rhetorical question, and hates all of you.
January - Apatrix contributes his Editor bio. Lord Brawl answers questions about transcripts, the E2 FAQ, as well as noting some admin changes and pointing to a number of users who have written bios in application for an admin position.
2005
December - Lord Brawl dusts off some Content Editors, and proposes a more active crew, kickstarting it by asking for some Bios. IWhoSawTheFace tugs at the lapels of a fleeing noder and gets some interesting results from asking why they are going. Wiccanpiper and pint contribute their editor bios.
November - rootbeer277 breaks out his top 10 list of common formatting and spelling errors he corrects in user's writeups (coincidentally, other top ten lists appears in the daylog the same day). Lord Brawl throws back the curtains to reveal some the conversations and decisions behind the scenes; this includes the hows and whys of changing a user name, and what happens when a user leaves, asking for all their writeups to be deleted. smartalix, gets to the gritty and thinks new users fail to READ THE FUCKING MANUAL.
October - In early september, dem bones retired as 'editor in chief'/webmaster, handing the webmaster responsibility to dann, who handed the Chief Editor responsibility to Lord Brawl. Formally announcing his role as 'Editor-in-chief', Lord Brawl writes a bit about his experience here; as well as announcing there will be no major changes until the code supports it-- apart from some administration moving about; and he describes some policy and suggestions about what to do when there is a user in serious emotional crises. Also, Wiccanpiper gives some feedback on, er, feedback.
September - Transitional Man suggests one way to become a good writer is to read, read some more, and keep reading. haze uses 'HOWTO nodes as an example in a discussing On Titling Nodes. IWhoSawTheFace tells you his life story and editorial philosophy: he is your biggest fan, and could hotwire your car.
August - Transitional Man explains his editorial philosophy for deleting writeups.
July – JohnnyGoodYear pats nodes on the head before eviscerating them; also, he has an axe and is not afraid to use it. the surgeon general insists eating bran muffins is actually good for our health
June – ,,,,,,.
May – Yet another parable from a prophet stumbling about the wilderness.
March – Panamaus isn't having fun, so quits (this appears to be the fastest and highest chinged Ed Log). TheDeadGuy hasn't quit, is still having fun. Jet-poop tries their hand at parables, fails spectacularly. (Panamaus requested that their Log be nuked, which toppled the other two logs.)
February – Pint has 7 points of advice for not so awesome poets noding here; a pause in writing/ e2 is a community/ downvotes are not real. (have your own poetic take on Pint's advice? msg me and i will add here!)
January – avalyn comprehensively overviews e2 HTML. Wiccanpiper calls the four corners of their editorial ‘credo’. Haze is now responsible for the Everything Faq, and immediately parcels out the work to other people.
2004
December – Wiccanpiper, newly given Editor powers, goggles at the new tools at their fingertips. rootbeer277 crosses a few tees and dots a few eyes in other users' writeups, and explains the usefulness (while noting useful procedures) of being able to dabble around. Transitional Man fights for content over empty calories, and believes E2 has great potential for constructive editing for writers. smartalix notes the peculiar habit of relying on links to provide context, so that an actual topic is talked around, not about.
November – allseeingeye plays pin the tail on the donkey. Timeshredder forces their new editorial philosophy on you. smartalix does not force their editorial philosophy on you. JohnnyGoodYear uses poesy and sports analogy to force, etc etc. Pint knocks their own Ed Phil outta the ball park.
October – Lord_Brawl finds an IE 6.0 Bug and watches it intently. JohnnyGoodYear howls from the top of the grisly nodegel heap.
August – Halspal writes his first and last Ed log, wherein he takes credit for all the good stuff that's been done here.
July – Lometa discusses the importance of updating old writeups.
June – Lometa discusses the difference between plagiarism and copyright.
May – Lometa suggests ways to get around Noder’s Block. arieh reveals their handy guide to softlinking.
April – TheDeadGuy says ‘you can’t please all of the people all of the time… move beyond the drama, write.’
March – Servo5678 is concerned about abandoned writeups. Lord Brawl follows up his February log with 'A wikipedia user's perspective'.
February – Lord Brawl considers the differences between E2 and Wikipedia (wiki is to the point, but e2 has personality). arieh responds to the above from a historical perspective: "Everything2 doesn't have a mission statement, but individual noders have missions and these can contradict each other." wertperch makes Hallmark happy by instigating Feedback Month in an extensive writeup about talking to people about their writeups. ac_hyper discusses what it is like being a new Editor, - including a mission statement - and throws in some poetry to boot.
January - wertperch sums up what he, and E2, have been up to for the past few months.
2003
December -
gn0sis details why he's going to
Wikipedia.
Lucy-S details why she's staying here.
TheDeadGuy rambles about the beach.
October -
GrouchyOldMan introduces the
Content Salvage Team.
September -
GrouchyOldMan reviews
the copyright redemption quest.
Gorgonzola reacts to copyright changes by introducing the '
My Big Writeup List' tool.
haze researches copyright law about ownership of rights and public domain.
Lucy-S also researches the same.
August -
jurph is applying
zero population growth to their nuking strategy, as well as attempting to 'greet' new noders as they arrive.
July -
haze briefly discusses the difficulty of /msg'ing noders.
May -
Wuukiee encounters a
mass-noding project of dubious nature and, snicker-snack, slaughters the beast, provoking much thought on how to maintain other such projects, especially gaming indexes.
haze enjoys the benefits of good noder
interaction.
April -
haze writes from first-hand experience a definitive guide to
Metanodes.
Apatrix muses on a year and a half of Editing and realises that they've mellowed out, advising that one should not knock something until they've tried it.
March -
Apatrix reveals that over a third of the Editors do not write nodes any longer; encouragement and understanding is expressed.
fuzzy and blue provides some practical ways around being seduced by '
GTNY' and '
Writeups in reply'.
haze gives some tips on
researching writeups, including ways of
citation.
TheDeadGuy attempts to quell mob rule with ways to node
current events.
February -
gn0sis tries out some
long vowels in Japanese.
Ouroboros briefly discusses noding lists.
TheDeadGuy reveals who
Guest User could be, and intones '
We are not alone'.
January -
Gorgonzola gets his hands dirty sorting out
Webster 1913's Native American quirks.
2002
December - fuzzy and blue rhapsodises noding poetry. Starke plays the death card on auto-noded MTG card decks, and explains why. Lord Brawl stares into the abyss and the abyss blinks (H. P. Lovecraft tales removed from the nodegel). TheDeadGuy sings a few non-rhyming songs about Downvote Shame, The Fear of Looking Silly When Chinging and Michael Douglas is Cute.
November - TheDeadGuy gives the rundown on how to write a kick-ass Daylog. Lucy-S jumps on the copyright compliance bandwagon ten months early (at this point our policy was to not get rid of write-ups violating copyright unless requested). Rancid Pickle converts 'HOWTO' titles.
October - TheDeadGuy made up a troll to test out reactions from users and admin. fuzzy and blue discovers their editing style, and includes some examples of noder/editer interaction. liveforever defines their ed logging style. Lucy-S identifies, hunts and destroys cut-and-paste writeups (plagiaricus verbatum). Wuukiee establishes their role as Editor. The ability to 'nuke with penalty' (-5 XP) seems to have stopped this month.
September - TheDeadGuy is poisoned by some negative writeups; he also produces a scale of difficult writeups from factual to humor; and briefly explores some existential 'why am i here?' tunnels. Blue_Bellied_Lizard is pelted with dead babies for nuking jokes about them.
August - TheDeadGuy tackles Downvoting. liveforever gives some tips on politeness. Quizro gives a thorough and fascinating description of what happened with user rebuttals of Beyond Belief: A Buddhist Critique of Christianity.
July - fuzzy and blue discovers, in an interaction with a noder, that one's tone of voice can be misinterpreted. TheDeadGuy's new mantra is 'think like a newbie'. iceowl briefly considers what the worth of a writeup is.
June - Lord Brawl enters the House of Usher, and does not return until December. liveforever briefly considers personal prejudice. TheDeadGuy wonders if he is prone to favoritism.
May - liveforever lays out some more of their editing philosophy. TheDeadGuy describes consolidating the Everything People Registry.
April - Gorgonzola nuked the U.S. Constitution and describes how he did it. TheDeadGuy views E2 as an interactive magazine, and uses this metaphor to spell out his editorial philosophy. iceowl also reveals his editing philosphy, along with advice ending in 'You're writers, goddamit. Never Stop. For Any Reason. Ever.'.
March - fuzzy and blue briefly describes why they nuke low or neg rep writeups. Roninspoon explains the nuking of individual 'The Devil's Dictionary' entries (they were already noded by letter). Quizro tackles 'How to Offend any..." nodes. Demeter is weeding out a lot of nodes about noding. anthropod notices a pattern in what they nuke, and describes an Adventure With Messaging A Noder Before They Nuked.
February - fuzzy and blue is surprised to become a Content Editor.
January - Lord Brawl describes removing two user's entire contributions, and what this entails. wertperch gives a very extensive overview of various editorial standards and philosophies, and spells out his own.
2001
September -
dannye suggests ways to node 'How Many xxx Does It Take To Change A LightBulb'.
July -
Lord Brawl describes the impact of changes to the
C!hing (the number available to users has reduced, but now writeups can have more than one); he describes removing a set of M:tG cards (see also
Editor Log: December 2002); and he discusses the 'votes cast' feature'.
April -
anotherone nodes a day in their life as an Editor.
January -
Lord Brawl describes the removal of and conversations around copyrighted work.
2000
Editor Logs: 2000... Logs from before 2001 are mostly 'paper trail' logs. These were begun by knifegirl -- as noted above in her Everything Editor Log (well, it was noted, but now has magically disappeared!) -- and other members of the administration began joining in. You will find plaintive messages from sensei and wharfinger among these (see Editor Log: October 8, 2000 for an excellent example, including sensei's overview of Ed logs at that time). A lot of the tone of editor logs stems from their small voices from the nodegel.
If there is a particular Editor Log you would like to be linked from this writeup, please contact me by /msg and I will add it in here.
As also (once upon a time) noted above by knifegirl, EdLogs were originally done daily, as Daylogs are. However, it became increasingly apparent that a monthly log would be more suitable. Many of these daily and monthly 'paper trail' logs from before 2003 are being removed, but some will be left as a record of how things were back then.
April 2022 - By request, gnarl has updated this page with summaries of the last decade or so of Ed Logs. Special thanks to the admin for not logging anything for many of those years.
as of Nov 2011, after over 7 years of updating, gnarl has retired from this public service. Edits and additions may or may not be made by site admin. blah? blah blah! Bleaugh.