As much as I try to avoid short, pithy statements and mindless hero worship the fact that we seem to have lost our way often means that we need to find an example of what we should be doing. While pondering this and the many problems of the current E2 I thought of just what would best represent this. What can we point to to describe best what E2 should be and how noders should treat it when it occurred to me:
What would sensei do?
Will there ever be someone who best represents the potential of this site than he? Even though he had earned it, did he ever succumb to the idea that we should tolerate his bullshit? For that matter, did he ever bullshit?
sensei represented what was best about the "good old days" of E2. He wrote some excellent factuals, but also supplied us with recipes, observations, poetry, and, dare I say it, soul. How would a two line write-up on the right to sunshine fare today? Would it be immediately voted down? Survive only because of name recognition?
I do not wish that we should mythologize a man. There is no true glory in being put up on a pedestal and viewed only as some impossible ideal free from criticism. Instead I think that perhaps we should look to the past. At the greatness that has already been done and at someone who has already shown us the way to create a site that is both serious, yet warm.