Lost Gems of Yesteryear: An e2 vote Quest
We often have quests which aim to add new content to our web site. This is well and good, but we also have lots of great content already noded. Much of this content may never have been read by the current generation of e2 users. This humble quest aims to address that by returning a few old writeups to prominence.
Motivation
Old writeups are like onions.
amnesiac: They stink?
Yes. No! OK, sometimes. But...
amnesiac: Oh, they make you cry.
Brawl: Sometimes, yes. But...
amnesiac: Oh, you dig 'em out of the nodegel, they start sproutin' little white hairs.
Sigh.
/borg amnesiac
Shrek references aside, some old writeups do make you cry, and they don't all stink. Admittedly there are a few questionable writeups from the old days that we wouldn't accept today. On the other hand there were many early gems by both current and long-fled writers. A number of long-time users have performed self-audits and upgraded their old content as well.
How do we find these writeups? Sometimes folks stumble across them and cool! them, but that's more miss than hit. A Year Ago Today offers a random window on the past, but it doesn't differentiate. Here, we will attempt to pan gems out of the rough of the nodegel so that they can be admired and mounted to all to enjoy.
amnesiac: Is this one of those onion things?
No, I've changed analogies. Try to keep up, sir! I want you to identify up to three old writeups that you enjoy/admire, and then find as many ways as you can to share them with today's e2 readership.
Quest rules and rewards
What's an e2 Quest without rules? Chaos! So let's establish a few guidelines. As mentioned, I'd like to see up to 3 writeups nominated by each Quest participant. These writeups should be by three different noders, with none by you, because I want to encourage you to find and nominate good work by others. You'll let me know by /msg or email what they are before you promote them, so that I can note their starting reputations. Once the Quest start date arrives, you can promote them as you see fit. Day logs, companion writeups, reviews of poetry or fiction, reading for the podcast, bestowing a strategic C!, posting to your home node, highway graffiti, judicious nodevertising ... whatever you can think of to raise the profile of your nominees. (If you're thinking of an ongoing fiction series, please don't promote it by extending it yourself unless the series' author(s) approve.)
I'll keep a list here of participating users and writeups. You can also elect to be a 'secret' participant, and go with unlisted writeups and/or be an "unknown noder" until the Quest ends. Once the Quest ends I will disclose any and all unlisted participants and writeups.
At the end of the Quest I will collect the revised reputation of all writeups, and then rank participants by the total aggregate change in reputation. Because I want to focus on older writeups, the ranking will be adjusted as follows:
- Writeups posted on and since July 1 2007 are ineligible to be selected.
- Writeups posted on and since July 1 2006 will score 33% of net reputation change, except as above.
- Writeups posted on and since July 1 2004 will score 100% of net reputation change, except as above.
- Writeups posted before July 1 2004 will score 150% of net reputation change.
I will give all participants an XP bonus based on the net reputation change of their selected writeups. Prizes may also be awarded for the top 3 participants. These prizes may include XP bonus, votes, home node image privileges, C!s, a handful of old
Cheerios, or anything else I feel like at the time.
Quest-ions
What if my chosen writeups get downvoted? Or deleted?
If the writeups you promote end up with a negative reputation change, then your final ranking will be negative. And you'll lose XP when I give out the completion bonuses!
This is not a challenge to get the lowest Quest score. If any chosen writeups get deleted, then they won't count in the final ranking.
What if people use 'sock puppet' accounts to promote their own nodes?
That subverts the intention of the Quest. If I catch them, then I'll give them a very thorough node enema, which is like a
node audit with
extreme prejudice. However, if you just can't get your list down to three, and you want to use a secondary account to nominate three more, by all means do so.
If I find a great writeup partway through the Quest, can I add it?
If you have less than 3, sure. But you won't get "extra time" at the end.
What if someone else picks my favourite writeup?
First come, first served, unless the first user agrees to "share" in which case I'll split the net reputation gain or loss between the sharing parties.
This Quest unfairly favours the content of old noders.
A quest about promoting old content is going to have that tendency, yes. But even the newest user can look for great-but-overlooked content.
Oh yeah? Like, where?
Random Nodes. Look at
Everything's Best Users for users with high merit, or look at the home nodes of those users and look at their bookmarks. Follow
soft link chains. Revisit
Page of Cool. And so on.
When does the Quest start and end?
The Quest starts officially at 00:00:01 E2T on
August 1, 2007 and ends at 23:59:59 E2T
September 3, 2007. These times may vary slightly as I'm not proficient enough with
Perl to safely automate the data collection and will likely need to do some of it by hand.
That gives you over a week to identify your choice of writeups and to plan your promotional campaign.
Submitted gems
Recently recommended:
pile of kittens by that girl, I suggest you dance. If you need a reason, I'm sorry. by Hatshepsut, and Touch the Puppy by theonomist.
One recommended writeup was removed by its author.
We have 80 writeups by 71 different noders (Roninspoon, deep thought, dem bones, IWhoSawTheFace, jessicapierce, junkpile, and Mr. Hotel appear twice; Lometa appears 3 times). Please read, enjoy, and upvote your favourites!
Writeups submitted:
- A message from sensei by sensei
- Add Me On by dem bones
- Alaskan Independence Party by tarkaa
- American football by iceowl
- And? by Derfel
- Atlanta, Georgia by olmanrvr
- Aubade by NightWriter
- Boo, age two and a half by Mitzi
- Boris Karloff by Jet-Poop
- Canada by Palpz
- Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Glowing Fish
- Cinnamon and star anise poached chicken with Hainan rice by sneff
- Cold reptilian blood and hot Japanese steel by Anark
- cold women, kept safe by jessicapierce
- Do you remember how small your body was when you were five? by jessicapierce
- Dover test by Lometa
- For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her by Pocket Mouse
- fur coat, no knickers by gunpoint
- Ghosts I have known by kthejoker
- girl geek by KokiriKid
- Gordon the Gherkin by kobold
- Guns Don't Kill People, I like mayonnaise by Minderbender
- honeycomb by Rose_Red
- How did I get here, Sarah? by junkpile
- How to assassinate a third world despot with only a butt plug and a litre of raspberry coulis by Footprints
- I am a robot. by Interstellar Scrotum
- I suggest you dance. If you need a reason, I'm sorry. by Hatshepsut
- I was Christian for a day by claypenny
- I worked at summer camp, and all I got was this lousy case of gangrene by Igloowhite
- It's mean to hide a kitten in a puppy's butt by Excalibre
- lateral fricative by Gritchka
- Letters from a Savior; Offer for a few by dem bones
- Love your enemies by Inflatable_Monk
- löyly by vuo
- Mr Loo by Lometa
- My rubber ducky is stalking me by neon green lace
- No matter where I was, whisps of you haunted my thoughts by pukesick
- No one can be unhappy with a fresh box of crayons by IWhoSawTheFace
- Normal is just a setting on a washing machine by borgo
- Now is the time when I start: Drink by akatchoom
- Panama hat by GrouchyOldMan
- pile of kittens by that girl
- Questions I would ask my born-again sister, if we were still talking by AudieMcCall
- Ransom note love letter by deep thought
- Really big Honorable Uncle Sir by gn0sis
- Run like you are six by grundoon
- runner's road rage by futurebird
- Safe Passage Through the Night by Roninspoon
- September 29, 2004 by finrod
- She hated the screen porch, but she loved the heat by throwrug
- Slint by Mr. Hotel
- So this one-legged man walks into a bar by BlueÆon
- Standing on a mountaintop in northern Siberia under the rapidly descending bulk of asteroid McAlmont, with a calculating expression and a baseball bat by sam512
- Story For An Advanced Child by misuba
- Teletubbies, the State, and Social Mechanization by LeftistBaggage
- The day Melinda wore culottes by deep thought
- The demon was just under three feet tall by pelsmith
- The flowers smiled, but she was gone by IWhoSawTheFace
- The Great Figure by Lometa
- The One-Boobed Systyrs of the Apocalypse by doyle
- The Sin Eater by bewilderbeast
- The Society for the Abolition of Privacy by alfimp
- The stars were bright that night she left me forever by Roninspoon
theological aspects of temporal lobe function by paraclete
- These dead open their bodies to the living like a door by arcanamundi
- To her secret heart by minisecret
- Toaster by everyone
- Touch the Puppy by theonomist
- Twenty-three good things about pickles and dirt by junkpile
- Voices of Old People by panamaus
- Waiting for Bradley by Mr. Hotel
- What do moths do during the day? by speedo
- What do you say to Michael Crichton? by Michael F. Crichton
- When life gives you lemons, grab it by the throat and demand better by Cow Of Doom
- When silence between two people is comfortable by scooby
- Why strapping buttered toast to a cat's back will not produce infinite power by Ninja-Lad
- Why the willow weeps by Halspal
- Work within the limitations of the medium by yossarian
- Writing for a wider audience by BlueDragon
- You are reading this by prole
- Your God does not make me want to reconsider my thoughts about suicide by longwinter
Additional reading lists include Devon's in August 3, 2007 and Walter's in August 6, 2007.
Interim status reports are in the day logs for August 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 11th, 25th, and September 1st. Final results were posted on September 4th.