Beginnings
First there were the
node gods, and they were
powerful but without
form. They contained and created the pure thought-matter of
the ur-node.
The ur-node split into two writeups. There were words. They spun on their axis, one pulling, the other pushing. Out of their motion rose form, and from their warmth rose nate. There was code. A spark fell from an unknown point and landed on nonexistant earth-place of mere words, smouldering and gaining thought. dem bones arose. There was passion. And other things.
The gods came together and said,
hey, some is good, but more is better!
They hunted and slayed the old god, whose beginning was before time. They took the body of
Webster 1913 and divided it, and turned it into nodes, and scattered it as
seed. Thus they seeded the database. And chaos was
sown as well.
There was Everything. And it was good. Noders came and stirred bits of their essence into the soop. Indeed, in Everything, there were few coders, but many cooks: and thus it is to this day. Some were to stay, and their nodes were legion, while some passed through, and merely peppered the stew with dust. Everything assimilated it all.
Yet the noders spoke to nate, who was really, I assure you, quite busy, and said, oh nate, you are so powerful and stuff, and can do many things, yet we cannot even format our nodes! we are so small and you are so great! help us! And nate, witnessing the unrest, trimmed his fingernails (for they were getting quite long), and these fingernails became the Golden Gods of Hypertext. And nate said, Learn how to format! And they did.