Everything Daylogs

A concept borrowed from the A Day In The Life of Everything node. Instead of making a one time event where people add in everything from the day, instead we add to the log anything interesting that happened to us during the day.

So everything becomes a history database that can't be duplicated anywhere... at least not yet. Take a few minutes, write about what you did, what you saw, what you thought. Perhaps you'll find it of interest later on.

The first entry is July 28, 1999.

They are now automated by Everything, available from the front page. Each is named in (month) (day), (year) format, as in January 1, 2000. (Most of them are linked forward and backward also)

The other day I remember reading a lot of naysaying about Day Logs in the chatterbox. Mainly your normal huffing and hawing about "XP Whore" this and "Noding for Numbers" that. But it got me thinking, and so here are my answers to standard complaints about Everything Day Logs.

1) "But, I don't want to hear about Everythingian X!"
Answer: So don't read about them.

Reading day logs is your own choice. It's very easy to tell when something links to a day log, because it's in your standard "Month Day, Year" format. This is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned. There's a lot of stuff here in Everything, and not all of it's interesting. You don't have to read it. Of course, you could have a problem with it being useless becuase you think...

2) "You're just noding for numbers. That's what the Day Logs and Dream Logs are all about!"
I disagree. Just because you find somebody's life uninteresting, or you find the fact that they noded the cd's they were listening to and the problems they were having isn't a bad thing. For one, from Everything Day Logs it says that the Day Logs are so that Everything can become in part a unique history database. Secondly, noding interesting things in your day is just noding what you know. What do you know better than what's on your mind and what's going on in your life on any given day?

3) "Day Logs are just a lot of people whining!"
I'd have to agree with this, but I don't see why it's a problem. People don't whine unless something is bothering them, and often the best way to help that is to talk about it. I see people whining not as an annoying thing, but more as something healthy.

4) "People who write Day Logs use horrible text formatting and massive fonts."
Well, ummm, *shuffles feet*, yeah. If you wanted somebody to see your writeup in the sea of others, I guess you have to do something a little more drastic than to just have a really good Day Log. However, one might also think that if you have to scream to be heard, you have nothing profound to say.

5) "Your radical ideas about X have already occurred to others."
So what if your radical ideas have already occurred to others. They're occuring to you now, and by documenting them, you're providing some historical record of your growth as a person and your thoughts at any given time.
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So, despite all issues to the contrary, I like Day Logs. I find them both fun to read and interesting. For my own selfish note, I like to keep some sort of public record of what I'm doing (outside of my private journal) so that other people can know what I'm doing or how I'm generally feeling if they so choose.

Beyond my own selfish reasons, I also think they're also a nice addition to Everything Culture. Every noder has their own background and their own style that they bring to writing, and knowing a little bit more about them through Day Logs helps to understand Everything more from a subjective point of view.

Lastly, even though Day Logs seem so hated by people, I think it keeps a lot of stuff out of the rest of Everything that wouldn't really fit. Nobody wants a metanode about what cd's somebody else has listened to in the past month or a separate node for every noder and every day. Sometimes experiences or dreams are brief random things that might be good to record but don't merit their own node.

And hey, this is Everything, and what anybody did yesterday, or today, or ever, is definitely a part of that. Everything Day Logs, to me at least, seem the best way to organize that information.

This is a reflection* on the current status of daylogs, and my mixed feelings on them:

I find myself torn by the concept of daylogs. I know I should avoid the subject, but still, there are a few things that I like about them, and a few things that don't sit right with me about them.

They too, belong. First off, I want to come out and say that I believe there is a place for them on Everything. They are not as timeless as a lot of other pieces I've seen, but they do capture much in a person's life. Some of the old daylogs were really kinda neat to read, when they weren't as popular, and E2 was a smaller place to hang.

Some people only daylog A lot of times, all people do is daylog. Maybe this is a gross generalization, but I see lots of nodes go by, and sometimes all I notice by particular noders are that they just write daylogs. What are they contributing on a larger scale? Not much, it seems. I don't want to squelch their efforts (oftentimes they are quite good), but on the other hand, I see other efforts go unrewarded, because their titles are not predictable, and not linked to from the front page.

Daylogs are oftentimes over-valued (over voted) Daylogs, I'd imagine, are a roll of the XP dice. If you write a long daylog, then people upvote it, it seems. If it is a short writeup, then people might downvote it, regardless of what you say most times. I read them all most of the way through, before I cast my opinion, but a lot of people carpet bomb them with their votes, in an attempt to get rid of their 45, 60, 90, 300** or however many they have. This isn't right. I see incredibly well written nodes go unnoticed, until someone finally brings them to people's attention, and then they get their votes that they deserve. Some daylogs I've seen have 20-30 rep day after day from the traffic they get. Especially if you are closer to the top of the daylog list.

Newbies are all too quick to hit the daylogs Newbies oftentimes get discouraged when they see their brief intimate reflection on the day's events for them earns them a -12 rep on the WU. They are playing soccer in the HOV lane, and it is never good.

Daylogs are not a linkable form of content I've seen some gorgeous daylogs; wonderful reflections on an event, records of death, life, changes, monumental events, etc. But once I've read them, if I don't bookmark them, how can they be well integrated? A softlink to a daylog means nothing because the title is really vague. I wish people would keep their brilliance out of daylogs, and into something that would make sense in the database in the future. I'd love to softlink someone's touching account of the death of a parent to sorrow or to a story about my grandparents or something, but I can't do so meaningfully with a daylog title.

Daylogs are out of context, by default People write up things that are important to them, using proper names, places, etc; as if we are watching their lives as a soap opera. "Like how Billy, Johnny and Suzie took them to the restaurant down the corner. You know? The nice one." No, I don't know, and it doesn't make any sense aside from the people who wrote it. Daylogs aren't for the database, they are for the noder, it seems. Everything I guess isn't a personal scratchpad, but still, they don't integrate well. Perhaps we just need better daylog writers; perhaps I've read one too many excellent writeups in there.

So I guess daylogs do suck, but not for any one reason; they can be a treasure trove of content, or a hole of vote dumping. Maybe we'd all be a little better if people kept personal day logs, if that sort of thing interests you. There is a lot of junk in there, but the occasional gem or reflection that really makes it worth the read; and that's why I'll keep on going there.

Footnotes:
* I felt this writeup had a good place here, rather than using it as softlink flamebait by some coward, it served to voice my opinion on the subject. Also, note this writeup was reparented from it's original home in daylogs suck

** I am not commenting on any of Psuedo's voting habits, but rather that he has a pile of votes at his disposal

nine9 has write-up under the daylog for June 13, 2001 where he complains of folks systematicly downvoting daylogs. However he made a grave mistake of name-calling in the write-up, he calls the practice immature, and refers to those that engage in it as "children". As one who downvotes daylogs (and I have never been secretive about this pratice) allow me to explain the rationale behind this activity.

First let me start by saying that Everything2 is unique, in that it allows the users to shape and control its content. This is guided by the editors and gods to make sure things don't get out of hand. The average user's most powerful tool is that allotment of votes given each day, they use these votes to make their statement of what they feel belongs in the database and what they think should go. There seem to be several schools of thoughts when it comes to daylogs:

1. I like daylogs, I'll upvote them all.
2. I don't like daylogs, I'll downvote them all
3. I judge each write-up in daylogs on their individual merit and up or down vote accordingly
4. I don't vote on daylogs.
5. "I have too many votes. Ah a daylog!" (proceed to up or down-vote)

Over the year+ since e2 went online there have been many philosophies on noding. Two very popular philosophies which most daylog entries are in opposition to are node for the ages and avoid highly subjective write-ups. Daylogs could also be lumped in with GTKYN. They are some of the largest nodes in the database, just a few months ago they were sizable enough to crash browsers (woe to anyone who happens to random node into a daylog). Since there have been more people who routinely downvote daylogs they have recently reduced in size. The system works! We can't stop noders from creating daylogs but we can express our distaste for them through the medium given to us, our votes.

Now I will state here that blanket downvoting of daylogs is not what should be happening. Contrary to the belief of some I have *gasp* upvoted some write-ups in daylogs. These write-ups are usually summaries of important events that occured on that day, or information that is pertinant to a majority of noders. nine9 , you complain at people downvoting daylogs and speak of cathartic, genuine writing then give us an example of quite the opposite. Of what value to the noding community is it that you had problems with your air conditioning on June 13th, 2001? I do not feel that e2 was meant to house people's diaries, that what personal web sites are for.

Time may prove me wrong, but I will continue to do my part as a noder to cull useless information from the database, as a long-time noder I can do no less. It may be that it is pointless as nine9 states, but it's the use of the the tools given me. The writing of all noders is only valuable to the database when it contributes something with value. If something really important happened to you, I think you'd see that it needs a node of it's own, not to be hidden within the vast streamers of chaff that clouds daylogs. If your subject matter doesn't deserve it's own node perhaps it should be left out of the database.

I make no apologies. I have received my share of downvotes, mostly for noding the kind of pap usually put into daylogs under nodes of their own.

First let me start by saying that Everything2 is unique, in that it allows the users to shape and control its content.

How true! We are all free to vote for whatever reason we choose. Whether or not daylogs should or should not be downvoted, upvoted, used for vote dumping namespaced, go toward node count or be votable is using guilt to manipulate opinions. I don't think I can honestly read any node and consider the voting as a true measuring stick for its talent, value, or credibility.

Daylogs serve an important function in the E2 community. They are an important locale where others in the community can read and get to know about each other, a region to vent about what has happened in daily lives; a spot for others to gather, to know and enjoy reading about them and their lives. I don't know of another way I could find out about these people. These are historical records about ordinary days in ordinary lives.

As a new user they were practice for personal HTML skills because it felt safe there; that they would be left alone long enough to figure out, learn from and fix the mistakes. A good area to practice and express creative writing skills.

They're useful for watching out for new noders who may be having problems so help and suggestions can be offered by others. They are the place for GTKY nodes, since individual GTKY nodes and chatting in the cat box are routinely discouraged it seems reasonable to me to upvote and encourage new members to the community. I hope daylogs will always remain available and open to the free ebb and flow of votes and cools from the community.