1. What is your name?
FlameBoy
2. Tell us something about you, your background, and what you've been up to lately?
I'm a northerner who has lived in London all this millennium. I'm in my 30s, married and working as a programmer. I spent many years making video games and now work in online poker. I would prefer to live in the mountains, renting out a couple of rooms and spending my time hacking and cycling.
3. How did you discover Everything, and how did you become a noder?
I can't even remember how I first came across the site in the summer of 2000, but I loved the idea and it just seemed natural to get stuck in. The atmosphere reminded me of the talkers I discovered in the mid 90s. It felt like it had a kind of educated, slacker vibe.
4. What are your favorite writeups -- both your own and from other noders?
It's been too long to really remember. Maybe my snow writeup because it was personal without getting trounced by the downvoters.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite memories from E2's history?
I was never into the politics, but that's what I liked least about E2 and why I stopped visiting the site regularly. There always seemed to be big, pathetic fights going on that I didn't want any part of. On the other hand, sometimes a noder would contact me because they found something interesting in what I'd written and I made some short term, but very interesting friends that way. Friends who have since drifted away and appear to be lost to me now.
6. What keeps you coming back?
I pop on about once every six months and check my chat messages. I usually have about four or five about people bookmarking things and that's it, but sometimes, just occasionally, there will be a tiny little blast from the past in a message from a friend saying something like, "You still alive?"
7. What do you hope for E2's future?
I hope it continues to provide a platform for people to write, where they can appreciate each other's work and can feel joined together by their creativity.
8. What does E2 mean to you?
These days, it's just a place where I can visit some happy memories from the past ten years. Now and then I wrote a daylog or two and sometimes it's good to read those and remind myself how far I've come in my personal life since then. Sometimes it also provides me with a sad reminder that I have lost my inspiration to write in the way I used to, but life goes on, eh? :)
9. Who are your favorite noders? Which ones do you miss the most?
dustfromamoth - I like how there's a YouTube account out there, in the same name, and the only comment on it is someone asking, "Are you the dustfromamoth from E2?"
10. Who would play you in the Everything2 movie?
Extra number 112, in background, at E2 meetup drinking session.
11. Please fill in the blank: "E2 is to the Internet as ___ is to the world."
E2 is to the Internet as extra number 112, in background, at E2 meetup drinking session is to the world.
I find it less of a relevant question than it might have been when I joined E2. Back then, the Internet was still new to the general population, with maybe 1% of UK homes online, rather than the 80% or so it is these days. Back then, a website could be something to the Internet. Now the Internet is no longer as small and is no longer a separate concept to the world at large. It used to feel like a special country where you could do or be what you like. Now it feels more like electricity or water, run by the same politics as the rest of the world, but pervasive and accepted. An influencial website is no longer something to the Internet without also being something to the world.
12. Any questions that I didn't ask that I should've?
Name something that's now in the public mind that didn't even exist when you joined E2.
Google.
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact FlameBoy or Jet-Poop.