July 8, 2007

Today, with this writeup, in fact, I reach level 2. It feels like a huge milestone. No longer a newbie, no longer just visiting and posting a few random thoughts. As such, I would like to share what I've learned about this funny place. Now, I realize that noding about noding is often discouraged, especially for new noders, and that all my radical ideas about noding have already occurred to others and probably been noded. That's why I'm putting this in a daylog and not something that too many people are likely to see.

• The people here are a lot closer than I initially feel like they should be. I, for one, have never met someone in real life who I first met on the interweb. But then I go and stumble across nodes about nodermeets. These people have not only met one another, they often invite each other to their actual houses. I don't know whether to be frightened or intrigued by this, but I think it's a little of both. I think the part that intrigues me is that one of these events is coming in a few weeks and located about an hour's drive from where I live.
• Everything2 is not a forum. I'm often logged in for many hours at a time when there's nothing to do at work, so I catch lots of writeups right when they're posted. I've seen so many one line responses to large, well thought out writeups that typically get nuked within twenty minutes. If you have something meaningful to add that everyone needs to see, do so in a good quality writeup. However, if you're just want to say something to the author, send them a message.
• Everything2 can be a legitimate source of information. No, this isn't Wikipedia. But, one night some friends and I were looking up information on RPGs for the original Nintendo. The first result in Google? werejackal's fantastic writeup, NES RPGs. I don't know that I would cite E2 in a paper or anything, but depending on what you're looking for, there's a lot of useful information here.
• C!'s and positive rep are like life blood to new noders. I look back at my writeup list, and it seems like a took a big break every time I had a sub-par writeup. I realize that the xp system is not meant to be taken seriously, but us new folk like it when people like our stuff. Every time I get a C!, I look at the homenode of the user who bestowed it upon me. And sometimes I'll think daymn, level 10... this thing I wrote must have been really good. Now, I'm not saying throw all your votes and C!s to new noders just because they're new. But if someone new writes something good, please, throw them a bone before C!ing something written seven years ago by someone who hasn't visited the site in four years.
• This place is intimidating. The first time I came here, I didn't even lurk around. I left and did something else because I wasn't completely sure what I was looking at. When I finally started to figure the place out, I just ended up more intimidated. Most everything I thought to write about had already been written most of a decade ago. I got over it and maybe got a little more creative, but it's still intimidating.
• Link like your life depends on it. E2 is built on linking writeups to one another. Use the pipelink often. Dead links are boring, and writeups packed with them won't be very popular.

That's all for now. In the end, I like Everything2 and I think I'll stay. A place for my thoughts and a place to browse the thoughts of others. But for now, I think I'm going to bed. Huzzah! Level 2!

P.S. shaogo makes some excellent points below in response, perhaps, to what I've written here. Thank you for your insight. And thanks to everyone who has offered me their congratualtions and encouragement. I do hope that my point about offering C!s and upvotes to new noders when they write something good is not what caused people to do this, as it was not the intent. That's part of why I put this in a daylog in the first place, actually. But, as shaogo said, it's surprising how many people do read the daylogs. Thanks again, and you'll hear more from me.

A short announcement

No disclaimers today

I am going to be a grandmother. My little boy is going to be a father. He and his girlfriend are expecting a baby in some eight months, which gives me lots of time to get used to the idea. Just today they finally agreed on two possible girls' names: Sofie (or Sofia, that's to be battled out in the coming months) and Maja. They have yet to agree on a boy's name. My son likes Alex (it used to be his own middle name until he had it removed), but that does not sit well with his girlfriend...

Anyhow... that was the announcement. The grandmother part of it. Thank you.

Oh... I found some sweet nodes for you, as usual.

A Gratuitous Response, Perhaps, With Apologies

Dear santo,

The following is a parody and written purely in humor. It's also because I've been longing to do as you have done, write about E2 from my own personal point of view, break a few rules, and celebrate having found this place. And my sincere congratulations upon the occasion of your earning level 2. You're old enough to vote!

Best Regards,

shaogo

• Today, with this writeup, in fact, I acquire a few XP (maybe) or such, but nothing else. I am, however, still a newbie and am indeed in the habit of visiting and posting a few random thoughts. Those writeups have been nuked. At the risk of again having my many laborious keystrokes whisked away at an editor's whim, I will completely violate all of the observations and advice that have accumulated in my grey matter and commit a mortal sin: I will node about noding about noding. I have no radical ideas about noding and I often find that when I come up with an idea for a node I write about the topic more often than not, taking care not to reiterate nor comment on that which was written by others before me. I've put this in a daylog because it often surprises me how many people indeed read the daylogs.
   
• In the first place, the people here are a lot closer than I thought they would be, that is, until some of them in Great Britain called my cell phone in the United States as I sat beside my father's hospital bed while he lay dying. That re-assured me that none of these "noders" were too close. Physically. Then one of them called an ambulance when I did something astoundingly stupid and self-destructive. But it's okay; I was in Connecticut and he was in the Southwest. There are so many other anecdotes about how close the members of this unique group are; but I've just scratched the surface. I can't imagine what wonderful bonds will be made once I've been around here eight times longer. For I have only been here about one-eighth of the time this place has existed.
   
• It's the nature of my business that I meet people "in real life" that I've first communicated with on the internet. Privately, I've met four or five people; via this website and also another site, one dedicated to fans of Frank Sinatra. It's a natural evolution of the internet as a social tool that sooner or later, one who's not frightened by stories on television about Internet predators will, in fact, meet someone, or a group of people, they've first interacted with in cyber-space. And indeed the members of E2 are educated risk-takers in that they do in fact organize gatherings to which all are invited, utilizing precious little, if any, screening techniques to weed out those who'd perhaps compromise the joviality, or worse, the security of such a gathering. Rest assured, however, that nodermeets offer a little something for all who attend.
   
• Everything2 is not a forum. The catbox is a forum. I'm often logged in for many hours at a time whether or not there's something to do at work. Because when there's shit swirling all around me I know I can settle down for a moment and read something worthwhile herein. I've seen so many one-line responses to large, well thought out writeups. But that's what the editors are for (as well as those who would choose to take their time to gently encourage the writer of such responses to refer to E2 FAQ or some similar reference).
   
• Everything2 can be a legitimate source of information. It's also crammed with misinformation and occasionally visited with the piece of trite, tasteless drivel. The same can be said for Wikipedia, or for that matter any source of information which fails in some way to be purely objective, a difficult, if not impossible feat indeed. (Just ask Kitty Kelley.) My own discovery of E2 occurred when I was searching for information on a very peculiar subject.
   
• C!s and positive rep are like life blood to new noders. Occasionally. The assumption that C!s are to be tossed as "bones" to new users is a concept that I find offensive. Writeups that I ching are, of course, newly-written, damnit - but carefully read, too. And God forgive me but I've more than once given a C! to an article with a point of view I despise. Why? Because the article is well-written, well-cited, logical, and makes me think.
   
• This place is intimidating. Of course it is. For me, it's intimidating because there are people who write here who have more intelligence in their left pinkie finger than I have in the entirety of my fat, old body.
   
• The last time I used a link like my life depended upon it, it was part of a chain that was holding me to a Para-Sail. The damned thing broke and I plunged into the water about 20 feet below, where the fishies nibbled on my toes.
   

That's all for now. In the end, I like Everything2 and I think I'll stay. Until I have to make a cup of coffee or use the loo.