Even for years before I ever actually thought to
register on
E2,
softlinks were the ultimate
timewasting tool for me. I visualised a
tree-like structure of nodes, where, beginning with some random node, the number of individual
browser windows I had open increased
exponentially.
Each and every node would contain, on average, 3 other nodes that I wanted to visit. You can see the problem.
This was not a good thing. After many hours of trying and failing to regulate the number of windows that were open (ok..only allowed to click on one softlink this time), one of two things will happen:
1) IE crashes with about 50 windows open (and yes, Netscape too)
2) I'll have to go back to the real world and hundreds of potentially life-altering nodes will have to remain unread (for now). This can be really, really disturbing.
I still haven't found a way to read all the nodes I want to. Opening a text editor and pasting links for later reading, perhaps, but if every node leads to 3 others... anyway, suffice to say that Softlink Surfing can become incredibly and scarily addictive. Don't try this at home.