1. What is your name?
My name is Peter Ravn Rasmussen, better known to people on E2 as liveforever.
2. Tell us something about you, your background, and what you've been up to lately?
I'm a 47-year-old Dane, living in Copenhagen. I'm an historian by calling, though it took me a long time to realise that. Before finding my way to the study of history, I have been a student of astronomy and physics, as well as a computer programmer. I've worked in a number of different places, from merchant ships to oil rigs to a comic book publisher to a pension fund company to newspapers to the post office. My life path has never been straightforward. In recent years I have been teaching history at a "højskole" (a Danish term for a kind of voluntary educational/cultural system), to an audience that mostly consists of senior citizens.
I went through a really bad divorce, a few years back, and it was the start of a period in my life where things never really seemed to get stable again. It's been up and down ever since -- and recently, a bit more down than up.
3. How did you discover Everything, and how did you become a noder?
I was, like many other people in computing, a frequent reader of (and very occasional poster to) Slashdot. One day, I came across a reference/footnote (the old (?) links on Slashdot, if anyone recalls those), which led me to E2. I quickly found it much more interesting than Slashdot, and became a regular noder.
4. What are your favorite writeups -- both your own and from other noders?
Of other users' writeups, I believe the best one is Drinking from the water hose by jessicapierce. I've recorded that one for an E2 podcast, a while back. Overall, though, the user whose writings I like best is Lucy-S. She's getting to be quite a well-known author now, and I am sort of proud to be able to say that I damn well knew it all along.
Of my own writeups...wow, I don't know. My writings are an eclectic mess -- and my style has changed a LOT over time. After all, it has been ten years. Some are serious, some are completely frivolous, some are serious attempts at writing short fiction. I think two of my more recent ones, Siluspra and Erosion, best indicate where my writing is at, these days. The former, incidentally, will be published in a Danish SF 'zine, in the near future.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite memories from E2's history?
Favourite moments are numerous. E2 was always more a community than a site -- and occasionally, this was made evident when we stood together in moments of happiness or grief. I remember those times when the catbox was full of people celebrating together or commiserating over some shared pain.
One of the most important things that made E2 such a vital community was, for lack of a better word, "geek respect". The people on E2 were very different, often mixing like oil and water -- but they knew damn well that pretty much everybody on the site was smart enough to merit solid respect. You might not like somebody, or even get along with them, but you wouldn't just dismiss them out of hand. Users who did do that sort of thing, didn't last.
On occasion, however, that turned into unpleasant intellectual arrogance. I think the whole "raising the bar" thing was a huge mistake -- it put a solid dent in the community, affecting the playful side of the nodes adversely.
6. What keeps you coming back?
Well, I am very far from being active on E2, these days -- but I do pop in occasionally. More importantly, I keep in touch with people, through Facebook and other social media. E2 isn't the site, it's the people.
7. What do you hope for E2's future?
That E2 will still be more about the people than the site.
8. What does E2 mean to you?
Ah... E2 is like an extended family, or tribe. Like any family, there are plenty of crazy uncles and obnoxious cousins -- but there's also lots of good, solid people. I'm the weirdo cousin who hasn't been heard from so much, lately, but is still welcome when he gets around to showing his face.
9. Who are your favorite noders? Which ones do you miss the most?
My number one favourite noder has to be Dimview. When my life did a spiral descent into chaos, during my divorce, she (and her boyfriend) basically picked up the pieces and helped me execute a landing. It might not have been a very graceful landing, but as the saying goes: any landing you can walk away from is a good one.
I don't miss so many -- because I have stayed in touch with many of the ones that mattered. But there is one person I really wish was still around: grundoon. I am certain that is not a feeling I am alone in having.
10. Who would play you in the Everything2 movie?
I'm not particular, just anybody who isn't from the Keanu Reeves "school" of acting. Ideally, a younger Christopher Lloyd.
11. Please fill in the blank: "E2 is to the Internet as ___ is to the world."
A really weird and lively party, where people gather in clusters to abuse various substances and talk about weird and wonderful and above all interesting stuff.
12. Any questions that I didn't ask that I should've?
You can't prove anything, I have an alibi, and she told me she was 18!
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact liveforever or Jet-Poop.