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.