Before I begin, I'd like to
apologize for the rant-ish nature of the first half of this. E2 deserves better.
I spent most of my day on E2 today, chatting with other users, spending my votes, and searching for things to write about. Although I found a few topics I can exploit for write-ups, that's not what concerns me the most.
I see people doing stupid things, and this bothers me a bit (more than I should let it, really). Short, one-paragraph (or even one-sentence) write-ups for things that deserve better. Things that should be put in the Day Logs or Dream Logs, but are being passed off as serious write-ups. Bad poetry. Especially bad poetry.
I'm not a poet. I know this. I can string rhymes together skillfully, better than many rappers, and I know my way around a dictionary. But I don't confuse rhyming with poetry. Poetry requires a higher level of skill and artistry than I have... but I know enough about the art form to realize this. Some of these people just don't get it. Among my gripes is the ham-handed use of free verse. Free verse is the highest, not the lowest, form of poetry. As such, it requires incredible skill on the part of the poet to pull it off successfully. If you don't do it right, it ends up looking like mindless blathering.
Another gripe on the poetry front, is that a lot of people write incomprehensible verse. I finish reading one of these, and the phrase, "What the fuck was that about?" goes through my head. Being mysterious is one thing, people... but there should be a point to it, and not just coy evasion. I'd link up examples, but by now, the ones that were bugging me are probably already gone. It's even worse when it's also free verse.
The other major thing that's bothering me is an increase in malicious softlinking. There was a romantic poem (It fell into the above category of being bad poetry, but at least it was an attempt) written that got a dozen extremely rude softlinks - starting with anal sex and getting worse from there - within 5 minutes of its being posted. Is this necessary? It's made even worse by the fact that the softlinks are there permanently, and can be made anonymously. I just found this out today (The permanent part, I mean). There's no way to remove them, and there should be. This poem will forever be marred by some lowbrow nitwit's attempts at humor - or, to be less charitable, attempts to ruin the mood that the poem sets. This is nothing less than vandalism of the worst kind. People who've been around longer than I have say that it's getting worse... I see one good solution, though: allow the node's creator and all editors and gods to delete softlinks at will.
On to lighter matters. I saw a good number of well-made nodes today. They were in the minority - Sturgeon's Law in action, unfortunately - but they make up for the crap inflicted on us by the rest. The Editor's Logs are always good reading, and I applaud the Editors who take the time to inform the rest of us of what they did, and why. Especially if it's entertaining. Almost everything in Valentine's Day is great, but Darthnny's post would have been much better if he had stopped when he got to the end of the list. Inigo Montoya Death Borg by Gritchka is classic. Taxation of Churches is something I've pondered occasionally myself.
Enjoy! Have fun! Don't let the turkeys get you down!