I'm an E2 newbie. Last month I just turned twenty years old. I've only attended college for two years. In terms of the general age range of E2, I fill out the younger end of the spectrum. It's only last year that I was even old enough to head off to nodermeets on my own. The topics that fascinate me are the things of youth and there's no use in pretending otherwise. I'm emotional, reactive, idealistic, and a little tetchy. I have a lot of life yet to experience and a lot of matters to understand that most members of E2 probably mastered years ago.
I'm an E2 oldie. This is nearly my sixth year of active participation in and contribution to the community that gives this website its character. I've been through most of its crises. I've taken sides and switched sides. I've made dozens of friends with whom I've exchanged e-mails, phone calls, instant messages, and face-to-face meetups for years now. My writing has matured, my technique has improved, and I can say with fair confidence that I 'know the ropes.' Even the sekrit ones.
In the past few months, I think this pair of disadvantages and advantages have balanced out to the point where my experience in some areas outweighs my inexperience in others. I've been recommended to the editorial staff before. I have a pretty good idea why I haven't been added to the $ list before, and the reasons against the addition were solid. This time, however, I feel ready. I'm confident that I can contribute valuable skills to the team in creating and guiding the creation of content. And, occasionally, removing content. So, as many other noders already have, I put forward my autobiography according to Lord Brawl's specifications.
1. List 3 to 5 writeups that epitomize what's special about everything2 for you.
Your Ending Here - This is the sort of fiction I'd have trouble finding anywhere else and the type of writing I feel E2 nurtures particularly well. Surrealistic, but determinedly rooted in the popular and familiar. Poetic, but colloquial. Structured, but not exactly narrative. Perhaps most importantly, this write-up utilizes the power of hardlinks and pipelinks to their full potential, fulfilling the 'hyper' of hypertext by introducing a new, meaningful dimension through linking that also weaves the story into the pre-existing fabric of the database. "Your Ending Here" is a fictional tour de force and the first write-up I'd point any aspiring fiction writer on E2 towards.
We Cannot Breathe, We Cannot Breathe - Okay. Scandalous confession: I'm extremely gullible. No, I mean extremely. Remember Revelation of the Lamb in Four Parts? I thought the write-up was about an actual filmmaker for its extremely-convincing duration. Including after the 'human sacrifice' bits. I started Googling his name, trying to find out more about these horrible video tapes he'd devised. When all I found was links back to the write-up on E2, I realized I'd been reading fiction. Go me. So, given that baseline of a total lack of healthy skepticism, this particular selection from The Book of Yelps and Growls series entranced me. How could such a beautifully cruel, hypnotic, modernist fairy tale have existed among the peasants of some Western European country and why hadn't I heard of it before? The rendering was so perfect. Half-conversation, half-incantation, We Cannot Breathe, We Cannot Breathe tempts you into a world of gods and demons where thick, flowing mists dissolve details into metaphors, a whole landscape of coded meanings. Then I figured out, several years after everyone else, that The Book of Yelps and Growls was an elaborately woven fairy tale all its own across multiple write-ups and contributors. Borges would be proud.
diagonal argument - Advanced concepts of set theory explained in humorous, intuitive detail? The beauty of mathematics made beautiful to even non-mathematicians? So much for 'incomprehensible math nodes.' Like every other field, this material can be made understandable and appreciable to lay readers with a little work and cleverness. Redbaker invested riches of both in his outline of Cantor diagonalization. Wikipedia only wishes it could write expositions this cool.
why don't poets kill each other anymore? - Submitting poetry to the nodegel is an exacting gauntlet. Delicate prissy prose and fragile emo egos won't last five minutes in New Writeups. Poet noders are armed well past the teeth; right into the nasal cavity, actually. They'll fuck you up yo.
How to install Linux on a dead badger - E2. The uncontested, ultimate resource for real l33t h4xx0rz.
2. List 2 to 3 writeups with which you're most pleased.
A thunderbolt not included in the calculations - I wanted to write poetry about my world—a world of information, of computers, of the internet, of social software, of instant messaging, of cell phones. These things are important to me. They are more important to me than the traditional subjects of poetry. Frankly, I don't care that much about nature. I want more of it, less polluted, but it doesn't grab me or entrance me in the slightest. Places like this? They certainly do. The culture of instantaneous information shaped my childhood and it will shape my adulthood all the more. It has as much a place in modern poetry as Frost's forests and Dickinson's trains. I wasn't sure I was going to succeed in the endeavor, however. From the reaction this poem garnered, it seems I did. A place to progress from, in any case.
Think of us as a lost - E2 taught me to write fiction. Without E2, I would never have approached writing as a creative medium. Never. So thank you, everyone. Including the downvoters.
August 23, 2003 - E2 also taught me to stop mutilating myself from the inside in order to fit someone else's hate-filled dictates about who I should love and cherish—intellectually, sexually, and spiritually. The support I've received from the people who populate this website is a gift I could never repay. And they've asked nothing of me save that I cultivate an identity I feel safe in, rather than one that makes others feel safe. More than fair trade.
3. List 2 or 3 writeups to which you would point new users as an example of "how to write for E2."
diagonal argument and Your Ending Here, as iterated above. In addition, for the poetically inclined, I would point noders to etouffee's entire oeuvre.
4. At what time or times are you typically active on e2 and accessible for user questions and help?
I'm generally online during the early morning and early evenings, CST. I spend a lot of time at my computer, even as I work on other things, so I'm instantly reachable in that regard for more hours of the day than not.
5. Are you an active member of the Mentoring team, or if not, would you be willing to join?
Yes. I've been a member of the mentoring team for almost three years. My first charge was Inflatable_Monk, and to this day that remains the only mentee I can point to as someone I can honestly say I had a hand in developing. Other mentees that have been assigned to me have, one way or another, dropped out of communication and ceased to log in. songaboutliz wrote three excellent write-ups before they departed, however, so I'd highly encourage you to check them out nonetheless.
6. Are you a subject matter expert to whom the admin team can go for content advice? If so, in what area(s)?
If it's linguistics, I'm your man. Linguistics makes up a good portion of my write-up spread and happens to be my major, so I can spot-check content in that area with a fair level of confidence. And E2 writers seem especially keen on linguistics write-ups, oddly enough. I have also been told that I do a good job with poetry criticism, so I would be an addition to the number of poets on the staff roll already who'd be willing to give advice on that kind of content.
7. Are you a leader or an active, contributing member of any e2 usergroups?
Though I feel that she would be a better leader, in Mitzi's absence I am the leader of the bipolars group for those who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, those who feel they may have the disorder, or friends and family of bipolar individuals. I'm also an administrator for the E2 Bulletin Board.