o r E n g e 2
I'm like most people in that when I find something I really like I tend to tell others about it. No surprise there. However, I may be alone in the fact that none of my friends appreciate E2, despite all of my earnest preaching. I had to wait until my best friend returned from Korea to gain a partner in noding. He's a writer, which, despite all of my attempts, I am not. He saw the same utopia that I saw; a community of writers aimed at creating, informing, critiquing and about a million other things - the list is endless.
The single biggest complaint I hear from most people is: "Why would you do a writeup on something, when people could just go to the webpage and find out for themselves?" Obviously E2 is brimming with a lot more than just these type of writeups, but the point is a valid one nonetheless. What sets Everything2 apart?
Honestly, sometimes nothing. It has been said before that this place is a work in progress. I started thinking about those shining collection of writeups that are editor cooled nodes. The process of becoming that gorgeous page of information is a slow one. Someone puts forth an idea, which they synthesized from their sources, be they webpages, books, or personal experience. That's just one writeup. Add to that a dozen other users and their synthesis, and then have an experienced writer groom the node until it reaches that perfect state. Obviously there are thousands of nodes that are waiting to be filled and don't offer much more than you could find by picking the first result of a Google search. This place needs more actual content. But if you want to learn about The Gospel of Thomas then Everything2 is a premier teacher.
Think of information as being juice. The web, for example, is an orange that you have to peel the rind off of, and then bite into swallowing as much pulp as juice. Ideally, E2 is orange juice that has been squeezed from a multitude of oranges. All you have to do is tip the glass and enjoy sweet and pure concentrated information.