Today, with this writeup, in fact, I reach level 2. It feels like a huge milestone. No longer a newbie, no longer just visiting and posting a few random thoughts. As such, I would like to share what I've learned about this funny place. Now, I realize that noding about noding is often discouraged, especially for new noders, and that all my radical ideas about noding have already occurred to others and probably been noded. That's why I'm putting this in a daylog and not something that too many people are likely to see.
- The people here are a lot closer than I initially feel like they should be. I, for one, have never met someone in real life who I first met on the interweb. But then I go and stumble across nodes about nodermeets. These people have not only met one another, they often invite each other to their actual houses. I don't know whether to be frightened or intrigued by this, but I think it's a little of both. I think the part that intrigues me is that one of these events is coming in a few weeks and located about an hour's drive from where I live.
- Everything2 is not a forum. I'm often logged in for many hours at a time when there's nothing to do at work, so I catch lots of writeups right when they're posted. I've seen so many one line responses to large, well thought out writeups that typically get nuked within twenty minutes. If you have something meaningful to add that everyone needs to see, do so in a good quality writeup. However, if you're just want to say something to the author, send them a message.
- Everything2 can be a legitimate source of information. No, this isn't Wikipedia. But, one night some friends and I were looking up information on RPGs for the original Nintendo. The first result in Google? werejackal's fantastic writeup, NES RPGs. I don't know that I would cite E2 in a paper or anything, but depending on what you're looking for, there's a lot of useful information here.
- C!'s and positive rep are like life blood to new noders. I look back at my writeup list, and it seems like a took a big break every time I had a sub-par writeup. I realize that the xp system is not meant to be taken seriously, but us new folk like it when people like our stuff. Every time I get a C!, I look at the homenode of the user who bestowed it upon me. And sometimes I'll think daymn, level 10... this thing I wrote must have been really good. Now, I'm not saying throw all your votes and C!s to new noders just because they're new. But if someone new writes something good, please, throw them a bone before C!ing something written seven years ago by someone who hasn't visited the site in four years.
- This place is intimidating. The first time I came here, I didn't even lurk around. I left and did something else because I wasn't completely sure what I was looking at. When I finally started to figure the place out, I just ended up more intimidated. Most everything I thought to write about had already been written most of a decade ago. I got over it and maybe got a little more creative, but it's still intimidating.
- Link like your life depends on it. E2 is built on linking writeups to one another. Use the pipelink often. Dead links are boring, and writeups packed with them won't be very popular.
That's all for now. In the end, I like Everything2 and I think I'll stay. A place for my thoughts and a place to browse the thoughts of others. But for now, I think I'm going to bed. Huzzah! Level 2!
P.S. shaogo makes some excellent points below in response, perhaps, to what I've written here. Thank you for your insight. And thanks to everyone who has offered me their congratualtions and encouragement. I do hope that my point about offering C!s and upvotes to new noders when they write something good is not what caused people to do this, as it was not the intent. That's part of why I put this in a daylog in the first place, actually. But, as shaogo said, it's surprising how many people do read the daylogs. Thanks again, and you'll hear more from me.