Scene: A small, dark, informal stage, empty except for a tall stool and a microphone on a stand. A single spotlight illuminates the top half of the stool, and nothing else. An unremarkable man shuffles slowly across the stage to the stool and sits. He blinks uncomfortably at the light, but seems unwilling to look directly at the audience. Finding that the microphone is at exactly the right height for him, he adjusts it down, so that he must hunch over it to speak.
Audience: Polite applause.
Sighmoan: ...uhh, thank you, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen...um...You know, when E2 first captured my attention, I hesitated to leap right in and embarrass myself, as so many have done before, without taking a good, long look at the instructions...
User in audience: GODDAM RIGHT NEWBIE SWINE!
Sighmoan: ...er, yes...as I was saying...and there were a lot of instructions. But Everything University is nothing if not thorough in helping the New User get the most out of the Everything Experience.
User in audience: KEEP THE LITTLE SHITS FROM BREAKING THINGS, YOU MEAN.
Sighmoan: ...sure, sure...Yes, I RTFM, and after a few weeks, I was sure that I had a solid grasp on the system--really knew what it was all about...
Audience: Titters, knowing snickers and scattered guffaws.
Sighmoan: That's right--I was wrong. Funny, to think of it now...but, now that I've been around for a while--noded a bit, picked up some XP--I really have it figured out! Things are going to be different, and...
Audience: Explosive laughter. The stage is pelted with marshmallows and Scooby snacks--one of which bounces and hits the spotlight, causing it to short. Darkness falls. The general noise level--loud--slowly fades into the steady, ominous hum of the machine.
Yesterday was a 'rite-of-passage' kind of day--the first time I ever asked the Editors to nuke one of my own write-ups. A week ago, this would have sounded insane to me; I'm still at level 1 and will probably remain there for at least another month. The problem, however, with going back to check on ones own work is that there is always the vain temptation to re-read it and, in this case, face the fact of its dubious motivation and continuing lameness. This particular WU sucked from the start, and was a response to what I felt was an equally sucky (overly subjective and unnecessary) WU that had been C!ed. It's been bugging me, as I skip from node to node--the powerlessness of L1 and the inability to vote a node up or down. So I voted with a stupid write-up. Just what I didn't want to do--add to the crap in E2. Sometimes, you just have to say something...and who's going to want to hear me bitching in the Chatterbox? Then it hit me--that's what the "/msg" is for. No, I won't be sending poison-pen messages to the authors of write-ups I don't like. But I'll try--really try--to /msg people when I read a write-up that makes laugh or understand something that I didn't understand before. It's worth a try.