First off, as I write this, I am a newbie to Everything 2 - not a newbie to the Internet - just E2. It's been 24 hours since I wrote my first node and I'm already addicted! With E2 being so entertaining, it was hard not to rush in and node node node ... which means that invariably I broke a few ettiquette rules and paid the penalty.
Sure, there is the Everything FAQ and the Everything University for E2, but it is an awful lot of reading to get started, and besides, they don't cover everything. So this node is here to document my newbie errors (and other peoples if they wish to contribute) so that hopefully others won't make the same mistakes.
Don't submit works in progress:
I submitted a node for Nagano with only one sentence in it. I did this while I went off to confirm a few facts on Nagano on another site (5 minutes), but by the time I had come back, my poor node had been downvoted 3 votes! To preview and proofread your writeup before submission try using your E2 Scratch Pad or your own home node before creating a writeup.
Don't flood the New Writeups:
Everytime you create a new node/writeup, it appears in the New Writeups section (NW). If you flood the NW with entries, some people get pissed off and downvote your posts. In my case, I had created about 10 nodes for Faith Hill which consisted of the lyrics for her latest album. Most people were receptive to the amount of stuff I had entered, but I had a couple of nodes downvoted for flooding the NW. What you should do is select the checkbox that states "Don't Display in New Writeups".
Stay away from Punch Thyself:
There is a link that sometimes appears called Punch Thyself. If you click through on that link, you will lose 10XP - trust me, it happened to me :) If you still don't believe me, check out Stylee's excellent node Stupidity often manifests itself as an insatiable desire to fulfill one's curiosity.
Victim Of Your Own Success:
One of my nodes, Ethical Discussion on the Internet Worm, is an old university assignment - and it's written like a university assignment. I posted it on Everything because I figured someone somewhere would find it interesting. Well within seconds of me posting it up, it was downvoted. Why? Because it looked too professional. Quite understandably, some people thought that I had cut & pasted, and following E2 philosophy, cut and paste writeups will die. Some frantic chatting on the Chatterbox cleared everything up. My suggestion is that if you are posting something which has been well written, add a disclaimer to it like I have now done. Visit Ethical Discussion on the Internet Worm to see my disclaimer.
The Empty Existence Of Nodeshells:
If you have ever created a new node by entering a title, but then leaving that content screen without entering any content, you will have created what is known as a nodeshell. This is a node with no writeups - not much use really - try not to do this. If you have, salve your consience by joining The Nodeshell Rescue Team.
Nodevertising ... Don't:
When using the Chatterbox you will notice people sometimes link to nodes. Avoid linking to your own nodes on a regular basis - some people see that as the equivalent as spamming and will downvote you.
Be careful asking why you got downvoted:
I wrote a node called betrayed which in the space of 5 minutes received three upvotes and two downvotes. Curious, I asked on the Chatterbox what made the vote so inconsistent (after all, betrayed had nice HTML formatting at the least ;-). Despite the fact that I phrased my question as one of curiousity and not that I was upset, I still had a person tell me in a huff that 'Curiousity leads to whining, whining leads to downvoting'. Having said that, there were two people who gave some really good feedback (thanks). So the lesson is to be careful when requesting feedback. Some people don't see it as an attempt to improve your future node writing, they see it as whining and will downvote you.
I'll add to this if I continue to make more mistakes ... ;-)
Finally, if you are a newbie, I highly recommend that you read Tip of the Day, Everything FAQ and attend the Everything University. Sure, it'll take a while to read all of it, but it can only reward you in the end.