Many years before I had this web space to fill up with whatever cheese and pickle fell out of my Sylvian fissure and its grassy areas, I used to write guff and nonsense at a place called Everything2.
Until I pretty much ran out of steam and couldn’t justify (aka couldn’t be bothered) to spend the amount of time necessary to craft each writeup before submitting them to the site, I did manage to write 71 pieces for the site. Some of them weren’t anything more than diary entries, in truth, while others I toook a good deal more care over, such as:
I still occasionally log in, to see if anyone’s voted up any of my write-ups, and to see if I have any messages from other writers. Mostly nothing happens, but every now and then I find out I’ve got a few votes here and there, gained a few points, or someone just wanted to tell me they enjoyed one of my write-ups.
And then recently, a most completely wonderful and unexpected change took place in the E2 rulebook.
You see, as a reward for writing good pieces that other people give the thumbs up to in the form of votes, you get what are called experience points. Every now and then you accumulate enough EPs to move up a level. As you move up through the levels you are given more votes to dish out on other writers and so on.
But as well as voting an article (strictly known as a node over at E2) if you reach such great heights, you can Ching! a node, which basically promotes it to the front page for a while, and is a general bestowing of coolness on a node. For ages I’d been one or two write-ups short of having this power, until only the other day, when the whole karmic EP balance thing was given a quick tap from one side, and everyone’s level was adjusted. Upshot: I moved up a level, and finally I’m allowed to hand out all these lovely C! to people. Well, I say all, but I only get one a day (I get 30 votes each day).
Naturally, as a mark of respect and gratitude for his introducing me to E2 back in 2001, I chose a write-up by the great TallRoo as my first C!
Seven mice, forced to listen to music by The Prodigy, died
As the days roll by, I hope to add my seal of approval to some of the many wonderful and varied nodes to be found at E2. Here’s a very brief snapshot of some of my favourites. I recommend them all:
- The German textbook that was written by Morrissey - short, but very satisfying
- Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals - one of the things you can do at E2 is create an empty node, which means you give something a title, but don’t get round to adding the write-up. Every now and then challenges are issued to people to rescue these shells, by supplying the content. I think this is an example of just such a thing.
- English As She Is Spoke - simply because it discusses the world’s best phrase book
- Fun Latin Quotes - for the classical geek in all of you
- Learning from Lotus Notes - because I have to put up with it, and everyone should be aware of how awful it can be
- Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, William Shatner - low content, but who cares. Isn’t the title enough?
There’s so much more. And beyond just the write-ups there’s so much more. Ways in which links between nodes are generated, for example, or the ways you can add links to other nodes in the body of your own text. All in all, a cool place, and I’m slightly sad I don’t have the time to contribute to it these days.
Tags: Brilliant
1 Comment on A bit of Everything2
Thanks for the C!. I’m glad to see theboy still kicking around in E2 land sometimes. I, too, have found my attentions diverted, but it’s still an interesting place to visit.