1. What is your name?

My handle, legba gede, is a traditional voodoo spirit; a guard of gravesites to be precise. And yes, my eyes roll too, but way back when I did a stint as the records clerk and archivist for an international funeral home concern. Really, that's not made up. So once upon a time, it did really fit, in a fashion.

2. Tell us something about you.

Plus side? Doting father of two, decent husband? book lover, coffee addict, avid gamer and hobby writer? Minus side: absent minded, uneven attention to detail, somewhat anti-social, prone to pessimism, and generally misanthopic. But given my day job is actually advocating for human rights, it's probably wise to end it there.

3. How did you discover E2 and become a noder?

While skimming a Slashdot thread (on VPN? PGP?), there as a linked to an E2 write-up (on zero knowledge proofs?) which struck me as helpful. So did the site and the underlying premise. That was the spring of 2000, and fit nicely with working a reference desk at a quiet university library. Whatever book happened across the return desk and seemed interesting would be another write-up. It was habit forming, and that general pattern continued through a thesis, finishing grad school, government recruitment, marriage, kids, and so on.

4. What are some of your favorite write-ups?

The pointedly political, aesthetically critical, curiously historical pieces have always been a favorite. Pure, dry, encyclopediac fact one can pull from an atlas or almanac, and totally subjective reflection is better in novel form. Seems to me the most intriguing work here blends the two or splits the difference somehow.

5. What are your most and least favorite memories of Everything?

While all been pretty abstract and pseudonymous, there have been at least a dozen times or so when gestures of appreciation, words of compassion, clever asides or just plain hilarious questions from all over have been seriously helpful. Not being much of a social sort, those things meant a lot. Over the years, noders have parcelled up obscure British albums for listening, rare books of magic for reading, critical touring tips for planning. I mean, really, who doesn't get a charge out of opening mysterious parcels from the furthest flung edges of their invisible, global network of writer/researcher conspirators?

6. What's kept you coming back?

You. Or more specifically your words. I've read you sitting in the sun of an atrium and huddled sick in bed in an attic. I've read you on the most crowded of buses and the worst kind of dive bar. I've read you on LCD screens and paper, projected on walls and spoken aloud as text. I've drank with you, driven in snowstorms you, bowled with you, fought with you, made up with you, smoked with you. But mostly I've learnt from you. So thanks. 

7. What are your hopes for the future of Everything?

It would be great to see the site into decade three; it's been useful being able to point here as an example of a social network that predates Google and frankly could care less what you look like, who your friends are, where you live or what you do. Just if you could string a decent sentence together, which thankfully, in some circles at least, still seems to count for something.

8. What does E2 mean to you?

It's been a second brain, enabled a better, smarter self, been like a hipper, tech-savvy shadow. In no particular order, as well, it's meant choosing words carefully, thinking twice, checking facts, saying sorry, being patient, starting slow, taking a deep breath and being ready to start from scratch. It's meant being more eloquent, wordly, clever and sharp than I'd have ever been alone. Not that I've ever really felt alone. And that has to be in part because of this place.

9. Which noders to you most appreciate? Most miss?

Oh man, that's really tough, honestly, having gone through phases, reading everything by a person, only to get side-tracked to another ... raincomplex, prole, icicle, TheLady, chancel, Lometa, RainDropUp, graceness, heyoka, Lucy-S, DejaMorgana, TheDebutante, Lometa, arcanamundi: all frightfully good writers. Mirv, TheCustodian, mauler, Noung, Jet-Poop, cbustapeck, avalyn, GoneJackal, mauler, Tem42, allseeingeye, jetifi, LordBrawl: again mighty fine, their work with words ...

10. E2: the movie?

Probably take a pass there. Happily whip up a soundtrack though.  

Everything2 Decaversary Interviews

If you have questions or comments, please contact legbagede or Jet-Poop.