As many of you know already, E2 is on the fringe of the media buzz surrounding this new Google project, Knol, on the fringe because Knol sounds suspiciously like this place, right here. Quizro pointed it out to the hosts of CNet's Buzz Out Loud podcast who had a lively debate over us, and Wikipedia, and Knol and the whole deal. Wanting to let the guys know that we, as a collective, shouldn't be talked about in the past tense, I shot them this email. Figured you'd all like to know.
Hey guys. This is Jack, the current Editor-in-Chief of Everything2.com. We've been all abuzz about your podcast from yesterday (it's nice when the media comes to me instead of the other way 'round) and I've got a couple of things for you.
1. E2 isn't dead. We still have a hell of a community and a fantastic group of writers, wits, conversationalists, editors, authors (published or not) and experts on various fields running up and down our halls and, though we take some getting used to in terms of acceptable style and whatnot, we love new people. I'd like to encourage your listenership to drop by and say hello - we'll leave a light on for ya.
2. We're not particularly worried about Knol; we were amused by the similarities in nomenclature more than anything ('noders' and 'knolers' had me in stitches, lemme tell ya). We're not particularly worried because our focuses seems, at this early point, to be different - unlike wikipedia and unlike what I've read of knol so far, E2 accepts the more casual, fringe elements of the written word - we take first-person narrative and essays, poetry, scene-setting, serialized content, the whole shebang; if it's well-written, not entirely pointless and exists outside of itself, we'll take it. We'll take philosophical extemporizations and mathematical proofs and scientific definitions, too, but we were called Everything way back when for a reason: we're not an encyclopedia because encyclopedias, to keep their utility, leave extraneous stuff OUT.
3. We've never had aspirations to be the 'next big fill-in-the-blank' in any field, just to keep doing what we're doing and hope that those people who decide to accompany us enjoy the trip. We fight a lot and have differences of opinion on all sorts of things but in the end, those of us who work on, with, or for E2 do it because we love it; it's an entirely volunteer effort, and we do what we can to keep it floating.
4. Fess up, Tom: What was your E2 Username? I swear I won't tell.
I'm always available for questions - feel free to email me at jack@everything2.com if you wanna talk.
Take care,
Jack Thompson
Editor-in-Chief / Everything2.com
(No, not THAT Jack Thompson. Yes, I have the shirt.)