After the Math
I wonder when 'izubachi' will disappear?
The only times I've ever considered leaving E2 were bouts of intense crazy and an uninformed period during the Community2 drama spectacular. Otherwise it really hasn't crossed my mind. E2 eats up a greedy portion of my time and attention that I'm more than happy to share.
But in my old noder age I've been gazing all moody-like at mementos mori. Places like Jane's homenode and the aftermath writeups of gatherings in the 2001-2003 range. Friends and folks who weren't friends, but whose writeups I've been very intimate with, have been dropping off one by one. Most of the time, real life interferes. Occasionally, administrative behavior pushes them out. And there's plenty to be said for the crotchety state of the codebase (as was said, frequently, at this last nodermeet). Everything2 went live in 1999 and the site's design looks it over every inch of the page.
I know there are paths E2 could take out of the Valley of Comatose, I know there are more than enough users and admins who are lining up to give the creaky old wagon a good push, and I know I'd throw my weight in, but I'm not sure we can get the momentum going. Still, unlike a good many of the party who've abandoned the whole endeavor already, to walk away would be a staggering loss to me.
Because I'm still able to attend gatherings like these. It wasn't a spectacle. It wasn't a drunken revery with apocalyptic undertones. It was just friends sitting on a porch in the darkness of the early morning, taking turns telling stories, laughing. It was a phonecall from a continent away and a chorus of cheerful yelling in peculiar accents. It was crashing on a familiar futon and eating junkfood for breakfast surrounded by noders sprawled in rocksolid states of sleep. It was relaxing and homey.
We don't do tribes anymore. Cities and technology render them infeasible. We've packed too many people together in spaces too small and now we're growing ill from anomie. But we're clever, human beings. We've figured out ways to compensate. We've figured out that you can use wires and electrical pulses to find new tribes, to cocoon yourself with the telepresence of those of like mind.
E2 is a family to some. It's a community to others. It's a writing resource or a library or a chatroom or a graveyard or just a damn website, with nothing more worth saying.
For me, E2 is a tribe. I love my tribe. I'm selfish and I'm stubborn and I don't want it to die.
I want to hear Wiccanpiper impersonate celebrities. I want to listen to briarcub improvise on the piano. I want to talk editor shop with Apatrix. I want to sleep over at brainwave and evadyne's. I want to watch thrillers with Brooksmarlin. I want to go drinking with vandewal. I want to hear more of Junkill's stories of massage clients. I want eien_meru to use more British slang. I want to gush fanboy silliness about The Dresden Dolls with chaotic_poet. I want gwenllian to remember her time with the wolves. I want to survey bookshelves with dann.
Entropy fuck off. These are my people.