If you would like to send a private message to another user, please go to that user's homenode and use the /msg box underneath their personal information. There are multiple ways to send a private message, but this is the easiest.
No HTML formatting, no hard links, no soft links
E2 uses HTML formatting to break your article into readable paragraphs. At bare minimum, you must place a <P> tag at the beginning of each paragraph. You may also find the <i>italics</i> and <b>boldface</b> tags useful, as they should be used for emphasis, rather than ALL CAPS. Keep in mind that E2 does not support certain HTML tags as a security feature.
Hard links are created by placing [ square brackets ] around key words and phrases in your article. For example an article about frogs would benefit from hard links to [tadpole], [toad], and [frog legs]. Check your hard links to make sure they actually go somewhere, sometimes a pluralization or a variant spelling has been used, although such a "dead" hard link is perfectly acceptable if E2 actually doesn't have a writeup on the topic yet. For more advanced uses, please see pipe link.
Soft links are links at the bottom of a node which record where people have linked to from your article. This is often a good place to find related information. Create a few soft links by using the Search box from your node, or clicking on some of your hard links.
Poor grammar, poor spelling, chat-speak
E2 is a writers' site, and as such we encourage proper spelling and grammar for most submissions. Intentionally breaking these guidelines as a stylistic decision is only acceptable if it actually adds value to the article. Capitalize that which and only that which should be capitalized, don't confuse it's with its, use correct punctuation, and run your article through a spell-checker.
Chat-speak, such as shortening "you" to "u", replacing letters with similar-looking numbers, adding emoticons, or other such distracting and unnecessary flourishes should not be used. These are useful in chat situations when space and time are at a premium, but you have all the space and time you need to post an article to E2.
Too short, not enough content, reply, does not stand on its own
This writeup does not meet our content standards. What we are looking for are fully fleshed out, informative articles or creative writings that can stand on their own merits without relying on other articles or sources to give them context and meaning. A little research is usually all that is needed to add enough extra information to bring this up to standards.
Likewise an article should not exist purely as a reply to another article. This is not to say we will only accept one point of view, in fact we encourage multiple writeups supporting different opinions. However each article must be a full and complete article on its own merits, that is, it must still make sense and be readable if the original article is deleted or modified.
An E2 node is also not a place to ask a question. E2 is for answers. The Chatterbox is for questions. Longer or more involved questions can be posted to your scratch pad to show it to people.
Plagiarism, cut & paste, lack of source citation, "Fair Use" violation
E2 is a a place for original work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Submissions which use too much taken directly from the source material are not acceptable. Sources should be cited appropriately, usually at the bottom of the article. Our fair use guidelines can be, in general, summed up as "2/3 of your article must be original content". The exceptions to this rule are:
Public domain works — these can be freely submitted to the database, so long as credit is given to the original author (if known). We encourage a brief introduction which mentions that the following is in the public domain and gives a brief summary of what it is about.
Permission to reproduce granted — if permission is obtained from the copyright holder, the work can be reproduced here. A brief introduction mentioning that permission was obtained from the copyright holder is necessary to avoid confusion.
You are, of course, also free to reproduce your own work on E2 if it is available elsewhere. However a note that you are indeed the original author, either on the article itself or in your homenode, can prevent complications should a member of our staff find it elsewhere without knowing you wrote it.
Emulating older nodes which had lower content standards
"The bar" has been raised many times over E2's history, and many submissions which were acceptable 3 or 4 years ago no longer meet our current quality standards. Older nodes were often "getting to know you" content, or short definitions, or one-liners. Today any of these would be deleted immediately. When looking for content to emulate, check the date stamp which is on every submission, and try to use more recent examples, preferably with a few C!s on it (which indicate high quality).
Slow down
One of the core values of E2 is that by posting here, we can get feedback from other writers, often in the form of anonymous votes, but other times through helpful private messages with suggestions and critique. However, to fully enjoy this benefit, especially as a new user, you should wait for feedback and votes to pour in before posting another article. A good time to wait is 12 hours, or when your writeup falls off the New Writeups list, whichever comes first. This way you can discover what works and what doesn't, and change your style to improve your next article.
Too personal, not enough wide appeal or application, daylog or homenode material
While E2 encourages personal information in a part of writeups, giving them personality and a human element sorely lacking from other reference material, personal information or anecdotes are not enough to make a node by itself. Personal information goes on your homenode. Journal entries belong in the daylogs. Dreams belong in the dream logs. However, if your story has wide application, or a lesson you learned that other people can find useful, or is there to support and add color to a factual article, this is perfectly acceptable.
Spam, urban legend, appeal for help, commercial advertisement, internet meme
E2 encourages useful and interesting content which will survive past current fads and rumors, although we do have information about current and past fads and rumors. As such we do not accept "spam" or other junk e-mail as articles. Likewise E2 is not a forum to advertise for products or services, although we accept product reviews and comparisons. References and in-jokes to various internet memes are not acceptable content, but an article about the meme and its origins would be.
Poor quality fiction or poetry
E2 is a writer's site, not an encyclopedia, but although we accept fiction, poetry, and other creative writings we do have rather high quality standards when compared to other free available forums. We will generally not accept fan fiction at all (mostly due to "fair use" guidelines and the difficulty in tracking down and removing said works should it become necessary). Unfortunately, as "quality" is a subjective term, we must leave it up to the individual judgment of our all-volunteer staff to cull the unacceptable submissions. Even if it passed this initial judgment, it must still survive the critique of our large and active body of anonymously voting regular users. Submissions which are voted down harshly will usually be removed.
False assumptions, bad factual information, incorrect
While E2 is not primarily an encyclopedia, we like to keep what factual information we do have accurate. An article that is flat-out wrong on verifiable, objective points may be removed to maintain our credibility as a source of useful information. However please keep in mind that we do have a number of controversial viewpoints, as we encourage multiple points of view and enjoy providing a forum for less popular, but equally valid, opinions. We also have articles which have been entirely made-up which look, at first glance, like a factual article, to remind people that you cannot believe everything that you read. Please keep in mind that these are treated as creative writing works, and will be judged subjectively for quality.