I open a new node. My eye scans over the epicenter nodelet.

Ack! You lost
Experience!
xxxx XP
xxx writeups
until level xx

Somewhere, someplace within the thousand-plus writeups I've added to Everything2, someone feels that I'm not doing a good enough job. They have used one of their own precious votes to tell me that.

I click on the word anotherone in my epicenter. I slap the stop button a few seconds later and open a user search on myself.

I really don't care about the XP. I've got a buttload of XP. I don't need more. I could care less about XP. I stopped caring about XP as soon as I got to level 6 and earned my homenode picture. I'm just upset that someone didn't like a node of mine and didn't care enough to /msg me.

I scan the last few nodes I've done. Hmm. All at the level I remember them at. Perhaps one was upvoted and then downvoted, but only the downvote counted. I choose lowest rep first option from the dropdown box and wait for the page to load.

I'm pretty sure all of my really bad nodes have been nuked or fixed, but perhaps I've missed one. A lonely, crappy, forgotten node, perhaps from my early days on the database, or maybe from a late night noding session. Perhaps someone just doesn't like me. Maybe someone clicked the wrong option button and hit vote before they realized it.

Hmmm. The same old crap. A few nodes that were downvoted and then fixed, a few that I like but nobody else does, a few that just plain suck. But they're the same ones. The same bad nodes. What does that mean? I don't know.

I give up the search for the afflicted node and start this one. I've given up the search for my bad node.

It's still out there.

Still sucking.

e2 node tracker saved my life.

Ironically, this is one of my highest ranked writeups.

Wait a minute; no I didn't.

Arggggg. My XP total just went up, so how did I lose experience? I just can't gr0k it.

While staring at the epicenter nodelet, hoping that by focusing my ire and confusion, it will suddenly spout some wisdom, I notice the server clock.

20:34 Sun Apr 1 2001

That's great; I get more votes in three and a half hours. Whoop-de-friggin-do. I get more votes, and votes don't even seem to be working. Waiiiiiit a minute. April 1st. Hey...isn't it that whole April Fool's holiday thingie?

Oh....

Um...<cough>...I get it now.

Damn it; I've lived through 21 years, and each and every one of those had an April 1st in it. You'd think I learn. But no. I continue on in my little world, and flip out when I lose XP because I submitted a writeup.

Ha. /me laughs at myself

/me stoooopid sometimes

So don't worry people; you're not losing XP really. Well...sometimes you will be. And just when you get used to it, we'll be back to the old system in about three and a half hours. Don't you love it :)

Experience is nothing; worship the database.

Wheeeeeeeee.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.