When I was first introduced to Everything2 , I was a bit of a cynic... I should have stayed that
way.
Initially, I was critical of a site which touted an open forum and the principles of
high-minded quality knowledge sharing and appeared to be nothing more than a community rampant
with cronyism where true effort appeared too few and far between. Contributing to it, I
was sure, was an exercise in futility and I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to subject
themselves to this kind of arbitrary sophomoric herd mentality interspersed with literary
snobbiness ...
I simply couldn't comprehend why some nodes flew in the face of the
Everything FAQ and University, and yet, were insanely popular, or why
anyone cared to read, let alone ching pathetic GTKY logs poised as prose. Many
nodes which seemed to violate the principles of the place were held in high esteem... Earn
your bullshit. Right. In an attempt to understand, I read many of the initial write ups of many
of the higher ups, and found more detritus than I expected. Surely those spouting such esteemed
standards must keep them in their own work, even the earliest. Hmpf. Earn your accolades, then earn your bullshit, seemed to be the rule. Many of those who
have earned their bullshit have done so with questionable material... Nodes and nodes full of pathetic
unintegrated, half-baked three line wonders that would never make it off the new writeups list
today, and yet they have the audacity to disperse their judgment on
others without first remedying or culling their own prolific debris which litter the database.
I was curious why the individual who had introduced me would ever invest the time
and effort it took to appease perfect strangers who were so lenient with themselves and strict
towards newbies. He is self-assured, brilliant, driven and insightful. He has a fervor for
knowledge that I have rarely, if ever, had the pleasure to witness and here he was, spending
his time on e2. There are many here who
have cited him as a knowledgeable source that has contributed to their nodes enough to be noted
as such, but I digress... Like me - like many of us, he enjoys a challenge and that's an aspect
of e2 which attracts a singular kind of person. It's a large part of the reason why
e2 is so addictive.
But I lingered and I found a few gems and I read, I came to understand
the rules and eventually... I believed...
What did I believe exactly? That somehow, this community of users, for the most part, really
was dedicated to sharing, educating and a basic code of excellence. That the gods and
editors, though tough, tried to be fair. That there was a genuine desire to raise the bar.
That somebody out there thought it needed real content. I was careful to learn the lay of the land, to follow the rules,
and to understand what was being asked of me as a noder. I wanted to contribute because I
believed in the conviction and passion that I read about.
What I've witnessed today has called a great deal of that into question.
Today, the person who introduced me to e2 has, through the actions of a fledgling
god, been demoted an entire level by the destruction no less than
54 nodes from his body of work. This individual took it upon
himself to add to the database just as many other noders have done by integrating individual
word write ups from the Devil's Dictionary into the nodegel. He has been contributing these
nodes for no less than six months. Apparently the
Management has suddenly and feverishly taken issue with these nodes as duplicative because
Saige noded entire letters of the dictionary in sections. Ambrose Bierce was a
satirist. If you find him offensive, you aren't getting it. I wonder what word he'd
apply to this situation?
At no time did anyone suggest, editor or otherwise, that he terminate his efforts. Though
there have been inquiries from the likes of dannye, who, and I quote, replied 'OK. I hope
you're convinced this is time well spent. Good luck.' Furthermore, no other individual
write ups containing integrated Devil's Dictionary definitions have been touched,
though they are numerous. My point here is to take issue with singling out one user, and relying
on reasoning which is will of the whim to destroy their work. (Don't even get me started on the
Administration's apparent support of numerous projects in our corpus which
contribute nothing but copy and paste tomes such as Webster 1913, Magic: The Gathering
Cards, D&D Magic Items and Monsters and the Alice in Wonderland
Project).
To me, this had the feel of a personal vendetta. This appeared, at first
glance, to be a fledgling god individually targeting a user and decimating his body
of work; effectively destroying nearly 70% of his nodes, which, I might add, were all
*shockingly* systematically downvoted before getting eaten by
Klaproth, to add insult to injury. This swipe of this scythe had the sound of a god applying justice as he saw fit to
cull a user, rather than as it should be; to address nodes which may or
may not fit a certain criterion.
After nosing into it myself, this definitely has
the smell, fellow noders, of bullshit.
Shall we examine the evidence? Not to be pedantic, but no one ever accused me of not doing my
research... Let us refer to the database for clarification...
Abasement Abatis Abdication Abdomen Ability
Aboriginies Abracadabra Abridge
hmmm... that's funny, most of the
'A' words have integrated, duplicative write ups...
let's look at oh... how about Z?
Zany Zanzibari Zeal Zenith Zeus
Zigzag Zoology
you don't say... several of the 'Z' words have integrated, duplicative writeups....
must have slipped past him... actually, there are over fifty (I quit
counting at that point... there are more, if anyone wants the list)
writeups which are of the same ilk and noded by the likes of:
GollyGee
jkfghldagv
LITE
LordOmar
moJoe
Pseudo Intellectual
Segnbora-t
thecarp
These are untouched, unscathed, apparently left to 'clutter' the database, said
god's hand having mysteriously passed over them. Such is the mercy and the charity
of the gods?
Raising the bar indeed... no one mentions that occasionally that bar is
used to bash individual noders exclusively, turning a blind eye to all those
which have noded in the same manner. Well, I refuse to ignore this *coincidence*... and I'll live with the consequences.
So what am I calling for? What's my point? Well, unfortunately, I think the damage has been
done. Is there a precedent for such an occurance? Are we basically dealing with a hydra? There is no recourse and no accountability. If this had been a careful, unemotional,
targetless, methodic, across-the-board destruction of all integrated Ambrose Bierce
definitions, so be it. I would have nothing to bitch about, and the noder in question
would not be alone in having garnered an insane node-fu. It would have been an
unfortunate oversight that no editor or god had discouraged this
noder sooner, considering the amount of time it took to contribute. I'm calling for
acknowledgement. I'm calling for exposition. No one ever said the gods weren't human. There is
one who has been acting a rather poor example, and he should acknowledge his
actions as such.
You say, erevapisces, you silly, lowly novice! It is folly! It is futile to
question the whims of the gods... they bless, they are compassionate, they are tough yet
tender... yes, in most cases they are. Unfortunately, in this case, one has shown himself to be
singularly vindictive and his actions beyond indictement or reproach.
CYNIC, n.
A
blackguard whose
faulty vision sees things as they
are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the
Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his
vision.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
Roninspoon has since explicated his actions in this matter in Editor Log: March 2002. The writeups in question have been marked for destruction. I encourage everyone to read it.