user since
Mon Feb 25 2002 at 14:29:10 (22.7 years ago )
last seen
Sat Jul 13 2019 at 00:54:55 (5.4 years ago )
number of write-ups
39 - View themanwho's writeups (feed)
level / experience
7 (Chronicler) / 4516
C!s spent
53
mission drive within everything
help others, write well
specialties
Linguistics, IT, skiing
school/company
EPFL, Switzerland
most recent writeup
A comparison of personal freedoms and liberties in developed nations
Send private message to themanwho

Secret Santa is coming and I get to put up likes and dislikes here... gah. I got tshirts last year, I wear them a huge lot. So that was good. Ideally, I'd like some cryptic clue to who you are, maybe some food if you have some local specialty that will travel. My letterbox is reasonably sized, so nothing too huge. My musical tastes are very limited and eclectic at the same time. French folk is good, as is irish folk, but if you know nothing about it, you will most likely find hippy new age crap (can't stand a lot of "celtic" music). I really haven't helped here, but if you're still stuck, get a friend to message me and I'll add some more detail.

List 3 to 5 writeups (not your own) that epitomize what's special about everything2 for you.

These aren't the best writeups on e2, I don't think I could even compile that sort of list. But they do give an overview of what makes e2 special.

List 2 or 3 writeups (your own) with which you're most pleased.

  • entropy - factual, plain, does what I think is a good job of explaining the concept.
  • Switzerland - very far from perfect, but it means a lot to me.
  • The Devil's Skittle - short and nicely written

List 2 or 3 writeups (anyone's) to which you would point new users as an example of "how to write for e2".

  • High German - this is mine. The context is that there was only a crappy writeup there. An editor told me that he was fine with nuking it, but only if I wrote something to go there. It's no masterpiece, but it's short, to the point and serves its purpose. Writing for e2 is no more difficult than that.
  • Western Fence Lizard by Bitriot. It looks easy to write. It's easy to read. Have a go!
  • Prefect Log: 33 A.D. by LeoDV - some subjects are a bit boring. How about rising to the challenge of spicing them up a bit?

Always assuming that someone actually asked me. I think "be interesting, write well" pretty much covers it. Along with "leave your comfort zone" for new users who have a good grasp of the former.

  1. At what time or times are you typically active on e2 and accessible for user questions and help? During European daytime, always ready to help
  2. Are you an active member of the Mentoring team, or if not, would you be willing to join? No, because I'm not level 4, otherwise yes.
  3. Are you a subject matter expert to whom the admin team can go for content advice? If so, in what area(s)? I know a lot of stuff about a lot of things. Unfortunately they're rather varied and specific.
  4. Are you a leader or an active, contributing member of any e2 usergroups? Not really. Unless having created a number of scripts like e2 annotation tool and e2 catbox enhancer counts.

To me, everything2 is many things. It's where I practice writing - I think writing is an important skill. It's a project I contribute to in my own way. My pride in my writeups is that I think they are well written, worth reading even if you're not interested and, most importantly, are the best and sometimes only articles on the internet on the subject. Lastly, e2 is where I'm usually online and I practice being intelligent among other intelligent people.


Pet peeve: in almost typical American fashion, we are told not to sweat the downvotes. We're also told that you should explicate your downvotes - well I tried that and it mostly didn't change a thing apart from generating a bunch of bad feelings. Moreover, when I downvote, it's usually because I got pissed off for no reason and I had a nice childish reaction. Take your downvotes to heart and try to understand them. I sometimes downvote:

  • Lack of pipelinks - I get very annoyed when I mouseover a long link which I thought could only be a pipelink; and it isn't.
  • Lack of softlinks - Looks like you don't give a shit.
  • Lack of hardlinks - Looks like you wrote something and then added links - getting bored towards the end.
  • Bad html - Only in extreme cases where it fucks up my viewing of the writeup; I'm petty, so shoot me.
  • Stuff that is written as if for wikipedia - Booooooooooring!
  • Short writeups - Looks like you don't give a shit.
  • Writeups that I deem poorly thought out - Looks like you don't give a shit.
  • Writeups that are poorly written - Looks like you don't give a shit
  • Writeups that lack some form of executive summary - When I'm using e2 for information and I have to dig deep into a long writeup, I tend to get pissed quite easily
  • Writeups which are just a series of paragraphs - Looks like a paper you wrote for highschool
  • Stuff that pisses me off for some reason or other.

Sometimes I upvote it too.


I created and use the E2 Annotation Tool. Feel free to use it to report any typos, improvements or whatever to my wus.


Also, if you like reading your e2 with a margin around wus, try putting the following in your notelet nodelet:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://ic2.epfl.ch/~dyke/e/style.css" />

This stylesheet will only work if people use tags properly: In particular put a <p> before *every* paragraph.

For people who don't like the new window that opens with the external links in the findings page, put this in your notelet:

<script src="http://ic2.epfl.ch/~dyke/e/blank.js"></script>

The following people claim that I am "ace". I assume that this is a compliment. Who will be the next to call me something weird?

  • Diotina: I think tmw is ace
  • Siobhan: I think tmw is ace too, but don't tell him.
  • eien_meru declares that I am ace.
  • momomom: themanwho rules...that is all.
  • Wiccanpiper says Of course you're ace. Who says you ain't?

Alert! Help! Strange n0deXors have hacked my homenode. Graphiti ensues.


      ___ _     _    _                                _                                  _    _                                                 _   
     / __()___| |__| |_  __ _ _ _   __ __ _____ ___ | |_  ___ _ _ ___                  | |  | |                                               | |        
     \__ \ / _ \ '_ \ ' \/ _` | ' \  \ V  V / _ \_ / | ' \/ -_) '_/ -_)                 | |  | |     __,        _     ,   _   _   _  _     _|_ | |     _  
     |___/_\___/_.__/_||_\__,_|_||_|  \_/\_/\___/__| |_||_\___|_| \___|               _ |/   |/ \   /  |  |  |_|/    / \_|/  |/  / |/ |     |  |/ \   |/  
                                                                                      \_/\/  |   |_/\_/|_/ \/  |__/   \/ |__/|__/  |  |_/   |_/|   |_/|__/
                                                                                       _                                                       _           
                                                                                      | |                                        |            | |             
                                                                                      | |     __   _  _  _    _   _  _    __   __|   _    _|_ | |     __, _|_ 
       ___                _                                                           |/ \   /  \_/ |/ |/ |  |/  / |/ |  /  \_/  |  |/     |  |/ \   /  |  |  
        |   _ _.._ _  _  |_  _ .__                                                    |   |_/\__/   |  |  |_/|__/  |  |_/\__/ \_/|_/|__/   |_/|   |_/\_/|_/|_/
       _|_ (_(_|| | |(/_ | |(/_|(/_♦♦♦                                                              _                                           _ 
                                                                                                   | |                                         | |         
                                                                                          ,    _|_ | |     _   _  _  _    __,   _  _           | |     __  
                                                                                      |  / \_   |  |/ \   |/  / |/ |/ |  /  |  / |/ |  |  |  |_|/ \   /  \_
                                                                                      |_/ \/    |_/|   |_/|__/  |  |  |_/\_/|_/  |  |_/ \/ \/  |   |_/\__/ 


                        __                              .__
 __  _  __ ____________/  |_______   ___________   ____ |  |__
 \ \/ \/ // __ \_  __ \   __\____ \_/ __ \_  __ \_/ ___\|  |  \
  \     /\  ___/|  | \/|  | |  |_> >  ___/|  | \/\  \___|   Y  \
   \/\_/  \___  >__|   |__| |   __/ \___  >__|    \___  >___|  /
              \/            |__|        \/            \/     \/

                                     ________  _  ______   ______     ___.__. ____  __ __
                                     \____ \ \/ \/ /    \ /  ___/    <   |  |/  _ \|  |  \
                                     |  |_> >     /   |  \\___ \      \___  (   )  |  /
                                     |   __/ \/\_/|___|  /____  >     / ____|\____/|____/
                                     |__|              \/     \/      \/


Pylon will give you a free audit with votes and C!s. This is good. My writeups usually disappear into the nodegel. This is bad. Give me a node audit! Even better, tell me to write some of the nodes on my to-do list. I would like to write to order sometime.

Looking for something to read? My current and near-future writeups /msg me about adding content for fun and profit:

Oh no! I am getting assimilated to the point that I will list my favorite noders; here are people who are cool for reasons best known to myself (but reading their wu's will give you a good idea):

And of course wertperch has always been cool. Nuff said. Not nuff, no! Lometa is wonderful! I have met quite a lot of people recently who should make it to this list at some point. I'll leave my first impressions as they were for now.

The following people have not yet given me a C!. My mind is saddened at the thought:

Quotations are compulsory and their quoting is compulsive

Ashley Pomeroy says I admired the level of manic, freakish obsession required to (a) learn how to solve a Rubik's cube and (b) write the results down coherently. Whatever career you choose in life, your talents will be under-utilised.

Excalibre says you rock in ways that make me tingly at night

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Version: 0.1.2r
NF(D) l+>+++ x* n(-) !C H+ c+ e+>- #- d D+++ p(+) g- N--
------END NODE CODE BLOCK------
My horrible purple and yellow theme:

ekw_alinkcolor="#550055";
ekw_bgcolor="#ffff88";
ekw_headingfont="Tahoma,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial";
ekw_linkcolor="#990099";
ekw_logoaccenttext="#ffcc00";
ekw_logobackground="#cc00cc";
ekw_logoborder="#208020";
ekw_logofont="Tahoma,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial";
ekw_logofontsize="17pt";
ekw_logomaintext="#ff9900";
ekw_monofontsize="9pt";
ekw_oddrowcolor="#ffff66";
ekw_textcolor="#442244";
ekw_textfont="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif";
ekw_textfontsize="12px";
ekw_vlinkcolor="#665566";


My just as horrible blue and brown theme:

ekw_alinkcolor="#4499ff";
ekw_bgcolor="#e6dd88";
ekw_headingfont="Tahoma,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial";
ekw_linkcolor="#2277dd";
ekw_logoaccenttext="#4499ff";
ekw_logobackground="#443300";
ekw_logoborder="#443300";
ekw_logofont="Tahoma,Verdana,Helvetica,Arial";
ekw_logofontsize="25px";
ekw_logomaintext="#4499ff";
ekw_monofontsize="9pt";
ekw_oddrowcolor="#c6bb66";
ekw_textcolor="#333333";
ekw_textfont="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif";
ekw_textfontsize="12px";
ekw_vlinkcolor="#443300";