I hate anniversaries, birthdays, religious feasts, and (most of all) Hallmark holidays. It's also been ten years today since Nate and Co. flipped the switch that made Everything become Everything2 and I'm probably expected, due to my present standing, to say something about it that befits the momentous nature of the occasion. Well, sure enough, devoted functionary of the Great Mother Site that I am, I spent several days pondering this epic (and I mean EPIC) decaversarial ed log. Then I figured that y'all have heard enough from me over the last year so I'd like to leave centre stage for others, especially other staff members in this same space, and be brief by my loquacious standards.
I find myself in a position of leadership, which I've admitted I was not accustomed to--I always thought of myself as a good lieutenant rather than the boss--but which I hope I continue to grow into, for the benefit of the site and for the life lesson it contains. I suppose part of that lesson is stepping up and showing yourself on the balcony, even if means you feel a bit lame and get the idea that you ought to be delivering something akin to Urbi et Orbi.
After ten years we still have a major question of identity and it seems to be central to our identity that we cannot collectively answer the basic question: What is E2? I'm not going to answer that question today because E2 does not like being told what it is and what it is not. Hell, we can't even agree whether this ten-year landmark ought to be a celebration or a funeral. All I can say is that E2 is something that is a bit bigger than the sum of its users and contributors. I consider it a privilege to have spent the past eight and a half years in the company of the hundreds or thousands of brilliant minds and special people, including some who are precious to me on a very personal level, that form this site's collective nous and expression.
So we continue to follow our unique path as we have done since the site's inception. It may appear as an aimless meandering but, if you'll pardon me the departure from the rational and a diversion into the philosophical or even metaphysical, there is a reason--as someone recently postulated--a telos, though perhaps I'd phrase it more as a skopos. Whatever the case and whatever the reason, we shall proceed on our continuing mission to boldly split infinitives and go where no site has gone before. If you ask me to tell you where exactly it is that no site has gone before, all I can tell you is hell if I know, we haven't been there yet.
From the business as usual department:
Staff changes
Inbox: DonJaime signed up as a coder last month with an implied promise of Prussian efficiency. Kthejoker fell off the wagon and signed up again for light coding duties. Oolong knows what to do with them.
Outbox: Ancientsnow handed in her badge due to that dastardly Real Life making increasing demands on her time and energy. XWiz also tendered his resignation, which I understand is incidental to his general departure from the site rather than related to the position as such. We wish him well wherever the future takes him.
Code and feature changes
Work is being done on the chatterbox and message system. This is internally significant but may not have an immediate, visible impact. The root log will hopefully offer a more nuts-and-boltsy description of what's going on.
Homenode image privileges have been extended to users level one and above. I understand that this may perplex some of the older users, particularly those who found the image a worthy goal in striving for a higher level. This is something that Oolong and I worked on and we figured that there was no significant reason not to do so since we have the server capacity. Lower-level users' images will be smaller in size; full image privileges as we know them remain unchanged, though (as Oolong reminds me) we've tried to address the diversity in image sizes and are hopefully now scaling them to fit the homenode page better.
We have several major feature changes in the works but SOP says that we don't brag about them before they're live. Things our coders are working on in major ways include scratch pads, node heaven, homenode items, and a replacement for the nuke request node and its ilk.
Roll credits
This month I want to thank all the people who, in any way, got involved with the decennial (there, I used the correct word once in this piece), whether or not their efforts resulted in something for the public to see. Not that I would in any way belittle any of the other efforts but I have a king-sized thank you for Jet-Poop and the exceptional work he's done. He started with little more than a list of users and a vague mission. The execution and the hard work that followed is all his and was in addition to his original idea for that quest with the enormous title. If we had a giant freakin' gold medal of awesomeness, I'd make him stand up before all of you and pin it on his shirt pocket. Go ahead, blush.
I'm also very thankful to (and surprised by the number of) all those who responded to the Everything Decaversary Interviews. This was successful beyond our wildest expectations and I admit to being a bit smug about finding the right person to turn my half-baked interview idea into an unqualified coup. Critical or not, every one of these folks' experiences and opinions is worth paying attention to. It doesn't matter if some of them have clashing or ambivalent perceptions of the site's history, misgivings about its present, or bleak views of its future. I found something of value in each and every one of them and appreciate the time and effort they put into taking part.
Excelsior! And, well, happy birthday, E2.
If they won't make you captain then you sail your own ship
With your own colours tied to the mast
Setting sail for the far side of anywhere
Beyond and behind your thousand yard stare
With the sky in your eyes.