Here I am, writing my first node in I-don't-know-how-long. I could easily look it up, but I'm too lazy for that sort of thing. Facts are for liberals anyway. HateQuest 2006 inspired me. I have no idea what I am going to write, but I don't want to stop typing until I bang out a few paragraphs.
I'm what is known in the local dialect as a fled noder. I used to be fairly active. I used to write a lot. I mean, look at one of my highest rated nodes - Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - and see that I used to spend some time working on serious nodecraft. But then "it" just left me. What was "it"? "It" was a combination of interest, industry, and eagerness to connect with people out there in the nodegel. One day it was just gone. I figured E2 wouldn't miss me. It will take care of itself.
Then came all sorts of management decisions I didn't personally agree with. And then I noticed a lot of old timers had left too. A day would pass and the New Writeups nodelet would hardly move.
Now I use Wikipedia and E2 with almost equal frequency to look up shit. I use e2 for a more subjective slant. For instance if I wanted to look up XYZ widget for my computer, I would look it up here expecting not just a dry description but also some valuable input like "nice piece of gear but a bitch to install and maintain." Likewise, with new music or movies or books, I will turn here to see what people think because I find I have similar tastes to a lot of noders.
Of course, one could attribute my "fledness" to sour grapes. During my active periods, I semi-actively campaigned to become a content editor. I'm certain that the Management's decision not to so empower me had to do with my low writing frequency and my minimal social interaction on the catbox and/or #everything. Or it could have been that everybody thought my writing sucks, which I can accept. I wanted to be more than just another writer. At one time I really wanted to participate and contribute. For a while I maintained some supernodes, like some of the recipies nodes. But, like everything else I mentioned before, "it" just sort of went away.
Now I don't feel any compulsion to participate in the E2 community in any way. Sometimes I throw a non sequitir into the catbox to get a rise out of people or just to be stupid.
See? Already I have lost interest, so I am going to stop writing now and answer my email.