In response to a call for more editor logs, here is a sprawling, mind-boggling account of my activities thus far in 2009.
What the hell I've been up to:
Contacted new users. I didn’t bother to tally up the numbers like I did back in August, but it’s significantly less. It was suggested by someone higher up the ladder than I that I don’t need to be sending welcome messages to every single new user spotted, and perhaps this should be reserved for users who submit something or make noises in the catbox. Once again, the majority of users who responded wanted help with linking or requested proofreads from scratchpads (I love this), though there were some more bizarre requests, such as a user who asked me for a good meth recipe. (Protip: you can substitute paint thinner for phenylpropanolamine if they don’t carry the latter at your local green grocer’s.)
Investigated two instances of potential plagiarism. “Investigate” here should not be taken too seriously. A few write-ups were copy/pasted from elsewhere and I simply confirmed that the original work was written by the authors and that they had the right to use it. Thankfully, in both situations that was the case. Note: When this sort of thing happens, it’s about helping to cover our users’ backs as well as E2’s. Sometimes people get a bit uppity about being questioned on the matter, but in this case both were cool. It is not some sort of power trip. I already have powers beyond your comprehension, and when I deem it time to unveil them to you, you shall know their extent with horrifying clarity in the seconds before the world is laid asunder.
Removed write-ups:
- Three write-ups by a user who had replaced all of their content with the letters “kl”. The meaning of those letters still evades me.
- Removed a new user’s first writeup, which was blank and entitled “I can’t stop torturing myself”. Additional steps taken as a member of e2contact: Informed other editors of the suggestion of violence and offered the noder aid in seeking a proper forum/helpline for these problems.
- With the help of alex, aided a new user in moving five write-ups they’d accidentally posted in nodes they didn’t mean to.
- Axed a first writeup seeking out emetophiliacs.
- Removed some spam.
As you can see, I didn't actually do all that much here over the last few months. This includes writing, sadly. It's mostly down to real life time conflicts — I was traveling again for a time, then had a great deal going on at work. I'm also going to be moving back to the United States in September, and already this is creating hassles for me. I've been exhausted, basically, but I am contributing when and where I can.
You are not required to read the following thoughts, but know that I see all things and know the hearts of men and will hold you accountable on the day of reckoning:
It's impossible to do something cool without outraging someone. In fact,
I usually judge how cool I'm being by how many angry people are following
me with signs.
You don't even know how fated this is. I sat down to write an editor log and realized that today is the six-year anniversary of my first surviving writeup. This calls for some introspection.
I stumbled upon Everything2 one sleepy evening in 2003. I was still in high school and I was nowhere near a computer. Rather, I was visiting a friend at Belmont University in Nashville, TN and was wandering up and down the dormitory hallways when I saw a printed copy of sam512's How to destroy the Earth pasted on someone's door. I liked it. I read it again just a few minutes ago, and I still like it1. I like that writeup in 2009 for the same reasons I liked it six years ago — because I think the world needs more mad science, and because it's clever and edgy. The "Current Earth-destruction" count alone is worthy of your upvote. When I got home, I visited the site myself and read more. I guess I just didn't stop.
My favorite writers then are in large part still my favorite writers now. Only, by now I think I've read everything by noders like JohnnyGoodyear and junkpile, the ones that hooked me the most in the beginning, and I also know it's unlikely that I'll get more. Some of them2 are still kickin' it here, and what I really loved was when I found out that these people would actually talk to me. Even though they were far better writers and in some cases twice my age, they did so without condescension. Not only that, but they would read my writing, too. I didn't even have to ask. Do you realize I've been reading several of you for longer than I've been reading Dostoyevsky? I don't know if that's actually a big deal, but it feels like it counts for something.
In that climate, I felt like I could take writing seriously, too. Only, not too seriously. We have a need for the ridiculous, for the absurd, even the utterly inane, because existence is also ridiculous. The internet has a great way of proving my point; I'm pretty sure I can find the text of "Howl" and an account of what insertion into a fleshlight feels like with equal ease. I think this is why internet drama rarely concerns me. The internet should probably not be your best friend or your worst enemy, and it certainly should not be your doctor or psychiatrist. In general, this includes Everything2. Controversy over the order of names changing on Other Users, for instance? Seriously? My feeling is that we probably all ought to have better things to worry about. This is not to ignore the importance E2 has in the lives of many noders, but taking a step back and examining the reality of life and the place that one's computer takes in it is probably a healthy exercise for anyone who spends a significant amount of time in front of a screen.
Personally, I would encourage us to focus more on the writing and less on what other people are doing. As I recently said to the Content Editors mailing list, more than anything else I fear E2 becoming boring. I often wonder if this hasn't already happened. There was an edge, a kind of messy, manic flow of words that was at times unequivocally awful and other times completely sublime. Maybe this edge has been dulled. Writing above the bar and taking new and exciting risks do not have to be mutually exclusive. If you think I'm wrong about this, consider this point: I'm not.3 I'm pretty convinced that it's better to be terrible as a result of being bold than it is to be mediocre.
Keep writing, champs. I'll keep reading.
1 Only now, six years later, I can also C! it.
2 iceowl and Bitriot immediately spring to mind, though the latter seems to be gone now, too.
3 I know I'm not the shining example at the moment myself.