Everything2, too!

I never seem to get tired of telling the story of how I first found the website that would turn into an obsession and ultimately change my life for the better.

It was late 1999 or maybe early 2000 – the Internet was new…well, it was fairly new to me anyway. I used to love to randomly wander the backroads of the electronic frontier, never knowing where my virtual perambulations would land me. To that end, I would type words, phrases, names, whatever … into a search engine (I think I used Alta Vista at the time) and see where the magic would whisk me off to.

I remember typing ‘cat’ into the search engine. Among the countless hits was cat@everything2.com “What’s this?” says I.

At first glance, it appeared to be a rather comprehensive survey of the cat command from UNIX, which is a command to connect files (concatinate them) together. I’m not much of a fan of UNIX, it reminds me of a job I once held for a year, despite being gossly underqualified for the position. I almost moved on … but “What ho?” There was also a description of the domesticated animal. And a mini-review of B. Klibin’s immortal cartoon book Cat. “Just what exactly is this site anyway ….?”

At the bottom of the page were links. Lots and lots of them, linking the page about cats to other things on the weird site --- fiction, essays, factual pieces, humour … all sorts of strange stuff.

I was hooked.

As the years rolled on, I kept looking things up on Everything2. Anytime I would read a factual book or if I wanted to know about something, I’d go to E2 first --- the writing was consistently better and more entertaining than Wikipedia or the other online resources. It was frequently more interesting than looking in an encyclopedia.

I particularly enjoyed watching VH1 Classic with JCP and Suzi --- a cheesy Heavy Metal video would come on and I would look the band up on E2. The articles were usually written by people who employed phrases such as “I know they’re mostly horrible, but…” and “…guilty pleasure…”

About two and a half years ago, I started writing articles for E2. I did some good work --- I did some not-so-good work. I met some nice people who helped me improve my writing and my self confidence. I learned the arcane lore of Everything 2.

About two weeks ago, the supreme honcho of E2’s day-to-day operations, Lord Brawl (coolest. Screen name. ever.) wrote to me.

“You’ve been well-recommended for the Content Editors team. Are you interested?”

Wow.

I told him to wait, then I wrote to some friends.

In 2 ½ years I’ve made a few friends on E2. Some of them I’ve even met in real life. As they answered my questions and addressed my concerns, a picture started to emerge.

As one friend pointed out: it is not so very different from what I already do on there --- I read, evaluate, write notes to encourage or correct the writer. It’s just that now, I have the tools to really do it: I can hide or remove writeups, I can give rewards to writers as often as I wish (formerly, I could only do this one time per day). But most importantly, I have access to the Editors’ Forum. This allows me to participate in the discussions that will shape E2 in the upcoming times.

Thanks Lord Brawl, I won’t let you down!