Talk:Everything2

This is a quite a good article! Many people browsing around might wonder what the differences are between the two projects. There's a bit of a bias against Everything2 here, so a balanced article is nice to see. ;-) -- Stephen Gilbert

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I would like to see some information about how the list of "soft links" at the bottom of every node is generated. --:AxelBoldt

A "soft link" is generated every time anyone clicks on a "hard link" in a writeup or when they visit another node using the search mechanism. What results is a list of related "nodes" that the reader can choose to follow. Sometimes there are irrelevant soft links, but for the most part you get an interesting way to link related writeups.

They currently allow up to 48 soft links per "node". The most visited links show up at the top of the list.

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Clarified. --Damian Yerrick

Is the grid of related topics at the bottom of every node different from what you call "soft links"? If yes, how is that grid created? From what you wrote about "soft links", it seems that a soft link does exactly the same as the browser's "back" button. Is that correct? --AxelBoldt

Yes, the grid below the writeups contains the soft links. It's like a back button with state; go from writeup A to B, and a link back to A is created at the bottom of B. Changing "and places it" to "adding it to a list"... --Damian Yerrick

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The truly annoying thing about E2 is the structure of the organizational hierarchy. Suffice it so say that any organization whose members of highest standing are called, not Editors, but Gods.

Think Greek gods.

I don't buy this, based on the other level names.

Gods is not a level.

Even I think calling yourself a 'god' is offensive, and I'm agnostic!

Most of the time, gods call themselves admins or editors anyway.

And this in turn creates a power complex in some users. If for some reason these "gods" are displeased with your writeups they can summarily delete them, which also decrements your "Experience Points".

The editors rarely exercise the -5 XP penalty, and even then only on patent nonsense.

Well, for some reason I posted a bunch of decent, readable articles and kept losing points and getting smart-ass remarks (like "you're not learning are you - go read some more writeups and figure out what you did wrong.")

I had good articles torpedoed because I used incorrect capitalization in my subject headings, for example, or followed the lead of other articles that the "gods" didn't happen to approve of.

You shouldn't be "following the lead" of anything. Each writeup should stand alone and should make sense even if all other writeups in that node are deleted.

What I mean by this is that I read a LOT of articles before posting any, and I wrote them in the spirit of everything2 as I saw it, and I got penalized for it. Specifically I remember filling in several empty nodeshells with a small bit of useful information then having those entries deleted because they weren't long enough

New noders tend to be judged more harshly on Everything2. Anyway, write intelligent, long and accurate writeups until you get to level 3 or so and then the editors won't mind if you excersise some creativity. And while "rescuing nodeshells" is encouraged, no writeup there is better than a substandard one.

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There are no longer 24 softlinks.

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Every time a user creates a writeup, she earns one experience point (XP).

Male is the default gender in english. Theoretical subjects should be described as "He", "Him" or "His" in english rather then "She", "Her" or "Hers". The modern exception to this rule is the politically correct "He/She", "Her/Him" and "His/Hers". Rlee0001 21:57 Jul 29, 2002 (PDT)

Actually, it's become quite common in the last 30 years to see the feminine rather than the masculine as the default. For one thing, it drives home how annoying it is to women to see that "he" all the time. On the other hand, what is happening in the living language is that both the "he" and the "she" are being supplanted by the soon-not-to-be-ungrammatical "they". Ortolan88

Writers are increasingly using "he/she" (a bit ugly on the eye, clumsy to read), "they" (offends purists, but in use since the 16th C), or trying to use "he" or "she" in equal proportions. Another option that is sometimes suitable is "one". -- Tarquin 07:51 Jul 30, 2002 (PDT)

I don't care what grammatical gender a writer uses, as long as I can understand them. I tend to use either he or they for the neuter (i.e., inclusive) pronoun, depending on my audience, and I'm usually capable of understanding sentence like:

• A writer deserves all the support she can get.

Just don't try homogenizing sayings like, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!" --Ed Poor

Although an interesting linguistic discussion, I don't think this is really important for the article (or any other article). If somebody doesn't like the "he"/"she"/"they"/whatever in the text : just change it since there's no way we're going to make a Wikipedia standard or "style convention" for this. Jeronimo 07:57 Jul 30, 2002 (PDT)

Actually, I make a point of restraining myself from changing "incorrect" usage such as centre and civilised to center and civilized because I don't want to be America-centric. I guess I can tolerate it when a gender-conscious author exercises his or her preferences :-) --Ed Poor

Exactly, it's OK with me in any way, because nothing is incorrect in this aspect. And it's also OK if somebody goes and "corrects" text by changing my UK English to US English. But I won't stop "analysing" and "criticising" Wikipedia articles ;-) Jeronimo

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Some of the material in this article is more suited to a Wikipedia:Guide for Everything2 Noders. I'd start it myself, but since I'm not an Everything2 contributor, I'm not the best candidate. Any takers? -- Stephen Gilbert 15:37 Nov 14, 2002 (UTC)