As of the 5th of December, writeups with no paragraph or line break tags in them will now display with the tags inserted invisibly, making them much easier to format.

Interaction options, like voting and cooling, were moved into the footers of writeups, where you will also see some social bookmarking buttons by default, in November. If you hate this and you don't think you'll just get used to it in a day or so, you can go to the Old Writeup Settings page to revert things to how they were - you can use one of the defaults for the header, and enter 'nothing' into the customisation box for the footer, if you prefer. If you just want to tweak it to make sure you're seeing everything you want to be seeing, etc., the new, much simplified Writeup Settings page allows you to do that.

If you don't want people to see social bookmarking buttons on your writeups, you can opt out of this in User Settings.

Complaints, bug reports and other feedback should be sent to Oolong. Thank you.

So here's what's going down these days...

Wintergreen: A Quest for the Season

A new Quest is upon us, an environmental challenge! Node all things Earth-friendly, from organic granola to solar powered servers. For full details, see the writeup at Wintergreen: An Earth Quest.

THE IRON NODER CHALLENGE

The hardy, or foolhardy will attempt to write 30 nodes in a month, which is one a day, if wertperch's arithmetic is correct. It's not too late to join, it doesn't have to be one each day, just an average. If you can call that "average".

Contact quest creator Dreamvirus or visit the IRON NODE for more details.

E2 Secret Santa 2008

It's been going on for so long that it's not just a tradition... it's a HABIT!

Just when you though it might not happen, another fearless noder who ought to know better stepped up to launch this year's postal pandemonium. Sign up for two months of anticipation, frustration, and last-minute scrounging in the depths of your closet to fill that last bit of space left in the box.

E2 Secret Santa 2008. Now with 25% more surprise than other leading brand. Guaranteed election-free.

At long last, the new Everything2 XP/leveling system has arrived!

For a longer description with further explanation, CLICK HERE. Otherwise, for the main points, read on...

For several years now, people have been pointing out the numerous ways in which the old XP/Leveling/Honor Roll/Writeup Bonus system was seriously flawed. After a long and careful process of deliberation, spearheaded by the TFXP usergroup composed of a mixture of admins and ordinary users under the guidance of golFUR, a new system was agreed upon which we know will not be "perfect" in everyone's eyes, but which we are all convinced is a massive improvement over the system we had before.

Best of all, the new system is very straightforward, and does not change the way E2 has always worked or take away anyone's hard-earned XP - instead we just adjusted the settings a bit behind the scenes to produce a system which rewards different types of noders while providing achievable levels for all users. We also added some new user powers. But other than a few differences in the way XP and levels are calculated, E2 still works the same way it always has.

Below is a quick rundown of the major changes. Full details are at the Voting/Experience System page. For a detailed explanation of the logic behind these changes, see this node. You can also view the complete archive of the TFXP deliberations at the E2 Forum under Projects>>Voting/XP/Level Reform

1. Infinite Levels

Levels no longer stop at Level 12. It is now possible to achieve any Level from 1 to infinity. Higher levels are much more achievable too, because level requirements do not keep growing exponentially. Please keep in mind that the new writeup requirements for levelling up are provisional and may be adjusted or eliminated.

2. XP Award Adjustments

Receiving a C!s is now worth 20 XP instead of 10 XP. Every time someone upvotes your writeup you always gain 1 XP (instead of just a 33% chance). XP is no longer lost as a result of downvoting. Posting a new writeup still earns 5 XP. Voting on other people's writeups no longer earns you XP (you get GP instead; see below).

3. 1 C! per day

In recent years nearly 50% of all C!s given were given by a tiny group of people, and most users with multiple C!s per day did not even use most of them. In order to spread the wealth around more, the C! power has been expanded to more users, but in exchange each user will only have 1 C! per day, to keep C!s valuable and precious. The minimum level for C! power is still level 4, which now includes more users.

4. XP is no longer used as currency

XP can no longer be spent, gambled or used to buy things. Instead, a new, optional currency, GP, can be earned in a variety of ways (voting, quests, blessings, eggings, etc.) and spent at the E2 Gift Shop or gambled on the Wheel of Surprise. This currency is kept completely separate from the leveling system, and can be safely ignored or even opted out of completely by those who want to focus on reading and writing.

XP Recalculation Opportunity

All users are encouraged to recalculate their XP at the "XP Recalculator." This tool uses database history to award you the amount of XP you would have gotten in your time here, had the current system been in place from the beginning. Many users will gain XP and levels by recalculating. Those with higher XP under the old system will be rewarded for recalculating by gaining large amounts GP currency. Recalculating will allow users to compare their progress with others in a more objective way.

After three years of service at the highest level, katherine has stepped down as site admin and director of operations due to time constraints. She will continue to work with the site as a coder and advise the new administration as time permits.

Effective today (October 13, 2008):

Alex (who you have come to love and hate under a different name) is the new site administrator and director of operations.

Oolong is the new lead developer, in charge of E2 code and other nuts and bolts.

These changes have been posted to the power structure doc. The staff line-up is likely to change some more in the near future so watch that spot. There are also a couple of editor logs with more personal thoughts on the transition.

Wish us the best in our new duties

- a & Oo.

As Northern nights draw in, the world once again stands poised for the return of the Darkness. Chill evenings make for chillier tales, and Hallowe’en beckons with a bony finger.

So, noders all, gather around the fire that is the Necronodecon: The 2008 Halloween Horrorquest. Bring forth your tales of terror, tell us of those tortured souls drenched in blood and fear, make our souls pray for the daylight once again...

You may have noted the announcement in the catbox topic but it's now official. Writeups can now be given mark-up (the HTML subset that E2 supports) while being written. In the scratch pad as well as in nodes, you can now select and add tags to your writeup-in-progress without having to do it by hand. The submit button has also been rigged to detect unlinked and unformatted writeups and warn the submitter.

Why is this so big a deal that it's on the front page? Well, because not everyone watches the catbox and the problem that it solves has been a source of frustration and misunderstanding for as long as the site's been around. In some way it's a bit embarrassing that it took until 2008 but I also see it as a token that we're not all talk and are actively working on bringing the site's interface kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Pretty much all the credit for this goes to Oolong, who adapted Alex King's JavaScript Quicktags from Wordpress for use with E2. This adaptation even includes a special pipe link button. The feature has been tested pretty thoroughly but may still have a rough edge or two. Please report bugs with adding mark-up and submitting writeups directly to Oolong. We have not yet decided what to do with the TinyMCE script that JSQ replaces but it's likely that it will eventually be deemed unduly complex and surplus to requirements. For now though, it is at last possible to switch it on and off without losing the contents of the writeup submission box and some other bugs have been removed.

In order to mark this momentous occasion and honour the Britnoders' finest coding hour, we shall demonstrate our gratitude by sending a delegation of US noders to teach them the apocryphal art of refrigerating beer. Peace.

E2 needs your input.

The administration would greatly appreciate it if you took the time to give some thought to three topics that have been posted in the forum under the "Posting about noding" heading. These are subjects that are of substance and significance in the present and, even more importantly, relate to the future of E2. We're looking for answers and opinions on the topics of

• Why we are not noding
• What your vision is for the site's future
• What the role and influence of the staff is

This is part of a drive for substantial change in the way we communicate and operate. We're counting on the straight-talking, opinionated crowd showing up to talk turkey. The staff is likewise encouraged to engage in and contribute to frank discussions. Above all, the intent is to end up with some input that will let those of us who are in charge of code and operations quit talking, roll up our sleeves with more direction and focus, and in the end make the best use of the limited resources at our disposal. The forum is better suited to lengthy posts with the opportunity for discourse than usergroups, messages, or writeups are. It requires a separate account for those who don't have one. Please let me know if you have any issues with it. Thanks.

-a

I'm in Lansing today, and so we're going to be upgrading our server OSes and installing a new router. This might mean some downtime, but hopefully not more than a few minutes at a time.

update: I guess more than a few minutes of downtime. Apologies all around.

--nate

Another update (The Day After): Our problems related to the upgrade seem to be two: If you're having trouble with the catbox, chatterlight, or scratch pads, you may want to turn off Everything2 Ajax in the Javascript Repository until we fix it. If you're using Writeup Bonus and are missing a level or two, sit tight... we haven't figured out that one yet. It may take another day. Also, we're running off two back-end servers right now and only one of them has a problem. You may see things working fine on one pageload and not working on the next.

-a (1545 EDT/1945 UTC)

update: This seems like its fixed now, lmk if there are other issues. --n

Okay, it looks like levels are still a bit wonky. Still haven't gotten to the bottom of it. -a

I got off my duff this afternoon and finally got around to deploying the Zen Theme (with Kernel Blue) for unauthenticated users, as well as new users on the site. This is the first bell-toll for the long-lived e2 jukka theme which will no longer be supported.

As always, shoot any complaints via email to e2webmaster at everything2 dot com.

--nate

Tag team writing. Well, sort of...

e2collaborators is a new writing project led by artman2003. There's an ongoing story, a chapter of which is published each Friday. This is the first instalment. However, they need you, and your ideas, and your writing skills, to keep it going.

Let artman2003 know if you'd like to lend them your words.