How to find good nodes

However, I think that there are 3 types of good nodes:

1. Nodes that everyone likes, which will probably be very highly ranked if they are good, so you can't lose there. Just follow the above instructions.
2. Esoteric nodes. These are nodes few people understand, because they are more profound than most regular nodes, so people tend to ignore them (sometimes even downvote them). However, if you are lucky, one or two people understood them, and they are therefore cool!ed. They can usually be found in the lower parts of the highest reputation first listing, with a C!
   (If you have never run into, or want an example of such a node, see my what E2 is all about node.)
3. Nodes that piss you off. I admit it. I love reading nodes that are insensitive or stupid, because, well, they trigger some emotion in me. And just sometimes, these nodes get you thinking about stuff in a different perspective. However, as most badly voted nodes really suck, I go only for the ones which are high on the lowest reputation first, with a C!. This means that somebody thought it worthwhile, so it is not just a my dog's name node, but it REALLY pissed people off.

you take a chance.

Although using reputation alone as a guide to good nodes works well it has a few problems :

• Not all good wus have very high rep. Particularly if they are recent or about slightly obscure subjects.
• Some nodes have higher rep than other, possibly better, nodes simply because they have been around for longer.
• Particularly for lower level users it may only yield a few really good writeups.
• Not all nodes with a C! are good.

But how to find good noders?

Until comparatively recently it was difficult but now there is a way thanks to the Honor Roll. All you need to do is find a user with a high merit.

Now unfortunately merit isn't a public statistic so you can't see a users merit on their homenode but... you can see the effect of their LF.

For example: a user who is level 3 and yet only has 36 wus (as opposed to the required 70) has got a LF under 0.52 and therefore has a merit of at least 19 so they must be doing something right!

Once you have found such a user all you need to do is sit back and read everything they have written, knowing you will get quality writing.

I think the best thing about this method is that it not only provides you with lots of good stuff but it also gets you to read stuff you wouldn't normally have searched for. This way you can learn a lot about things that you aren't usually interested in and that, I think, is what this site is all about.