Why was my writeup deleted?
Your writeup WILL NOT be deleted just because it has a low reputation.
Probably, one or more of the following applies to your writeup:
- it was too low on content
- it was very badly formatted
- it was superseded by a later writeup
- it was redundant (i.e. superseded by an existing writeup)
- it became out of date, irrelevant or no longer useful
- it violated copyright
- it was not in English
- it was obviously spam/flame/trolling, in which case, die, spammer/flamer/troll.
Whatever the case, the admin who deleted your writeup should have sent you a personal message informing you of precisely why they did what they did. This is official E2 policy. If your writeup is nuked and you aren't told why, you are within your rights to /msg the person in question and request an explanation.
Who can delete writeups?
Content Editors and gods. It's the Content Editors' job, though. About 50 people altogether. The Power Structure Of Everything2 has the complete list.
What happens to my writeup once it is deleted?
As soon as the Editor clicks the "delete" button, three things happen.
- You are sent a personal message explaining why the writeup was deleted.
- You lose 1XP. This partially cancels out the 5XP you gained when you originally wrote the writeup.
- Your writeup becomes Marked For Destruction. The writeup is NOT immediately removed from the database. It is still visible to passers-by, but it now has "Marked For Destruction" printed at the top of it, and nobody can vote on it.
Every MFD writeup is added to a queue called Node Row, which is a list of all the writeups which have been deleted today.
Each day - around 07:00 hours server time - all the writeups in Node Row are stricken from the database.
48 hours after this, your deleted writeup will appear in Node Heaven, which is a special document where all your deleted writeups are kept, permanently. As you can see, your writeup is never completely deleted.
How can I make a node not Marked For Destruction?
You can't. In exceptional circumstances, an E2 god can do this; usually this would require a writeup to be substantially improved. It is more common for a writeup to be swiftly destroyed so that it can be re-submitted.
Okay, then how can I restore a writeup from Node Heaven?
While this is possible, it is very, very, very rare for a writeup to be fully restored from Node Heaven. If you honestly think that the original reason for deletion no longer applies, make your case to a Content Editor... and make it convincing!
But a better approach is usually to take your deceased work, modify it in one of your Scratch Pads, then re-submit it as a new node. Take care when doing this. If you decide to just cut and paste the node from Node Heaven, your node will almost certainly be deleted again. Heed the original reason for deletion. Consider asking a Content Editor to view your Scratch Pad before you post the writeup, to make sure what you've written is better this time around.
How can I have a writeup deleted?
Post a writeup at E2 Nuke Request saying which writeup you want deleting, and why. A Content Editor will process your request.
If the writeup you want deleted is not yours, and the Editor judges that there is not good reason to delete it, s/he may deny your request.
Whatever the outcome, your deletion request will be deleted at the same time.
One of my old writeups is really bad and I want to fix it up. But if I just fixed it, no one would see that I did all that work to make it better. Can you nuke it so that I can re-create it?
No.
The Editors are too busy for stuff like this. Node it right first time. If you think you've made an old writeup really good, you could try bringing it to the attention of someone who might particularly like it, or mentioning it on your home node.
Who or what was Klaproth?
Prior to his retirement on November 21, 2007, writeup deletion messages were sent out by Klaproth, a bot under the control of the Everything2 administration - not by the admins themselves.
Klaproth was removed from service mainly to make the deletion process more transparent to newcomers. In the old days, noders could block Klaproth's messages and then never find out that their stuff was being deleted. And admins could nuke nodes without revealing their identity or telling the noder why. And newcomers would /msg Klaproth for explanations, then receive no response because he was a mindless bot...
Klaproth was named after a character of the same name from the Sandman comic book series by Neil Gaiman. He's the Master of Funerary Rites in Necropolis.
Klaproth also shares the name of Martin Heinrich Klaproth, an early German chemist. He learned chemistry while working as an apothecary's assistant, later performing that job in cities like Hannover, Berlin, and Gdańsk. He was hired by the University of Berlin when it was originally founded in 1810. Klaproth was their first professor of chemistry, a position he held until his death. Klaproth was considered the father of analytical chemistry. Some of his discoveries included uranium, zirconium, chromium, and cerium. His specialty was devising quantitative methods of mineral analysis, which was used extensively in chemical analysis in the field of archaeology.
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