Editor Log: July 2005

"We must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy" -George Bernard Shaw

Every (self) nuke request I slaughter causes me to stop for a moment, read the node, and, unless it's slanderous or murderous, upvote the thing before sending it along to the killing floor.

I think of the upvote as a payment or tribute to the noder (who will also lose one XP as a result of the node's removal after all) and in gratitude to them for asking for the removal of their work as a result, more often than not, of recognizing that the node in question (and perhaps only in its current form) wasn't much of an addition to the nodegel/database/thingie.

I know that there are some who believe that their lesser nodes are simply waiting to be replaced by shinier examples upon the same subject, or that they should get culturally grandfathered 'cos cuz it was different back in the day before your ass came shinin' through with these thoughts that have already been pooped out by better big dogs than you, but I still intrinsically, even strategically, object to more senior members of the power structure of E2 and other long time noders who built their cabins and castles on a structure of at-the-time-acceptable short or poor nodes that would be deleted in a minute here today.

For all the other portentousness that can be on display, I believe it's quietly incumbent, almost as a matter of good manners or etiquette, for experienced noders to go back and cull or improve their clearly lesser work. I especially feel this because, with one or two rare exceptions, these folks have subsequently proven that they have the ability, intelligence and interests to contribute some of the best stuff this great site has to offer.

I'm banging on about this now because I seem to receive more messages from other, newer, noders confused on this subject than any other. Therefore, this editorial month, I will be walking around here with my mythical I FEEL THE URGE, THE URGE TO PURGE t-shirt to encourage others to revisit their back catalogues with a positive eye to the future..

If you see me, give a honk.

"The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be." - Socrates

There was renewed discussion, recently, of nuking writeups – specifically, what we as editors remove and why we nuke what we nuke. For my part, I thought about restating my editorial policy; but as it’s up already, it doesn’t bear repeating here.

However, I post an editor log each month so those who might be interested can see what I’ve done and why. Much as I sign each of my Klaproth messages, I include a short comment with each nuke. I believe very strongly that you can often take some of the sting out of unpalatable (but necessary) actions if there’s a why attached. I'm also ready and willing to chat with anyone regarding any of my decisions.

I hope it’s apparent that, other than requests by a noder to remove a writeup or a clean-up of old stuff, I try to nuke solely on a qualitative basis. I rarely consider the subject of the writeup in question, and I don’t take into account who wrote the piece. I don’t have to like or dislike either when considering editorial action.

It’s all about improvement: the E2 database, the author’s skill/technique, or sometimes both.

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Why we nuke – is it subjective? You bet. But we live in an imperfect world and, despite evidence to the contrary, we editors are indeed only human. We really are trying to do our best.

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Now, on to this month’s activity:

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What I removed and why

• Vacation Bible School – a GTKY writeup, suggested to the noder that a more comprehensive WU might find favour in Heaven.
• things to help mosquito bites – cleaned up node by removing clutter
• Fire – not a writeup, but one line full of typos.
• Boulis, Anteia, and Archemorus – at the noder’s request.

Constructive help

• The Gutenberg Galaxy by nasreddin – alerted noder to a factual error.
• The Traveller by the.web.hermit – some typos and grammar fixes.
• Holywell by fns909 – added a few necessary commas.
• Peter J. Gomes by Bookworm – fixed numerous instances of “reverand”, noder apparently fled.
• Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival by KissThis – fixed comma problems.
• Nighthawks by deep thought – fixed comma problems.
• Contact – various writeups with various minor problems.
• cutting edge Christianity by Morgon77 – messaged noder with "it’s" problems, and a few typos.
• The Diceman by Khoryos – Suggested to the noder that better formatting, and more exposition, might stem the tide of downvotes.

And a node audit!

• j3nny3lf