everything2 raze the only place i've ever found that's anything like this one. i've always been fascinated by the ways in which they're similar, and the ways in which they're not. we have blathes. they have nodes, complete with categories, upvotes, downvotes, an integrated chat function, and xp. the links there don't create themselves. making them becomes a creative act in itself. e2 was something really special and impossible to define once upon a time. it still is. it's just become more of an archival labyrinth of souls than a living, breathing online entity. but it does still draw breath. back in the day, there was a vibrant enough community that noders had a number of in-person gatherings. not that i was ever a part of any of that. in another life, i might have set my anchor down there instead of here. in this one, i was just a distant observer, awed by much of what i read but too intimidated to ever open my mouth. the original everything was born a few months before blue. its content and features were incorporated into what became everything2 a year later. what many would call its prime roughly coincided with our busiest days. it's quieter now. on a good day, you can count the number of active noders on one hand. kind of like blather. many of the moments that moved me most are gone, deleted by the people who posted them or swept away by janitors who deemed them obsolete or inessential. a few fragments linger in what passes for my memory: a horrifying hallucination brought on by sleep paralysis. a computer programmer coming clean about cocaine psychosis and the stroke that upended his life. a child who drew a swastika on their forehead for halloween without understanding the power the symbol carried, bringing tears to the eyes of a stranger who offered a wordless lesson in humility. one line seared into my mind: "if they could brand his arm, what must his heart look like?" an old woman's medication and tacky brooches buried beneath the snow-shrouded tires of her own car by a stranger with a sick sense of humour. when a node goes dead, it turns red. some of the phrases that link to nothing still exist. they read like passages from a poem in the process of being burned. 230809 what's it to you? who go blather from