User:Oakling
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Finally creating a user page, literally just so I can add this:
| السلام-שלום | This user participates in WP:IPCOLL. |
Ooh! Fancy! (jazz hands)
As long as I'm writing about myself: I've been here for 10 years, but I'm a very intermittent editor.
Gather round, children, and I shall tell you a wild story: did you know that there was an earlier attempt to create a sort of online encyclopedia that anyone could sign up for and contribute to, that would eventually hold content about everything?
It was called everything.com, and quickly got revamped into everything2.com. Affectionately known as E2.
I joined E2 right around when it was becoming apparent that Wikipedia had us beat all hollow... and that we didn't really want to be writing an encyclopedia anyway.
It became a place for creative writing of all kinds. It still is.
(In fact, I was absolutely floored just now to discover that its management has FIGURED OUT that it is a place for creative writing. It never got big, in part because nobody could agree on how to describe it. Now the website says:
"A community-driven writing platform since 1999.
Our writers explore everything from personal narratives to technical deep-dives, fiction to philosophy, book reviews to recipes, travel journals to dream logs - all in a space that values craft, curiosity, and genuine human expression."
I'm amazed. It only took a couple of decades!)
It's a wonderful, delightfully weird place. A little like an RPG for writers. Other users award points to the pieces you write, and those points move you through a series of levels from Initiate to Poobah.
Without the communities we built there over the years, I literally wouldn't have an eight-year-old today.
You can see my user page there, too. It has old creative non-fiction, a fair amount of fiction, and a photo of my old cat Marty. What's not to love?