My idea of a "Getting To Know You" node is one where every user could add a more-or-less equally valid entry, and those entries are about (and largely relevant to) the noder. Ask yourself "Does this belong in my home node?". For example, adding "I hate this plasticized bimbo." to Britney Spears doesn't enhance (ahem) the Britney Spears node in any way. Put this in your home node if you need to share it with the world.

Everything2 isn't a good forum for the GTKY sort of everyone-has-a-story topics. The node quickly gets huge and very sluggish to load. It attracts lots of quick, low quality writeups. And the content is usually so subjective it's hard for editors to prune it selectively.

So, sometimes we kill all the writeups in a GTKY: good, bad and indifferent. In a GTKY with many, many entries, it's just easier. Other times we just prune all the negative-rep entries.

There are better places and ways to add this kind of content. For most things, you could just discuss it in your home node. However, that's sometimes not satisfactory because no one would find it there.

One suggestion for this is that one noder maintain the "root" writeup, and ask others to put their writeups up individually under unique, relevant titles. They can /msg the founder, and she/he can hard link references to other users' reply nodes. These could be either individual nodes (for large writeups) or their home node (for smaller things). Voting should moderate the wheat from the chaff as usual. This approach requires more work from the GTKY founder, but it avoids a lot of effort for the editors, and potential database slowness. The Everything AIM repository works like this ... but when the original maintainer, heropsychodreamer, was away it got out of hand. So this approach has problems as well.

Another variant is the "poll node," usually of the form Everything Poll: Boxers or briefs. Please don't do this. Again, E2 doesn't support this effectively. I don't have any good ideas about how to handle it, but a node with 38 writeups that say boxers and 24 that say briefs along with a few neithers does not add much value to E2. (Thanks to jbird who pointed out the distinction.)

GTKY's are not a crime. But the demonstrated usage on E2 suggests that the community as a whole dislikes them, and therefore we (the editors) choose to discourage it. Your content is welcome, we just have evolved certain guidelines about where and how it appears.

The policy I'm following is to mercy-kill any recent writeup with a rep at -5 or less, and any writeup more than 3 months old with a rep at -1 or less. This lets the noder community decide what lives and dies. The problem with that is that some nodes become vote dumping grounds, and even lame writeups get high reputations. In such cases I will "edit" and cull the weak. Note, however, that some editors will kill *all* writeups in a GTKY.

Thank you and good nodes.


unperson very perceptively says: Heh, just realized that this seems very reminicent of a ko in go. The node is illegal if it would continue forever.

"G-ing T K Y"
Sung to the tune of "Getting to Know You" from The King and I, original lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, music by Richard Rogers.

It's a not-too-ancient meme,
But a true and honest thought,
That if you become a noder
By other noders, you'll be taught.
GTKYs I've been reading
(You'll forgive me if I faint)
And I've now become an expert,
On the nodes I love to hate...
GTKYs!
(aahh!)

Gee Tee Kaaaaaaaay Whys,
Getting to read all about you.
Getting to hate you,
Wishing that I never cared.

Gee Tee Kaaaaaaaay Whys,
Voting it all down, and quickly.
You are precisely,
My downvotee.

Gee Tee Kaaaaaaaay Whys,
Growing annoyed and angry.
When I /msg you,
Getting to know what to say.
Haven't you noticed,
Suddenly XP is dropping,
Because of all the pointless and jejune
Things I'm learning about you
Day by day.


I don't actually hate GTKY nodes that much, but every time I saw the letters "GTKY" the song would immediately pop into my head — I had to satisfy my subconscious by writing this. This is especially amusing to me because I don't like Julie Andrews at all, but I think I would like her as a noder, singing this to a group of newbies.

Yes, to those who would say otherwise, Julie Andrews did sing this song, in the 1992 Hollywood studio cast recording; more information is here from amazon.com.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.