'I solemnly covenant that at least 90% of my writeups shall be factual writeups'
The usual name for what is most officially called 'The E2 Factnoders' Covenant,' the Covenant began as a bright idea of liveforever, who was frustrated that a large proportion of writeups being added to Everything 2 were non-factual, and not only that; these writeups were the most popular as far as votes were concerned. As a reaction to this, he decided to take an oath that he would never have more than 10% of his writeups containing non-factual content. Since then, a number of other noders have taken up the covenant, and an informal clique has grown up around this mantra.
The Covenant is not an attempt to clean the database of non-factual content. It is about a belief that the backbone of Everything 2 is factual nodes, and that anything else is, so to speak, 'social lubricant.'
Why should I take up the Covenant?
Believe it or not, the Covenant can improve your non-factual writeups - "if only 1 in 10 of my writeups can be non-factual, I'd better make it worthwhile."
On the other hand, daylogs and dream logs are exempt from covenant calculations, so 'covenanters' can post as much as they like under these nodes. This has the added advantage of moving much of the more personal content to a more suitable place.
Why shouldn't I take up the Covenant?
For those with a penchant for fiction, the covenant can feel extremely restricting. However, the majority of these people also write very good fiction which is more than worthy of keeping on the database. Also, the Covenant is by no means a mandatory thing, and I would actively discourage E2's better fiction writers from taking it up.
Keeping calculations on the Covenant up-to-date can be difficult to do, especially when one has a large number of nodes to monitor. Many 'covenanters' like to put the calculations on their homenode and update it as the numbers change.
Which idiots have taken it?
The following brave noders have taken up the Covenant: liveforever, shallot, wertperch, erias, Mortice, taschenrechner, anthropod, RubenAzarja, Teiresias, Noung, calypso's crush, Transitional Man, junkets, evilrooster, Monkeylover, Nordicfrost, Wafel, dann, irexe, Carthag, shimmer, Berek, Powers, Stealth Munchkin, mkb, Ereneta, Cornflakes, SharK, bah, arcanamundi, rahmat, Nero, BaronWR, elflad, Carwash_, will, arieh, Kage Prototype, Tiefling, jmn32, in10se, sekicho, caknuck, pao, volfied, nevermind_me, MikeyK, randombit, Heisenberg, Royhoo33, tburns, gitm. Go shower them in praise and/or ridicule.
Anyone wanting to take up the Covenant need only paste the text of it ('I solemnly covenant that at least 90% of my writeups shall be factual writeups') on their homenode and do their best to keep it. There is no need for the noder to have already fulfilled it; the Covenant is meant as a personal goal, and nothing more.
See also: liveforever's homenode; E2 Clique Application Form
Yes, calling it 'the Covenant' is a bit pretentious. Feel free to think up another noder Covenant. We'd be interested to see how it pans out.
Thanks to liveforever and anthropod