edev: hidden writeups

The (Don't display in "New Writeups") functionality is OK, so far as it goes, but I think E2 needs something stronger as well, which I will call Hidden writeups. By Hidden I mean something close to "doesn't really exist yet".

When I create a "Hidden" node, it

• does NOT count toward my writeup total
• does NOT give me an XP
• can NOT be voted upon
• can NOT be Ching!ed
• can only be killed WITHOUT an XP penalty
• when killed, it just goes away. No messages from Klaproth. No hanging around in Node Heaven.

but it CAN be viewed, linked from and to, and edited.

For any Hidden writeup I have created, I can at some point Reveal it, making it like any other writeup, making it appear in New Writeups and probably erasing all evidence that it had ever been Hidden.

Writeup Seeds

The primary goal of this feature is to be allow writeup seeds, which are less tham an actual writeup, but more than one can accomplish with just a nodeshell and softlinks.

Examples of writeup seeds might be

• this is an album by Bare Naked Ladies
• this is a unit of currency in Lower Slabovia
• this guy lived in 2500 BC and was the first to suggest a heliocentric universe.

I think these would be dreadfully helpful in an otherwise empty nodeshell, and would be quickly deleted when a real writeup appears.

Simplified Administration

Whenever I make an E2 Nuke Request or an Edit These E2 Titles request, I gain and lose an XP, I end up with messages from Klaproth, crap in my corner of Node Heaven, and my writeup count goes up and down. With a Hidden writeup, none of this would happen.

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Comments and questions eagerly awaited.

There may be some problems with this idea.

First, those who are out noding all the chapters of Moby Dick or whatever whould have no more motiviation to do so, if each hidden w/u gives 0 XP, or will cram the "new Writeups" box. I'd like to node all 10 family recipes, but I don't want some pissed off user downvoting me, so I hide them, but I do want some XP.

Second, if I wrote a node saying "White people suck", and it can't be voted upon, it's an advantage to the trolls.

Other than that, it would be a good idea. I'd like to un-hide a w/u, not have nuke requests bounce my XP up and down, and the general idea is pretty good.

If all you're worried about are the ancillary effects of posting to special nodes like E2 Nuke Request, why not just make those special nodes suppress the effects, rather than per-node special favors? Then only certain ranked people can bestow this magical transient followups bit on a node.

If you make the power to hide writeups a level power, then I can see it... and I'd also like to suggest that if you hide the writeup, it cannot be seen by anyone else.

Also, it'd be nice to have some time limit on hidden writeups, after which time it would either automatically become unhidden, get auto-nuked with an experience penalty, or something else equally drastic. (The idea would be to discourage prolonged hidden writeups.) And the Everything daily email should include a list of hidden writeups, along with their expiration dates.

If, that is, this idea gets implemented.