1. What is your name?
David. But you can call me Dave if you want. But not Davy! Only crux gets to call me Davy. Damn I miss that guy.
2. Tell us something about you, your background, and what you've been up to lately?
I grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida in a sleepy little fishing village that boomed into a vacation destination for the Southeastern United States. My upbringing was solidly middle class. I was editor of my school newspaper in sixth grade, which I think is where my love of writing started. Did a lot of newspaper journalism from there up through college, and a lot of newspaper production work as well. Becoming an editor on E2 was probably the apex of the journalism life story arc. Professionally, I've been a technical analyst in the Information Technology field for most of my career. It was my fall-back occupation after I gave up on the careers of being president of a music publishing company in Nashville, Tennessee and a talent agent for musicians, followed by being a radio disc jockey and audio production guru (for commercials and other radio stuff). I've also spent a few years in television and film production as my undergrad degree is in mass media communications, and along the way I worked for several years in a radio-related field of the telecommunications industry. I've also been a concert promoter, a recording studio producer (for music), and I started a radio station at my university. You know, ordinary stuff everybody does.
As has been documented in numerous places on this website, I travelled the world for a while in my thirties and forties after moving to California in 2003. Lately I've been living in Portland, Oregon and remodeling my 1914 Arts and Crafts bungalow with my spouse and a series of Maine Coon cats. I guess you could say I've settled down. I'm still gay though. Is Outies still a thing? I started that, didn't I?
3. How did you discover Everything, and how did you become a noder?
My story parallels a lot of other noders in that I found E2 through Slashdot. I've written about this in daylogs before, it seems silly to repeat it here!
4. What are your favorite writeups -- both your own and from other noders?
It's really hard to pick favorites, particularly among my own. I'm probably most proud of my factual writeups, as I really enjoyed researching and writing them. Magnolia and Time Bandits are standouts. I seemed to like writing biographies the best. David Lynch and Chet Baker come to mind. Back when I was an e2god I reparented a lot of my personal exposition writings to the user instantkarma so I'm not sure I can call them "mine" anymore, but some of those writeups are among my favorites. My most famous writeup is obviously Adam Purcell, but it's hard to call it a favorite when I wish I'd never had to write it. I recently received a rather intense message from a user I don't know who called that writeup "one of the most moving things I've ever read (anywhere)", describing it as a "touchstone" for them personally. It was humbling to get that kind of feedback after so many years, being told that your words had a profound impact on someone's life. It's remarkably validating as well, in that the things we write matter to other people. So in that sense, it's a favorite.
My most favorite writeups from other noders are also really hard to pin down. There are so many! Some of them are gone from the site now along with the folks who wrote them. But All the gold you can eat by dannye still makes me cry every time I read it. I think Twenty-three good things about pickles and dirt by junkpile captures the wonder and fascination that Everything2 imbued back when it was new. Pushin' niceness by OldMiner touches on my own experiences of being a staff member, and is a tactfully sanitized taste of how our community was occasionally turned upside down by one troublemaker after another, and we've had a few doozies. I believe Summit in Savannah was the first major literary collaboration on the site, and it's still one of the best. Jet-Poop's Bag of Crushed Child is a comedy classic, and a window into his sense of humor as a noder. You can do anything made me realize that nothing was standing in the way of me traveling the world except my own fear of the unknown. Bugs go to JayBonci is endearingly cute. Taking Down Large Larry and Lyndon Johnson orders some pants always make me laugh out loud. I just picked these at random and I could list dozens more that are important to me for my own reasons, but I should probably leave it there.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite memories from E2's history?
My favorite memories are all the fun times we had in the catbox back in the day, and all the noder gatherings I've been to all over the world. Plus all the great messages I got from everybody. April Trolls Day was probably the apex of how fun E2 was before the management started trying to find a way to monetize the site. My least favorite memories are what happened on September 10, 2001 and the schism created by "The New E2" that drove so many people away from the site, including me. There were a few people who got into power positions for a while that really poured gasoline on the fire, and I'm not talking about dannye, he was a saint in comparison. I've written about that period probably more than I needed to at the time, so I don't need to say any more about it at this point. Other than thinking about it still makes me sad. Speaking of dannye, the day he passed away was really sad, but that evening dozens of old timers came back to E2 to remember him the the chatterbox. I thought that was really special - I think he would have loved that.
6. What keeps you coming back (or not coming back, as the case may be)?
I've been away for quite a long time, but have dropped in occasionally. I wasn't even around for the Decaversary interviews, but better late than never as they say. I was waiting for a few assholes to burn themselves out and either be driven out or rage quit, and after a while I got busy and forgot about it. Then the biggest thing that kept me from coming back was just the lack of time. I developed a lifestyle that didn't allow for sitting in front of my computer for hours every evening pouring my soul into a magically enchanted website. When I did have time for that, my brain was usually tired from thinking all day so I tended to spend it passively watching YouTube or other streamy things. I stopped drinking about ten years ago, so that's a factor too. Lately I've decided that I spend too much time consuming passive entertainment and wanted to start writing again, so I'm hoping that if I just start noding, I'll find a groove and figure out if there's still a place here for ol' panamaus.
7. What do you hope for E2's future?
At this point I just hope it keeps running. Over a long enough timeline it will become historically significant just for surviving. It documents a staggering number of hours of mental and emotional energy from thousands of people all over the world, and it changed a lot of people's lives, mine included. It's a digital time capsule, filled with wondrous discoveries for anyone who dares to explore.
8. What does E2 mean to you?
Oh come on, have you not read all the gushing love letters I've written to this site over the years? Of course you have. Next question.
9. Who are your favorite noders? Which ones do you miss the most?
Oh man, I've met over 400 of these lovely people in real life, so "favorite" to me isn't necessarily restricted to their writing, but I understand the question. I've loved everything I've ever read by dannye, riverrun, iceowl, Halspal, prole, sneff, TheDeadGuy, The Debutante, jessicapierce/junkpile, stand/alone/bitch/Jane, etouffee, longwinter and N0b0dY. Hang on, I'm just gettin' started. As far as "influencers" go, I gotta shout out to sensei, Pseudo_Intellectual, CowboyNeal, Mr. Hotel, donfreenut, Jet-Poop, icicle, dann, JayBonci, nate and dem bones. This institution wouldn't be what it was or still is without them. I miss my dear friends who are gone away forever, including Ouroboros, WolfDaddy, grundoon, Borgo, unless, disgruntledwren, Demeter, and of course Hermetic. I miss my sweet Lometa and Jinmyo and graceness. I miss Gritchka and JerboaKolinowski and kthejoker and Rancid_Pickle, all so nerdy in their own peculiar ways, all great defenders of the nodegel in their time. I miss Heisenberg and his E2 podcasts, that rascal! I had a huge crush on Tallroo after I met him. Speaking of crushes, I miss Cow Of Doom and tandex and Templeton and QXZ and Walter and thefez and witchiepoo and cahla and briiiiian and perdedor and WickerNipple because they are all such delightful humans. I miss toasterleavings (another crush) and Wharfinger, towering minds with personalities to match that were just too big for E2 to contain. And that includes Igloowhite, who wrote some of the most seriously amazing shit I've ever read to this day. I miss brassmule for the crushiest of all reasons. I miss conform and Roninspoon and ideath and flamingweasel and Joyquality but we all live within a few miles of each other so I should probably get out more often. Aw hell, I miss almost everybody. I made so many friends here. So. Many.
10. Who would play you in the Everything2 movie?
Some noders who've met me said I remind them of Gene Wilder for some reason, but he'd have to wear a wig since my hair's not curly. Anyway, he's dead so that's not gonna happen.
11. Please fill in the blank: "E2 is to the Internet as ___ is to the world."
Gobekli Tepe.
12. Any questions that I didn't ask that I should've?
Q: Was it really necessary for us to get completely undressed for this?
A: I don't know why you're asking me that, you signed the release form.
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact panamaus or Jet-Poop.