Forgive me editors, for I am about to
transgress. This shall be my second
transgression this year - for I am about to
node about noding. I am completely aware that this is generally
frowned upon, however, in recent
chatterbox conversations this issue has come up more than once. Many grow weary of having to explain the essence over and over again.
So, you happen to have too many votes on your hands, and you don't know who to vote for (and are too lazy to hit random node?) or you feel that your nodes are not getting the attention that they deserve.
I do not deny that Everything is in some ways a popularity content - we often vote on nodes of people who we recognize. Is that surprising? When I go to the book store, I look for authors of books that I recognize. The difficulty that people have is that of getting the foot in the door (so to speak) and become recognized.
One way to become recognized is to node away until you have high experience and appear near the top of the other users. This is not as difficult as it seems for much of the other users list is masses of people at rather low levels and similarly low exp. It takes a fair amount of dedication to get into the upper half (or third) of the list. Once there, people start looking at your nodes to see what you were doing right. At this point, your nodes will be voted upon and are more likely to receive attention (including the much desired C!).
A simpler method is to make yourself known to people. By this, I do not mean make a pest of yourself on the chatterbox (unless you are the type that craves negative attention). When you see a node that passes by that you like, /msg the author. Speaking as an author of nodes, I enjoy seeing people comment to me on my nodes, probably more than seeing nice softlinks in them. I am sure others do too. With Cool Man Eddie sending you messages, a simple C! may be all it takes to bring attention to your nodes (true, not everyone can do it).
When a person messages another and makes themselves known, it is not uncommon to check out that person's nodes. See that? Thats attention. Your nodes may be voted upon. This works especially well when the person that is being messaged writes on similar topics as you. Furthermore, your name is recognized as it passes the Everything New Nodes.
Realize also, that for the people asking for nodes to vote upon - look in your own Message Inbox. There may be people already saying 'hello' that have nodes that would interest you. There is no need to go out and ask for nodes to vote upon.
If all of this is far too social for you, it is still rather easy to draw attention to nodes and find nodes to vote upon. Write more nodes on similar subjects. Integrate these nodes with the ones that need attention. Likewise, in the search for nodes to vote upon, look at other authors in nodes that you have also put writeups in or follow soft links. Often people place soft links to their own nodes in other nodes that have similar topics. Don't be ashamed of making sure that your writeup on Harley Davidson is soft linked linked to that of Everything Motorcycle Club. If there happens to be a metanode (now often in the node itself - rather than "photography metanode" look at photography) out there about your topic, soft link to it and /msg the owner of the writeup to add your node in it. Likewise, go out there and vote upon interesting things in the softlinks and nodes referenced from such writeups.
The most social way to get noticed is that of E2 Gatherings. These festive occasions often lead to those attending taking another look at the nodes of the others. Good times are had by all, and it is a wonderful way to actualy see the faces behind the names. You don't have to be an old-timer or member of one of the in crowds to attend these gatherings.
For the newer crowd, look for a mentor at E2 Mentoring Sign-Up. Your mentor will notice all your nodes, and give you pointers for making better ones. It is also likely that you will appear on the homenode of the mentor (often rather high up in the user list and thus already noticed).
Thank you editors for allowing me this indulgence. For penance, I promise not to make fun of those funny little $ and @ that follow your names for one week.
And in November of 2002, I find I must now mock myself.