I have found a replacement for everything2: the much more formal Wikipedia.

I shouldn't say that it is a complete replacement though, some of the stuff on everything2 is just completely off the wall, rude, sexist, opinionated, gross (it could be archived as a fairly accurate picture of mostly young male geeks during and after the high tech bubble).

It replaced it for me though, because all of the extra stuff in everything2 is a distraction from the information that is actually useful -- the good parts of everything2 cut through the bull and gave a nice brief bit of information on most subjects, especially technology. It was really nice to be able to go to everything2 and type in an acronym and get a nice description back. It's moderation system is restrictive because of the people that use the site, and it also prevents the site from gaining momentum. Eventually the moderators can't keep up. Wikipedia is a more serious and formal attempt and therefore doesn't have the same misuse issues as everything2.

So what is Wikipedia? Well, first you should understand what a wiki is: a web site that lets you edit its contents along with other people. So if you see a mistake, you can just go in and fix it right away. The moderation system consists of thousands of people that use the site and correct the mistakes of others as they come across them. They can also add more information and increase the size of the encyclopedia, through easy linking of pages within the wiki and elsewhere. The result is a fairly accurate and very cross-linked source of information.

Because Wikipedia is backed by a wiki, if someone comes along and erases a page or vandalizes it, the page can be put back to it's original proper state very easily. All of the past versions of the page are stored by the wiki and can be compared to the current version of the page.

I have to stop myself after browsing Wikipedia for a while. It's like the web was originally: additive to keep following links around and exploring. It's really easy to get off-track, just like in everything2. Granted everthing2 is often more amusing than interesting.

It's interesting to note that the inventors of HTTP originally saw the web being this way in the first place: more collaborative. Instead the web is mostly read-only web pages which largely serve the interests of their owner. Only now, when social software is starting to become mainstream, do we realise the power that a community of people can have. The Wikipedia is a great example: in three years they already have over 200,000 articles -- and that's just the English ones. It's a pretty amazing demonstration of the power of collaboration, community self-moderation and great software.