The Elderthing is a word I made up as a name for my Zettelkasten. It's an ever expanding catalogue of information that links within itself, forming connections, some of which spark new ideas or lines of inquiry, and so on. I have a paper Elderthing as well, which is a box of about 150 index cards so far. I'll be curating the content of the online Elderthing by choosing favorites from among my paper collection, and also writing in entirely new things as the whim strikes.
Note that maintaining two ever expanding databases is not without it's downsides. My assumption is that eventually one will win out over the other. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. The paper version is much less portable, though it needs no electricity or computer access. Paper is intuitive to work with, but there is only so much space. I'm especially running out of room when it comes to linking one card to another, which on paper, I then generate another card especially to hold all the links. This has an interesting effect of forming 'nodes' of connectivity, reference points organically grown. But it is also a downside in a way, and I don't know where the scale of advantage/disadvantage will tip as the paper Elderthing grows in size.
The advantages of the digital Elderthing? Simple, near infinite space. This neocities site, before paying anything toward being a 'supporter' and having more space, has 1GB of data. That's a LOT of text. According to me firing the question 'how many words is 1GB of text' into google, that's 166 million words in 1GB. More than I could ever possibly fit in my living space on real paper notecards. Being digital also makes my work here readable for others, which may have unforseen benefits. Lastly, it solves the problem of 'fitting links on the page' as digitally my pages are unconstrained in size.
I came up with the name Elderthing partly from HP Lovecraft, and partly from Venkatesh's article series on the Eldergame, available at:Elderblog Sutra
First up, each note has a unique identifier: this is the long number string used in the address bar, and at the top of the page. It reads as month - day - year - hour - minutes, with time being written in military time. So the number above translates to June 23rd 2021, 11:38AM, which is when this note was first born within the digital Elderthing. At the top of the page, there will be a link to the prior chronological note (except this one, as it's the first), and at the very bottom, you'll find a link to the next note with the nearest timestamp. In the body of the note, or attached at the end, but before the 'next in timeline' link, there will be a variety of links to notes connected to the topic of this note in some way, sometimes with a little explanation of subject matter in common. Also outbound links to take the explorer to connected parts of the web.
This will eventually form a deep web of interconnected content that holds information that even I've forgotten. A dark space rich in secrets, forbidden lore, and maddening connections. Endless corridors that hold both glory and insanity. To gaze on the Elderthing is to look into the eyes of one of HP Lovecraft's Cthulhulian Elder Things. Commune with the Elderthing, and it will teach you much. Check the links here at the bottom, as the Elderthing grows, they'll take you to different indexes and references to make finding relevant subject matter more convenient.
Deep Acolyte, signing out for now.