Question about maps and spells

[Letheor]

I am a 'post-Classic' EQ player just getting started. Just curious about a few things.

Spells: I noticed when you go to buy spells there are no descriptions besides the spell name. I see the name, the kind of spell (evocation, etc) the mana cost and casting time, but nothing that tells you what it does. It make sense to me that if you are a brand-new caster on Norrath about to spend some very hard earned coin on a spell, you'd want to know what it does before you buy it. Any one know why they did not include that information?

Maps: A friend who played EQ from day 1 said they had no maps in the beginning because the idea was your character is essentially an explorer, and explorers make their own maps. Since vendors sell so much stuff, I wonder why they didn't include a cartographers shop in the various cities, where you could purchase maps of cities, continents and the world, which you could then edit with a tool.

When EQ first started, was there a pre-prepared EQ website with some basic information on it, which was then added to by players, or did the various websites come into existence as players learned and passed on information on spells, quests, TS recipes, etc?

Just curious. Thanks!