Saturday, November 8, 2014

What's the Matter with Wikipedia

"Something happened in early 2007 that suppressed growth of Wikipedia contributor population as well as content. What was it?"

 

26 comments:

chickelit said...

Your question answer has a parallel in "when did encyclopedias die out?

Q. When Wiki rise?

A. When Encyclopedias died.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I came across the fbpost via this tweet by Mike Godwin of Godwin's Law of Nazi Analogies.

I'm surprised to see no one has brought up the coincidental connection. Godwin did say 2007.

Chip Ahoy said...

I had a delightful somewhat startling conversation yesterday with a 30-something woman, I'm estimating her age. Possibly 25. I don't actually know. I'm terrible at guessing ages. She cut my hair.

Hairs. My whole head of of hair, she did a very nice job of it too. I told her so and she beamed ear to ear. She is beautiful.

I asked her if she had any children. She said, no, that she hadn't met the right man.

I mentioned the item presently about the Russian parliamentarian who suggested Putin's sperm be mailed to women across the land to produce thousands of little Putins. She thought that was hilarious. Then asked, "Who is Putin?"

!

That informed me who I am talking to.

Later, I said, "Don't make my hair like Mao Tse Tung. She understood what I was saying by my description, but it occurred to me since she does not know someone so famous as Putin she probably does not know who Mao Tse Tung is either, so I asked, her if she knows who I am talking about and she said, no. I carefully and kindly and fatherly explained he's the guy who turned China communist and he had dreadful hair.

Is that adorable or what?

I asked her if she understood what just happened with the midterm election and she said that she doesn't keep up. Then felt guilty for her civic negligence. I comforted her by suggesting she shouldn't have to concern herself with details. We hire people for that so we can get on with our lives, and to be forced into it is wrong. But Republicans did a complete sweep, turned the whole map red. She asked, "is that necessarily a bad thing?" How perceptive! For not knowing anything at all. I said, 'No. it's not bad. It's natural swing back and forth." We parted new friends.

Chip Ahoy said...

For fun you should go back and watch the "too many cooks" video. I sense you did not watch it all the way through. It's totally worth it.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

It all comes down to too many unsuccessful encyclopedia salesmen, and "I think there's a lesson there for all of us."

Shouting Thomas said...

I'm dumping my iPhone in favor of a Blackberry type cell phone that makes phone calls and not much else. A dumb phone.

Of course, I have full wifi and cellular capability on my iPad Mini Retina. I also have a fold out Logitech keyboard for my iPad. Hate virtual keyboards.

Didn't want the near-tablet phone like the Samsungs.

I'm always writing, wherever I am, so the iPad is better for me.

AllenS said...

Am I the only one without a cell phone, or any other type of hand held device?

Dad Bones said...

Good (and funny) point, EFB. I failed at selling Kirby's. I was surprised to learn that the same women who wouldn't let me in the door with a vacuum cleaner would wait in line for me after I learned how to hang wallpaper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby_Company

Shouting Thomas said...

Am I the only one without a cell phone, or any other type of hand held device?

No, I have a friend who also has resisted the cell phone/PDA thing.

I'm going to the Big Apple Circus with him tomorrow. Gotta get your meetup directions down in advance when you can't call one another at the last moment.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

(1) There was an episode of Mad Men called "Indian Summer." Betty is home alone when a door-to-door salesmen comes calling. Air conditioners. The tension is palpable.

Don comes home from work and finds out Betty let the salesman in the house.

More tension.

(2) I had a friend in college who tried selling Cutco knives door-to-door. That was a fail.

He took it philosophically: "I can't understand why some little old lady, all alone, won't let a strange 20 year old guy into her house with a suitcase full of razor sharp knives."

Heh.

ndspinelli said...

Allen, Just you and Ted Kaczynski.

AllenS said...

Phew! For a while I thought I was the only one.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I confess I only watched the video after I saw tops had it. Not very nice.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

So in 2007 the Wikipedia hit critical mass. That point at witch a rocket breaks through the earth gravity.

Every system.

How are we going to know when there are enough people? and who is going to tell us?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Am I the only one without a cell phone, or any other type of hand held device?

Nope. I see no reason to have a PDA or other hand held device.

I do have a cell phone that I buy minutes on for the sole purpose of using when I travel....which isn't often... so I can call for emergencies or contact my husband if we get separated.

The last time we needed to communicate it was using a set of walkie talkies that we have. He was driving an old truck that he sold to deliver to the buyer and didn't have a working speedometer. I was following in my car and we talked back and forth telling him how fast he was going so he could calibrate his speed to the tach. It was really fun. At one point we had another guy hop into the conversation because he was on our same channel. That was hilarious. We were all WTF. Who are you? Then we just had a few back and forths of conversation until we drove out of range.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Chip, I am not surprised by what you described, but I am glad you were gentle with her. We have to reach out one person at a time.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Those Kirby vacuums were impressive, but when you found out what they cost…

Fr Martin Fox said...

I had a brief, insigificant career as a Wikipedia contributor (or whatever). That is to say, I started making anonymous edits, and then noticed the warning that that exposes my IP address online, so then I signed up.

I took my leave a few weeks later when I discovered what a bunch of kooks edit those places.

Do you recall the TV show "The X Files"? As I recall, there was this group of three very fragile fellows who apparently never get any sun, who Mulder would go see for counsel from time to time. One time he brought Scully along, and they got really buggy.

Those are the people editing Wikipedia.

Leland said...

I like my Kirby until the wheel came off... After 2 years... and because it was the wheels and not the cleaning system, and although should have been covered by manufacturing defect; I couldn't get it fixed. 10 years ago now, but will never recommend them again.

However, my grandmother's Kirby still works. As they say, they don't make them like they used too. Same with Encyclopedias.

ndspinelli said...

Padre, Those 3 iconoclasts who would help Mulder were The Lone Gunmen.

ndspinelli said...

I hang out @ a coffee shop in Pacific Beach during the winter. It's owned by a guy from Italy. The shop has a diverse and eclectic clientele. One of the regulars is a retired vacuum cleaner store owner. He worked in the biz for 40 years. Kirby's are the most expensive and the best. Oreck are the worst.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I still use a Rainbow vacuum in some areas of the house and office. The one with the water basin. It was given to us by my husband's mother and STILL works like a charm. Yucky to empty the water basin....but it really really traps the dust and dander. Much cleaner air...but still gross.

ampersand said...

I bought a Britannica set around 1974.
It was the new revised edition with around 10 volumes dedicated to small articles and the rest very long detailed ones. As soon as it was out it was obsolete.

Brittanica sent an annual volume out once a year with facts about the previous years in an attempt to be current. Those annuals had great scientific What If articles.Things like rocket travel to anywhere on the planet in 20 minutes, or underground railroads that could get you coast to coast in 30 minutes.

The Brittanica set I had was researched before Alex Haley became famous for Roots. An article about Malcolm X described Haley as a white biographer of X. I found another factual error, but I don't remember the subject. I still have the set, no one seems to want old encyclopedias.

ampersand said...

Allen S. I don't have a cell phone either. But I discovered I'm going to need one for emergencies. There are very few public telephones around.

ndspinelli said...

amper, Obama gives away free cell phones.

Dad Bones said...

My brother gave me my first and only cell five yrs ago, a cheap TracFone. I didn't think I needed it; now I don't go anywhere without it.

If you get one, AllenS, you could find yourself putting nifty little cell phone holders and chargers on your John Deere's.