RationalWiki talk:What is going on at Citizendium?/Archive7
[edit] In fairness ...
… the FTL article has been slapped down. Well, patted on the head and told to go away please. Scream!! (talk) 10:21, 21 July 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Since this WIGO is current/updated...
Should we add this WIGO to the list template (the one on the upper right of the page)? ThiehWhat is NOT going on? 19:11, 14 July 2013 (UTC)
- Definitely. 1.36.15.77 (talk) 23:17, 4 August 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Limit
Might I suggest a limit, whether of characters, words or lines for WIGOs. Brevity is the soul of wit - long drawn out stuff is just unreadable. Points can be made on this (talk) page subsequent to writing the WIGO. Scream!! (talk) 16:44, 25 July 2013 (UTC)
- Would you rather have 9 points for each referenda, or just group all the lesser ones into one batch for those interested in a quick summary?
- The problem with CZ is that they've internalised bureaucracy enough to speak like bureaucrats, so you can't just link to them; you'd only force people to read a page just to get a sentence's worth of goings-on. 81.157.134.145 (talk) 21:05, 26 July 2013 (UTC) 81.157.134.145 (talk) 21:00, 26 July 2013 (UTC)
- I think shorter WIGOs are better. It's easier to make them snarkier and more ironic. But I do agree with 81.'s comments. The best solution, I think, is to collaboratively edit long ones to make them shorter. I may try the one mentioned above later. DinoMight (talk) 23:52, 26 July 2013 (UTC)
- That said, the one covering 7 referenda at least keeps the commentary on each one short and snappy; it's just that there's no point linking to any of them for clarification; The titles aren't descriptive, and the text takes ages to get to the point. I suppose I could've divided it off into four to seven separate WIGO items, but that seemed a bit excessive. 81.157.134.145 (talk) 00:24, 27 July 2013 (UTC)
- It also wasn't helped by my modem crapping out last night (a full reset later it's working again), so that I had to stop editing once the text was finally up. 81.157.134.145 (talk) 00:37, 27 July 2013 (UTC)
- That said, the one covering 7 referenda at least keeps the commentary on each one short and snappy; it's just that there's no point linking to any of them for clarification; The titles aren't descriptive, and the text takes ages to get to the point. I suppose I could've divided it off into four to seven separate WIGO items, but that seemed a bit excessive. 81.157.134.145 (talk) 00:24, 27 July 2013 (UTC)
- I think shorter WIGOs are better. It's easier to make them snarkier and more ironic. But I do agree with 81.'s comments. The best solution, I think, is to collaboratively edit long ones to make them shorter. I may try the one mentioned above later. DinoMight (talk) 23:52, 26 July 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Election time
Since I am a citizen in good standing (albeit one who has made about two edits in as many years), I can actually vote. I'm not entirely sure I can be bothered.
I'm slightly astounded by the nine referenda items. Are there now more referenda to vote on than there are editors? Enquiring minds want to know. —Tom Morris (talk) 18:25, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
- Only eight referenda (the one most likely to revive Citizendium was rejected by the managing editor), and I count twelve people who've made at least one mainspace edit in the past fortnight. --65.101.119.25 (talk) 20:09, 30 July 2013 (UTC)
- http://en.citizendium.org/wiki?title=Special:ActiveUsers gives 31 users in the last 30 days. I think that works out to about 1/3rd of their editors holding a position. 81.157.134.145 (talk) 06:17, 31 July 2013 (UTC)
- Had someone other than Larry Sanger set up an encyclopedia similar in principle to Citizendium, it probably would have done much better. Sanger may have come up with some ideas but he ain't no leader. TorontoKid (talk) 23:26, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
[edit] $100 a month
They are finally getting serious about the finances... only about two years too late. —Tom Morris (talk) 16:15, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
- There's nothing wrong with running CZ as a hobby server for a small number of people to play on, but the hard part will be to admit to themseves that it's a hobby server for a small number of people to play on - David Gerard (talk) 20:39, 2 August 2013 (UTC)
- As an exercise in pointless bureaucracy, it is unparalleled. Occasionaluse (talk) 17:50, 15 August 2013 (UTC)
[edit] "Multiple accounts" August entry
The two accounts claim to be mother and daughter. I can't find independent evidence of the daughter outside of LinkedIn and a press release website; still, I think that entry should be removed unless there's really good reason to think it's the same person. How common is it to have a daughter named the same as the mother ("Jr.")? I haven't come across that yet, although I don't see why not. The Moose (talk) 11:53, 16 August 2013 (UTC)
- Hmmm, they might in fact be different people (although it's interesting that people with such similar names could get approved without anyone batting an eye). I'm a bit busy to look into it in more detail today but feel free to remove it if you don't think it belongs (in that case, "12" should also be changed to "13" in the WIGO above it). DinoMight (talk) 03:17, 17 August 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Reporting on Citizendium
Is it just me, or is it almost impossible to report on some Citizendium things without being wordy (or making the commentary impossible to follow), because of all the complicated bureaucracy over there? The one on Citable versions vs. Approved Articles opening Homeopathy to editing... I tried to keep it short, but I also wanted to make it understandable. 86.161.13.165 (talk) 08:57, 16 September 2013 (UTC)
As a former CZ editor, personally banned by Larry no less, I enjyed RationalWiki's extensive coverage of our dearly beloved... but why oh why the foolish political agenda claimed? CZ has had problems with people pushing their own topics (notably 'Healing Arts') but in general, it is NOT a friendly place to try to put minroity views. For example, the homeopathy and Samuel Hahnemanna, articles, the Paracelus and alternative medicine pages were many times attacked by Sanger and his longest serving editors and constables - not because they knew or were even pretending to be interested in the topics but simply because they felt the views being put were outisde some supposed conventional range. What CZ has actually promoted is pages of engineering trivia, whcih presumably is uncontroversial.
Wikipedia, s heavy-handedly praised here, has by comparison many organised campaigns,such as that in favour of Global Warming 'action', which has replaced the 'collective editing' of important topics there for Stalinist showtrials and mass expulsions.
See: http://www.philosophical-investigations.org/Wikipedia_on_Climate_Change
for example, and feel free to contact us on the site for a more intelligent debate about these online encuylopedias. You are, after all, calling yourself 'rational wiki'.... — Unsigned, by: 90.38.122.231 / talk / contribs 2013-09-22T16:27:09
[edit] Time for a Citizendium boycott?
All that seems to be happening on this WIGO is one BoN's cataloguing of the day to day minutiae of activities at Cz. Quite frankly most of the last dozen or so entries have been trivial beyond belief. If it were down to me I'd lock the page. Scream!! (talk) 14:38, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
- Scream, I think you're right. It might be time to consider another vote. If there is, I'm changing my previous vote from Keep to Delete. TorontoKid (talk) 23:26, 21 November 2013 (UTC)
- Citizendium is solely of historical interest. In its present state it's just another obscure little website where a dozen or so people write about whatever is on their minds, and virtually no one else reads. (Alexa ranking has long been in the noise level, hovering around 300,000). No need to have a WIGO on such a site. If something noteworthy happens there we can bring it up on the article talk page or at the saloon. Doctor Dark (talk) 01:51, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- I don't see a point in deleting (I've always hated wiping years of work due to the fact nothing is happening now) however, moving CZ to the NIGO list seems like a practical thing to do. Perhaps we can have a a What is going on in Larry, to catalog his never ending fail-upward internet projects that go no where. --Revolverman (talk) 08:34, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- It's no longer of any importance. But don't delete it, fishbowl it.--Bob"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that." 10:44, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- Wouldn't want to delete it. Just forget about it. Unless anything major happens. It's just that these constant retellings of day to day events is becoming rather silly and doesn't reflect well on RW. Scream!! (talk) 13:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- I've never really followed CZ, but by the sounds of it, it's deader than CP, and possibly more disfunctional too. AFAIK most WIGOs aren't even added by RW editors. That said, we should leave it up to those that do still go there. If something noteworthy happens, I'm sure they'll WIGO it. But yeah, we don't need WIGOs on day-to-day stuff. PsyGremlinSprich! 13:44, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- And how would we ensure that IP editors only write about "notable" things?--Bob"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that." 14:53, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- I've never really followed CZ, but by the sounds of it, it's deader than CP, and possibly more disfunctional too. AFAIK most WIGOs aren't even added by RW editors. That said, we should leave it up to those that do still go there. If something noteworthy happens, I'm sure they'll WIGO it. But yeah, we don't need WIGOs on day-to-day stuff. PsyGremlinSprich! 13:44, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- Wouldn't want to delete it. Just forget about it. Unless anything major happens. It's just that these constant retellings of day to day events is becoming rather silly and doesn't reflect well on RW. Scream!! (talk) 13:11, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- It's no longer of any importance. But don't delete it, fishbowl it.--Bob"I think you'll find it's more complicated than that." 10:44, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- I don't see a point in deleting (I've always hated wiping years of work due to the fact nothing is happening now) however, moving CZ to the NIGO list seems like a practical thing to do. Perhaps we can have a a What is going on in Larry, to catalog his never ending fail-upward internet projects that go no where. --Revolverman (talk) 08:34, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- Citizendium is solely of historical interest. In its present state it's just another obscure little website where a dozen or so people write about whatever is on their minds, and virtually no one else reads. (Alexa ranking has long been in the noise level, hovering around 300,000). No need to have a WIGO on such a site. If something noteworthy happens there we can bring it up on the article talk page or at the saloon. Doctor Dark (talk) 01:51, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
Right. So, let me get this straight - the WIGO on CP - two entries in the last month - stays open, the one that's active is closed? http://xkcd.com/359/ 86.161.10.101 (talk) 17:59, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- I think the gun was jumped in protecting and shuting down so quickly. I personally think there is still a role for WIGO:CZ, its a niche interest but what "harm" is done keeping it really? Tmtoulouse (talk) 18:20, 22 November 2013 (UTC)
- The problem is that the WIGO is getting bogged down in trivial crap. As a result I seldom look at it any more, figuring it's just going to be more of the same. (The talk page is another matter.) In short, signal-to-noise ratio is a real thing. If Mr./Ms. 86. would agree to throttle it back then it might be worth reopening. But not otherwise. Doctor Dark (talk) 01:16, 23 November 2013 (UTC)
It's a damn shame. This page brought me deeper into RationalWiki (after I saw the main article on Citizendium) and I like hearing about what's going on there, even if it is trivial. But, I understand your reasons. The Moose (talk) 08:18, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- If RationalWiki's just going to randomly shut it down without even giving a chance to respond, it's hard for me to care about RW anymore. Particularly as they don't even see this as a problem. 86.161.10.101 (talk) 09:16, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- (EC)Might have jumped the gun but the utter trivia being WIGOed by 86... was getting on my nerves. If (s)he wants to put in something worthy of note then fair enough: deprotect it but some of the crap that has been there lately … Scream!! (talk) 09:20, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- So ... create a login? - David Gerard (talk) 13:48, 25 November 2013 (UTC)
- I'm disappointed the page was locked, I enjoyed following 86s updates. I consider Citizendium a great case study in how not to run a Wiki and have followed it's demise with interest. Most interesting to me is watching how they stick to certain practices even when said practices have proven misguided time and time again. Citizendium refuses to chance and now their ship is half sunk. Perhaps this page can remain unprotected until it's fully submerged? 189.61.31.87 (talk) 15:29, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
- OK! Scream!! (talk) 16:19, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
- Unprotecting is fine, but if the crapflood starts up again I reserve the right to protect unilaterally. Doctor Dark (talk) 01:28, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
- As Doctor Dick still promises to screw this over without the need to even raise an issue on the talk page beforehand at any time, I'm not returning. Everyone agrees these actions were inappropriate, no apologies were made, instead we have promises that the behaviour will repeat. 86.161.10.101 (talk) 10:45, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
- "No-one agrees with me that these actions were inappropriate but some people were willing to give me a chance to do better. I'm not interested unless I am given free rein to use this site to pursue my petty agenda anonymously" FTFY. Tialaramex (talk) 11:32, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
- If someone does what everyone else agrees was a premature shutdown without any attempt to bring up the issues beforehand, and one is told that this will almost certainly happen again - failure to raise any issues until the point you suddenly burning everything down - and may I point out that if you don't like this, noone was ever forcing you to read it, the shutdown simply ruined the fun of others - then this site has clearly forgotten that A. it's a volunteer site, and B. It's meant to promote rationality while having fun about it. Systemic failures are a subject that rationality can shine a lot of light onto, particularly when, as in this case, many of them descend from ideological entrapment by ideas that have clearly failed. But I'd rather not deal with, if anything, even more irrational behaviour on RationalWiki while documenting irrational behaviour elsewhere. 86.180.35.237 (talk) 15:01, 5 December 2013 (UTC)
- "No-one agrees with me that these actions were inappropriate but some people were willing to give me a chance to do better. I'm not interested unless I am given free rein to use this site to pursue my petty agenda anonymously" FTFY. Tialaramex (talk) 11:32, 29 November 2013 (UTC)
- As Doctor Dick still promises to screw this over without the need to even raise an issue on the talk page beforehand at any time, I'm not returning. Everyone agrees these actions were inappropriate, no apologies were made, instead we have promises that the behaviour will repeat. 86.161.10.101 (talk) 10:45, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
- Unprotecting is fine, but if the crapflood starts up again I reserve the right to protect unilaterally. Doctor Dark (talk) 01:28, 27 November 2013 (UTC)
- OK! Scream!! (talk) 16:19, 26 November 2013 (UTC)
Am I the only one missing WIGO Citizendium? Editor at CPmały książe 11:00, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- No. A Real Libertarian (talk) 11:13, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Time to close down this WIGO. There has been nothing of note happening and that tumbleweed section is only getting larger. TorontoKid (talk) 22:43, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Knowino gone?
Noticed over the last fortnight Knowino has disappeared and has been replaced by a "Down for scheduled maintenance" notice. Prior to this the only activity was from spammers and the removal of their spam. No major articles for months and now Google has stopped indexing the site. Is Knowino finished? TorontoKid (talk) 02:43, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
- Good question, I like to know too. I contributed some major articles in the past and I don't have copies. I trusted that I be given a chance to make backups of my own work before Knowino would be unplugged, but alas.--P. Wormer (talk) 08:28, 24 December 2013 (UTC)
- Knowino is up again, there was no need for me to worry. --P. Wormer (talk) 08:26, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
- Surprised your webmaster didn't simply 503 notice his site. Getting your pages blocked via robots.txt will screw-up your search engine rankings when they go back online. TorontoKid (talk) 02:55, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
- I don't quite understand what you mean, but doubtlessly Thomas Larssen knows and has his reasons. As you mentioned a few remarks earlier, I'm in the habit of spending a few minutes everyday on removing spam from Knowino. Very occasionally I update one of my own articles. To my surprise spammers discovered Knowino again already. I never bothered to figure out what they're after, but I guess that they want to attract readers to their own websites. Are these websites malicious, purely commercial, or both? I don't know. --P. Wormer (talk) 08:37, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
- Surprised your webmaster didn't simply 503 notice his site. Getting your pages blocked via robots.txt will screw-up your search engine rankings when they go back online. TorontoKid (talk) 02:55, 27 December 2013 (UTC)
- Knowino is up again, there was no need for me to worry. --P. Wormer (talk) 08:26, 26 December 2013 (UTC)
[edit] Anything in the last coupla months?
I see there's no entries for December or January. (I know the answer is "no", but I was curious as to a more detailed "no".) - David Gerard (talk) 13:00, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Here. A Real Libertarian (talk) 13:15, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Well, there's this hopeful new development, which will surely cement their reputation as a valuable resource if they can get what they call those "irrational skeptics" out of the way. Might be worth a WIGO. But at present CZ is just a scratchpad for a dozen or so people to write about whatever strikes their fancy, so my inclination is to let them carry on in their quiet corner of the interwebs. Doctor Dark (talk) 14:35, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- To be fair, don't tar everyone at Citizendium with the same brush. The presence of those two woo pedallers lie squarely with John Stephenson. He approved both their membership and only he has the power to delete their content, which he has not done. TorontoKid (talk) 21:21, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Hi. Replying to point out some inaccuracies here. The first person joined Citizendium several years ago; I had to create a new account for technical reasons and block the old one. In the second case, the application was approved for the same reasons everyone gets in: they promise to abide by the rules and present evidence of their real identity. There is currently no Citizendium rule which would allow us to deny applications because someone is insufficiently skeptical; nor is there any rule which would permit us to take activities on other projects into account, other than for cases of criminality. (This has been suggested before, but is yet to come about.) In other words, the application procedure broadly assumes good faith and allows people to make a fresh start on CZ. Now, if someone starts uploading mountains of nonsense, the Citizendium Council or expert Editors should in theory step in. As a 'Constable', I only have the powers to warn or ban people depending on behaviour, not content (e.g. for clear self-promotion or vandalism). So I have no "power to delete their content" unless Editors or the Council order me to do so: I just administer, and no account approval entails my personal endorsement of the applicant. Also, I am not the only Constable or sysop on the wiki, and everyone with such powers is subordinate to the Council. John Stephenson (talk) 16:41, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
- You're being disingenuous here. Example: You deleted Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting without there being any "orders" from Editors or the Council. TorontoKid (talk) 22:23, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
- Thank you for acknowledging the inaccuracies in your previous statement. Both your comments lead me to think that you are willing to criticise without really understanding the rules or the circumstances. In the case you refer to, that was an article imported from Wikipedia with no substantive improvements at all - and, in fact, the introductory paragraph had been deleted and the templates were producing error messages. Under CZ rules going back some years, all such 'external articles' are automatic candidates for deletion until significant work is done on them, and may be removed at the request of any member. The revisions served purely to make the article unreadable and involved no new content at all, plus the material had gone out-of-date and was imported by someone who had left, so there was little reason to keep it. John Stephenson (talk) 12:38, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
- No such request to delete the article had been made on the article talk page or forum. You simply deleted it without forewarning and did so when the author was in no position to make any remedial changes to it. You abused your position as constable. You should do the right thing Stephenson and resign. TorontoKid (talk) 22:49, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
- Sure thing. I'll hand in my resignation immediately. John Stephenson (talk) 01:44, 18 January 2014 (UTC)
- No such request to delete the article had been made on the article talk page or forum. You simply deleted it without forewarning and did so when the author was in no position to make any remedial changes to it. You abused your position as constable. You should do the right thing Stephenson and resign. TorontoKid (talk) 22:49, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
- Thank you for acknowledging the inaccuracies in your previous statement. Both your comments lead me to think that you are willing to criticise without really understanding the rules or the circumstances. In the case you refer to, that was an article imported from Wikipedia with no substantive improvements at all - and, in fact, the introductory paragraph had been deleted and the templates were producing error messages. Under CZ rules going back some years, all such 'external articles' are automatic candidates for deletion until significant work is done on them, and may be removed at the request of any member. The revisions served purely to make the article unreadable and involved no new content at all, plus the material had gone out-of-date and was imported by someone who had left, so there was little reason to keep it. John Stephenson (talk) 12:38, 17 January 2014 (UTC)
- You're being disingenuous here. Example: You deleted Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting without there being any "orders" from Editors or the Council. TorontoKid (talk) 22:23, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
- Hi. Replying to point out some inaccuracies here. The first person joined Citizendium several years ago; I had to create a new account for technical reasons and block the old one. In the second case, the application was approved for the same reasons everyone gets in: they promise to abide by the rules and present evidence of their real identity. There is currently no Citizendium rule which would allow us to deny applications because someone is insufficiently skeptical; nor is there any rule which would permit us to take activities on other projects into account, other than for cases of criminality. (This has been suggested before, but is yet to come about.) In other words, the application procedure broadly assumes good faith and allows people to make a fresh start on CZ. Now, if someone starts uploading mountains of nonsense, the Citizendium Council or expert Editors should in theory step in. As a 'Constable', I only have the powers to warn or ban people depending on behaviour, not content (e.g. for clear self-promotion or vandalism). So I have no "power to delete their content" unless Editors or the Council order me to do so: I just administer, and no account approval entails my personal endorsement of the applicant. Also, I am not the only Constable or sysop on the wiki, and everyone with such powers is subordinate to the Council. John Stephenson (talk) 16:41, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
- Not believing in any paranormal stuff (including God, Allah, etc.), I was pleasantly surprised by this overview of the history of paranormal research. It is factual and the author does not try to conceal the criticism that has been brought forward against paranormal research. I had expected something much more quacky. --P. Wormer (talk) 08:25, 16 January 2014 (UTC)
- To be fair, don't tar everyone at Citizendium with the same brush. The presence of those two woo pedallers lie squarely with John Stephenson. He approved both their membership and only he has the power to delete their content, which he has not done. TorontoKid (talk) 21:21, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
- Well, there's this hopeful new development, which will surely cement their reputation as a valuable resource if they can get what they call those "irrational skeptics" out of the way. Might be worth a WIGO. But at present CZ is just a scratchpad for a dozen or so people to write about whatever strikes their fancy, so my inclination is to let them carry on in their quiet corner of the interwebs. Doctor Dark (talk) 14:35, 15 January 2014 (UTC)
[edit] The psyker
In one of the discussions about Wikipedia, RationalWiki and wikis in general on the Skeptiko and/or the Mind-Energy forums, someone mentioned editing Citizendium, but now I can't find it.--ZooGuard (talk) 10:29, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
- Well, time to dispatch Ravenor, it takes a thief and all. A Real Libertarian (talk) 10:38, 30 January 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Nice guy Darren Duncan
During the six month move to cheaper hosting, this Darren Duncan guy has been donating $319.90 a month "as a special extra donation to cover the cost of the old servers while he works to migrate us to a cheaper service" [1] He's donated nearly 2K at this stage instead of setting up the cheaper hosting. Has he like, forgotten about it or something? Must be nice to have so much money that you don't notice a few missing K's here and there. 46.7.249.24 (talk) 11:02, 11 April 2014 (UTC)
- Well, it's a recurring deadline. People are bad at recurring deadlines. Each time you think "Oh, I'll get to that before the deadline" and then something urgent comes up and you miss it. Scale it down and you'll probably recognise it. Maybe you kept up a subscription to something you weren't reading/ playing/ using any more for a few days, or weeks or months because you didn't get around to cancelling for example? Tialaramex (talk) 11:29, 20 April 2014 (UTC)
I have had fleeting thoughts about gathering a posse, outvoting the people on the site and setting up a wiki about good government/government accountability (something that would make the name make sense.) Problem is, we would need to get the keys from them and maintain the site well. Plus I would feel sorry for Good Guy Darren Duncan. The Moose (talk) 06:38, 7 July 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Who is an expert?
We have a bizarre spectacle now where an author can now approve an editor, even though that author may not be qualified to be an editor, and where the standing procedure page specifically refers to editors only approving other editors. Policy on the run. Just gotta love it. TorontoKid (talk) 02:20, 10 July 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Citizendium Elections
The good news: Citizendium has more people active in the mainspace (13 in the past month) than open elective positions (5). Bets on if the number of candidates will exceed the number of positions? --65.101.119.25 (talk) 21:04, 9 June 2014 (UTC)
- Anyone else find it amusing that there seems to be a huge increase in wiki and forum participation around this time of elections and referenda? 46.7.249.24 (talk) 04:56, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
- It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. Two words: election chasers. Make promises that will be forgotten about after the election, pretend to look busy while doing nothing for the next twelve months. TorontoKid (talk) 07:19, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
- And of course make sure you tell everyone you donated money, ie always helpful to get people to vote for you when you don't really contribute anything else of value. TorontoKid (talk) 16:47, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
- It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. Two words: election chasers. Make promises that will be forgotten about after the election, pretend to look busy while doing nothing for the next twelve months. TorontoKid (talk) 07:19, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Infobitt
So, the site still says "Launching early 2014." I wonder what's taking so long. Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't seem to be a particularly complex idea. I would think that creating an interface for adding links to news sites, ranking them, writing summaries, and voting on the summaries would all be functionality that would mostly be pretty standard and/or not too time-consuming to code. Unless, of course, it's been difficult to find a programmer that is willing to work for (a) Larry and (b) equity in Larry's company. DinoMight (talk) 21:41, 11 June 2014 (UTC)
- They were inviting people for private testing a while ago - I got an e-mail about it, but they only give you a week or so to respond before they recind the offer, so I couldn't say more. 86.150.152.117 (talk) 14:07, 12 June 2014 (UTC)
- That lack of publicity and recruitment for the project is endemic with everything Sanger does. TorontoKid (talk) 16:54, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Heavy load
They had 1,760,000 views between Oct 29, 2013 and Aug 13, 2014, or fewer than 6,400 views a day - 193,000 a month... --larron (talk) 13:37, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
[edit] The honeymoon is over
I don't get it. :( 46.7.249.24 (talk) 10:21, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
- They're arguing over how to get editors back, and if they should lower the user grade required for approving articles. The Council decided that lowering the grade would risk turning it into an inaccurate Wikipedia clone, and prefer that it remain a website edited largely by Homoeopathy salesmen, since they are considered 'experts'.-- Forerunner (talk) 13:47, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
- I don't think they will ever get any editors back. They have noting to offer as far as I can see. They have no community, no brand recognition, very few who remain seem to be interested in contributing actual content and there's noting there for me as a reader to go for. I mean, look at Christine Bush. All she has done all week is edit her user page 40 times and post on the forums.
- If an expert were interested, what's to stop that person simply installing their own version of MediaWiki and getting to work? 46.7.249.24 (talk) 17:16, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
- It was dead in 2011: Ars Technica article, not one CZ defender present in the comments in two weeks. In 2014, it's tumbleweeds to the horizon. When the only people talking about you are RationalWiki, you're way past fucked - David Gerard (talk) 19:21, 17 August 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Citizendium needs to close
The treatment of Claus Bruentrup on Citizendium highlights just how unprofessional that site has devolved into. It's one thing disagreeing with a person's point of view, it's another thing abusing your power to delete an authors work, leaving comments that imply some criminal impropriety, then banning that user on the absurd pretext of "account issue". Citizendium was a great idea on paper, but the problem has always been its administration - there are people there who place their own personal interests above the project. As the saying goes "a fish rots from the head down". TorontoKid (talk) 02:48, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
- I've never followed CZ closely, save to follow some of the threads in the WIGO. Suffice to say, most of the leadership there come across as insufferable arseholes. PsyGremlinSnakk! 02:55, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
- Does anybody know what was wrong with Claus Bruentrup or with his "India Wikipedia project" article (which has been deleted)? As far as I can see he supported Christine Bush in a polite manner. Surely that's not a bannable offense. He must have committed another crime, but what? False identity perhaps?--P. Wormer (talk) 07:56, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
- As best I can tell, Claus was importing Wikipedia drama (the article "Wikipedia India Education Program" refers to Wikipedia's "India Education Program", which is generally considered to have been a disastrous failure). Claus's userpage also lists affiliation with one of the many India Against Corruption groups, and may have been importing IAC drama from Wikipedia (in short, there are approximately three groups claiming to be the "real" IAC, and they're using Wikipedia as a battleground to advance their competing claims; see also http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeAreStrugglingTogether). --65.101.119.25 (talk) 22:30, 24 October 2014 (UTC)
Claus is a man of principles specializing in Cyber Law and Intellectual Property, ie. patents, copyright, trademark, domain name protection, WIPO, DMCA etc.<User:Claus Bruentrup. He had sent this DMCA India Against Corruption logo and WMF conceded IAC logo takedown on legal advice. Claus then discovered that WMF's Indian Trustee was inducting young Indian schoolchildren onto Wikipedia where they figgered out Wikiporn (hi-res photos of the identifiable minors are still on Commons); the instructor was teaching "Ubuntu" but Google was throwing up "UbuntuXXX" which led on to Wikia and Commons. After Claus complained to the school he was blocked on Wikipedia (for his IAC related edits).
Archivo:UbuntuXXX.jpg --> Preferencias_sexuales and from there to some hotties on commons.
Claus blew the whistle by publishing a detailed article - on CZ, Wikimedia and Wikipedia. This was picked up in India by IAC's former allies and they also sent legal notices here Wikipedia child pornography scandal. India Education Program 2013 which went to many MPs in India. CZ took down everything BRAVO, WMF did so partially. Here is Claus's mirror Wikipedia India Education Program
On the Indian end, the IAC boys got WMF's expensive 0.3 million USD$ Indian search engine Wiki Indic Search, PR puff taken down on 28 Oct 2014. And Jimbo's Empire strikes back. HRA1924 (talk) 17:04, 16 November 2014 (UTC)
[edit] Infobitt versus Grasswire
In 12 months, who will still be active? Given Sanger's track record, my money is on Grasswire. TorontoKid (talk) 05:25, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
