3 ms·

No, after this and many other things I'm not interested in working for them, at all. Especially if I find out the rumors of a "nerd purge" agenda are true. If

by zedshaw 16y ago

No, after this and many other things I'm not interested in working for them, at all. Especially if I find out the rumors of a "nerd purge" agenda are true. If there is a call to delete "nerdy" content I'm gonna really turn up the destruction.

neilk 16y ago
A "nerd purge". At Wikipedia. You just broke my brain. What are you talking about?
- knowtheory 16y ago
  maybe he's referring to the sentiment here? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2215731 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2215731 (also, lotsa wikimedia ppl on HN then? ;) )
- zedshaw 16y ago
  I've started to notice that a lot of "nerdy" topics get deleted lately. I can't prove it, but I suspect there's some attempt to cleanse the "white male nerd" out of Wikipedia in order to attract normal people. Again, I can't prove it. If it's true that's about the worst way to crap on the people who donate the most money and do the most work keeping the project going.
  - neilk 16y ago
    Demographically, Wikipedia is white male nerds. You might have seen some stuff in the media lately about how it's felt that this limits the scope of the encyclopedia. But it's not so much that there's an anti-nerd sentiment, it's that we have to broaden the base. It can be a bit crazy sometimes. You think you have problems with your page -- I heard that the #1 actor in India had his page deleted because some kid from a Western country thought he was non-notable. Wikipedia can be a great place to learn about science and technology, but let's say, the history of feminism? There are articles on every micro-neighborhood of San Francisco, but sometimes hardly anything on major cities of Africa.
- owyn 16y ago
  Oh wow, I definitely wasn't trying to start some kind of a "nerd purge" meme! I was just trying to say that there are other wikis besides wikipedia on all kinds of nerdy subjects. Where there aren't any delete wars and contributions are encouraged, and everyone can be happy tralalala. I work at that place, we encourage nerdy things! There's also a pretty long tail that nobody really pays much attention to. :) So maybe part of the reason this blew up so big could be the anxiety that if it's not on wikipedia, then it might as well not exist? I don't really think that's true...
neilk 16y ago
Tell you what Zed. You go and turn that destruction up to eleven. I will give you $1000 of my own money if you come out with a Wikipedia clone or fork that works better than the current version, particularly with regards to the issues you have difficulty with. Or even a prototype! I don't have this kind of money to throw around, mostly because I work for Wikimedia. ;) But I'm pretty confident I won't have to pay it out. You aren't going to do shit one way or another. You talk big about how you could do it better. But I see you backing off when I am begging you to actually do something about it. Only caveat, it's gotta be 100% open source (GPL compatible license) so I can copy its features back into Wikipedia if they seem to be working, or are generally good ideas. If you like we can find a mutually respected person to arbitrate on whether your version is better or not.
- zedshaw 16y ago
  I never said I could do it better. I don't have Jimmy's pretty face to put on a web site and attract 10 MILLION dollars. I barely make enough to pay rent and work on the few projects I do work on for free. One thing I can do though is criticize abuses in my profession and hope someone like you, someone who does have influence in the organization, actually gets off their ass and does something about it. Apparently that's not going to happen because you're waiting for me, a powerless outsider, to do your job. Awesome, well thanks for letting me know that's where donations go. Instead, you're going to hide behind the age old defense of "Well if you don't like it do it yourself!" I'm sort of getting tired of doing that, and don't insult me like I don't attempt fixing things I think are broken. If I had more money I'd totally do more fixing, but best I can do is write a few books and some small bits of software. Alas, I'm not wealthy and have no control. I could spend the next ten years fixing Wikipedia's broken PHP code and there would still be this stupid notability requirement. You know why? Because, instead of fixing the technical problem of categorization and search, they created a social solution of notability and bizarre rules. Once they did that there's no putting the Djin back in the oil lamp.
  - neilk 16y ago
    Please see my response to knowtheory in the sibling post to yours.

by zedshaw 16y ago

neilk 16y ago

A "nerd purge". At Wikipedia. You just broke my brain. What are you talking about?

knowtheory 16y ago
maybe he's referring to the sentiment here? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2215731 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2215731 (also, lotsa wikimedia ppl on HN then? ;) )
zedshaw 16y ago
I've started to notice that a lot of "nerdy" topics get deleted lately. I can't prove it, but I suspect there's some attempt to cleanse the "white male nerd" out of Wikipedia in order to attract normal people. Again, I can't prove it. If it's true that's about the worst way to crap on the people who donate the most money and do the most work keeping the project going.
- neilk 16y ago
  Demographically, Wikipedia is white male nerds. You might have seen some stuff in the media lately about how it's felt that this limits the scope of the encyclopedia. But it's not so much that there's an anti-nerd sentiment, it's that we have to broaden the base. It can be a bit crazy sometimes. You think you have problems with your page -- I heard that the #1 actor in India had his page deleted because some kid from a Western country thought he was non-notable. Wikipedia can be a great place to learn about science and technology, but let's say, the history of feminism? There are articles on every micro-neighborhood of San Francisco, but sometimes hardly anything on major cities of Africa.
owyn 16y ago
Oh wow, I definitely wasn't trying to start some kind of a "nerd purge" meme! I was just trying to say that there are other wikis besides wikipedia on all kinds of nerdy subjects. Where there aren't any delete wars and contributions are encouraged, and everyone can be happy tralalala. I work at that place, we encourage nerdy things! There's also a pretty long tail that nobody really pays much attention to. :) So maybe part of the reason this blew up so big could be the anxiety that if it's not on wikipedia, then it might as well not exist? I don't really think that's true...

neilk 16y ago

Tell you what Zed. You go and turn that destruction up to eleven. I will give you $1000 of my own money if you come out with a Wikipedia clone or fork that works better than the current version, particularly with regards to the issues you have difficulty with. Or even a prototype! I don't have this kind of money to throw around, mostly because I work for Wikimedia. ;) But I'm pretty confident I won't have to pay it out. You aren't going to do shit one way or another. You talk big about how you could do it better. But I see you backing off when I am begging you to actually do something about it. Only caveat, it's gotta be 100% open source (GPL compatible license) so I can copy its features back into Wikipedia if they seem to be working, or are generally good ideas. If you like we can find a mutually respected person to arbitrate on whether your version is better or not.

zedshaw 16y ago
I never said I could do it better. I don't have Jimmy's pretty face to put on a web site and attract 10 MILLION dollars. I barely make enough to pay rent and work on the few projects I do work on for free. One thing I can do though is criticize abuses in my profession and hope someone like you, someone who does have influence in the organization, actually gets off their ass and does something about it. Apparently that's not going to happen because you're waiting for me, a powerless outsider, to do your job. Awesome, well thanks for letting me know that's where donations go. Instead, you're going to hide behind the age old defense of "Well if you don't like it do it yourself!" I'm sort of getting tired of doing that, and don't insult me like I don't attempt fixing things I think are broken. If I had more money I'd totally do more fixing, but best I can do is write a few books and some small bits of software. Alas, I'm not wealthy and have no control. I could spend the next ten years fixing Wikipedia's broken PHP code and there would still be this stupid notability requirement. You know why? Because, instead of fixing the technical problem of categorization and search, they created a social solution of notability and bizarre rules. Once they did that there's no putting the Djin back in the oil lamp.
- neilk 16y ago
  Please see my response to knowtheory in the sibling post to yours.