December 4, 2005

ars technica



Dec. 11, 2005

Syndicated column by Mike Langberg



Sep 22 2006

Financial Times



April 22, 2007

The Age, Australia



April, 2007

Sydney Herald



March, 2008

Forbes



August, 2008

SFGate



March 2009

Nothing.
No "stable versions."
No "time delay."
No "Flagged Revisions."

And coincidentally, still no established governance-type board to provide adult supervision to en.Wikipedia.

Wow. That is a damning timeline. Brillant post, Kato.

Awesome. Where's Jimmy? Still sleeping?

Thanks Kato. Good stick with which to belabor Wiki-nerds.

And I fully expect it to get longer and longer, year after year.

At the risk of sounding like a credit-leech, I was just recently thinking we should do a fairly extensive blog post or two on the whole vaporware issue, complete with just such a timeline - but I was dreading the thought of having to go back and get all those dates!

Kato, you're full of Win, man. My hat's off to you!

There's actually a whole raft of features, controls and such that have been promised, even to the point of issuing press releases and having Jimbo talk about them in paid speeches, all of which have turned out to be vaporware. Maybe someone should start a new site called "Vaporpedia" - it looks like the domain name is available, and this time I made sure to check the ".org" name specifically, so as to hopefully avoid the usual comment from Dan Tobias.

I'm not sure "vaporware" is the right term.

The software exists. It's in use on de.wiki, on en.wikinews, and I assume other places.

The problem is the completely unmanageable "community" that can never get anything done. It'd almost be better (probably would be better in this case, given what side Jimbo has come out on) if Jimbo really did have the kind of power some people say he does.

He's right — it should be called

There she sucks, Mattey.

Maybe we need a new term for it then - I'll have to think that over ("Vaporwale" comes close, but unless the "ware" is in there, most people will probably have no idea as to what it refers to. Maybe "Walesware" or "Jimboware"?)

Still, for now at least I would have to stick with "vaporware." The term is supposed to describe a feature that's been promised, publicly and often with some fanfare, but not delivered. It doesn't mean the feature hasn't been developed, tested, or even approved - or for that matter, in release form on some other platform (assuming we define other wikis as "platforms"). It really just means that the promise has been unfulfilled, and by extension, that other developers who might have gotten the job done better or quicker were scared off by the prospect of an "official" version - much like Microsoft's promises of better networking security in Windows, for example. The publicity surrounding the promises acts as a preventative measure against both competition and helpful cooperation.

Oh he has whatever kind of power he wants to have. He just doesn't use it very often because if he did it would create confusion over which of actions are privileged and unrevertable by penalty of desysop or ban.

I wonder what it would take to convince him to announce that flaggedrevs is happening *now* and it is non-negotiable. Just like he did when he proclaimed that "users must register an account and log in to create pages in even-numbered (not "_talk") namespaces", that "Category:Living_people is immune to CFD", and a few other things.

If the devs wanted it switched on, then it will get switched on. It isn't up to Jimmy.

Well, I think it's been established that Jimbo doesn't have that power. The "community" feels it has the power to overrule him. I find myself now torn on where I stand as far as Jimbo's power goes. This is a rare instance when I feel Jimbo pulling out the God-King card is in the best interest of the project.

And you probably believe that Drake Ramoray is a real Doctor.

Jon

In Jimbo's case, "tupperware." Inasmuch as the community (that means ewe) has been getting tupped all along. Ewwwwe.

Hey, I remember that TV show from the Fifties — 'bout a guy who keeps disappearing … and leaving only his Tup Hat behind — I guess that kinda fits.

I was going to suggest



but then I realized it was already taken.

Jon

Oh snap, a burn from Jon. Too bad I don't know who that is and don't care enough to go find out.

A fictional² character on Days of our Lives played by Joey on Friends.

*fictional² meaning he's not a real Days character, in addition to not being a real doctor.

Oh! I remember that now! Ah, the days of Friends. What a great show... so now, wait? That show wasn't like The Real World? He wasn't *really* a doctor? WTF?!

What I'm saying is this —

If people find themselves puzzled by the actions of Jimbo, or any of the main characters in the WP:DRAMA, then it may be because they have yet to grasp the concept of a script. For all the buzz we hear about drama hereabouts, I just don't see many of the target audience remembering to think about that. And that includes Moulton, worst of all — he acts like he thinks it's all just a lot of Improv Psycho-Drama or something. Or maybe that's just his part.

Jon

I think Jon just jumped the snark.

You are one to talk. I have positively understood parts of some of your recent posts. I think you are losing your edge.

Those were the days, my friend; we thought they'd never end.

----------------
Now playing: Mary Hopkin - Those Were the Days
via FoxyTunes




But it's a reality show... while it doesn't particularly resemble actual real-world reality, it still lacks anything explicitly known as a script, meaning that it can keep chugging on even when the scriptwriters are all on strike.

Oh good — someone who believes that "reality shows" aren't scripted.

Ja Ja

He wasn't even really an actor.

No, wait... that didn't come out right. I meant he's not really a soap-opera actor with a role on DOOL. That's what I meant.



I don't believe they're scripted either. Edited to the point that they hardly resemble what actually happened in front of the cameras let alone reality as such, yes. Scripted? Who would pay a writer for that?

I don't think they're scripted. I think producers influence and instigate. I think there's intervention, but scripts? No. I also agree that they edit it all to pieces and create storylines that didn't actually exist.

Yes, let's all distract ourselves with the tekkie detales of Writers' Guild contract language — like when is a "sketch" a "script" and who the prop-master had in the mails — because that's the game all you Boys' & Girls' Staters sucker for the most …

Hopeless, Hopeless, Hopeless …

Jon

There's a difference between scripting and manipulating.

Scripting is where a scriptwriter puts lines in the actor's mouth.

Manipulation is when an editor (like Gomi, GBG, or Jon) moves improvisational sketches from the scene in which they originally appeared to another theatrical stage, out of context, with a substantially different audience.

Look, if you can't grasp the fact that The Wikipedia Show has producers and directors, who do what they do for a purpose, then yer all too dumb to live, and I'll leave you to yer destiny …

Jon

Harsh. It's fairer to say he occasionally slips off it.


I, myself, believe in the "script" theory (actually, it's more a practice than a theory). Perhaps "agenda" is a more acceptable label? Whatever, it's important to wake up to this reality, otherwise one becomes a dedicated swallower of fascism.

According to developer Brion Vibber, flagged revisions are being given the final testing.

http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikie...ust/103345.html

So that's only four years late.

I guess we can add this NYTimes article to the list.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technolo...pedia.html?_r=1

August 24, 2009

The seem to be overstating what is actually happening. Brion is testing a configuration of Wikipedia:Flagged protection and patrolled revisions, arguably the weakest version of flagged revisions to date. Contrary to what NYT reports, there is no indication that this will specifically be targeted at BLPs. It is apparently intended to be applied using the current guidelines for semi and full protection.

The weakest and about the most useless. But getting anything changed at wikipedia is such a struggle that I guess some will see this a step forward, as opposed to just marching in step.

So who appoints the scutineers of proposed edits? Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The new "Reviewers" group that'll be appointed by the administrators, just like Rollbackers is now. Edits only need to be scrutinised if an article's been either intermediary or full flagged revision protected.

Wikipedia:Flagged_protection_and_patrolled_revisions#Flagged_protection

I wonder if Ed Chi will now assign someone on his team at PARC to make a study of flogged revisions.

If it is ever turned on (Jimbo said it would happen "before Wikimania"—which I understand is over and done with) people will hopefully target it wherever the need is the greatest, eventually to cover all content pages (articles, templates used in articles, categories which contain articles, etc.). For what it's worth the page you link to does mention BLP about a dozen times, so it appears at least some people believe it will be effective in that regard.

I'm not sure it will be good for anything to the extent that it puts faith in the "auto-confirmed" threshold of 4 days and 10 edits.

These are incidentally the same requirements for vandalizing a semi-protected page, or uploading a shock image, or renaming an article to "hagger on wheels" or whatever. Last time I checked my watchlist (I'll concede that this was months ago) the vandal(s) known as "Grawp" met these trivial criteria with several different new accounts on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.



Okay, but I'm just saying the setting at which all auto-confirmed users are exempt from said scrutiny will be next to useless.

I think it's next to useless on several counts, of which that's certainly one.

August 2010

any news?

Trial still ongoing on a limited group of high-vandalism articles before they roll it out across the whole thing. As I understand it, the number of pages covered by it increases by a set number each week; the articles with FR activated are listed here.

A few of my favorites are Florida, Florina, Food, Friction, Frogger 2: Swampy's Revenge, Fungus, Furry fandom, and (of course) Flatulence.

The trial is limited to just 2000 pages, so it is essentially useless. I imagine if we still get to keep it after August, someone will just go bot adding it to all of the unwatched BLPs.