Akahele - Searching for answers, by Gregory Kohs


This week's post only barely touches on Wikipedia, so I hope that this is still an appropriate enough forum to post a notice. (Move to The Lounge if deemed more appropriate.) I hope you all enjoy this one, as I intended it to be a little on the "lighter" side.

A good example of how the "dictatorship of idiots" can take over Yahoo! Answers...

Why doesn't Wikipedia.org have an article for 'bonus'?
(link)

The mob is currently voting for the "best answer", and so far the leader (by a 2-to-1 margin) is:

Who cares so much for bonuses, enough for him to write an article about it?

Meanwhile, the crowd is rejecting an answer that provided links and details about the recent scandals surrounding the Wall Street bailout beneficiaries receiving hefty bonuses, pointing out that there is a lengthy Wikipedia entry for "Stock Appreciation Right", noting that at least 30 Wikipedia pages link to the "empty" page for "bonus", and that there's even an entire page devoted to "AIG bonus payments controversy". Wikipedia expects that you fully understand what a bonus is, and how bonuses came into widespread use as a compensation tool, and their implication within tax consequences, etc.

The WP-infested Yahoo! Answers mob prefers:

Who cares so much for bonuses, enough for him to write an article about it?

Wisdom of the crowd. Wisdom of the crowd.

Why would I go to an encyclopedia for an answer only for me to write the answer?

You mean "right" the answer?

Remember, the kids using Yahoo! Answers today will be paying for your Social Security in 30 years. Feel comforted by their ability to contribute to GDP?

I'm seriously thinking of moving to the BVI.

Close, But No Cigar, Sigmund.

Ja Ja

Only insofar as I have confidence someone will be able to convert wikikids into revenue-generating wage slaves.

(Which, considering they've already demonstrated they'll do the "slave" minus the "wage", is probably a lot of confidence.)

Kohs, you need to fix this section. Wikianswers was indeed first in time. See my post on it. What happened is less absurd sounding than your analogy. At minimum, you would need to change your analogy to opening KfC in 1951, then refusing to budge from it.

Anyhow, Answer Corp. WikiAnswers just got a notice of publication for the Federal mark WIKIANSWERS. The form suggests that parties who believe they will be damaged by the mark have 30 days from April 28 to file an opposition to it. But of course, I don't really understand this process, and I dislike trademark law.

Their application does say, however, that the putative mark was first used in commerce 02/01/2007; I imagine they would have to admit that Wikianswers was first.

To really fit the analogy, wouldn't my KfC have to have been open for business two days a week, serving lunch between 1:45 and 2:15 PM?

FAQ Farm was Chris Whitten's project, launched 2002.

Answers.Wikia.com was launched November 2004 by someone named "Hemanshu". It was mostly unused until January 2009 (well under 2,000 unique visitors per month, according to Compete.com -- by comparison, Wikipedia Review has gotten over 2,000 visitors since the month we re-opened it as a wiki directory, with and average of 13,000 a month for the past three months.)

Angela Beesley made edits to the Wikia site in the following proportion:

2004 - 14 edits
2005 - 11 edits
2006 - 31 edits
2007 - 1 edit
2008 - 1 edit
2009 - 500+ edits

In November 2006, Answers.com purchased Whitten's FAQ Farm. They re-named it to better fit the Answers.com brand line. As far back as March 2008, Wiki.Answers.com was getting 7,500,000+ unique visitors per month, while Answers.Wikia.com was getting about 1,200.

If I elect to change the blog post, it's only going to reflect more on the fact that some dormant website name (how DO you get "Wikianswers" from "Answers.Wikia.com"?) was sitting on the bottom of Jimbo's trash can collecting dust, while another more enterprising operation used the most appropriate name for itself (Answers.com, with sub-domain Wiki.Answers.com) to actually build a popular and better-organized web destination.

Greg

This is what you wrote:


Look, I get that there's some argument for such inflammatory rhetoric. Given that two people have now independently pointed it out as a perceived error, I think it would be best to tone it down to flat facts. If people think they can't trust you for facts, they're less likely to accept your argument.

Alllll right... you're correct.

I've changed the post and left a detailed comment.

An "Akahele" article on internet answers and searches, doesn't note the paid-answers section of Mahalo.com? How rude is that!

http://www.mahalo.com/

On Mahalo, people offer a certain number of Mahalo-dollars (M-dollars, freely convertable to real dollars, something like Linden dollars but better) for the answer to a 140 character twitter-style question, and they pick the winner out of of submitted answers, which answer gets the money. Typical is a couple of dollars per question. Answers come in with cites!

It's slow, but as a networking site, the whole thing has only been up for 13 months, and the answers section less than that. We'll see if you get what you pay for if they can get themselves even a fraction of the server capacity that WMF has.

http://www.mahalo.com/Mahalo_FAQ

http://www.mahalo.com/answers/

http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community

First in time to do what?

I think I twisted this question about as far as it could possibly be twisted to make my very pointy of WP:POINTs. What do you all think? I think it's a persuasive argument, at least to the casual reader.

Some of these kids on Yahoo! Answers are more twisted than even your average Wikipediot.

This one is so addicted to Yahoo! Answers, he's set up a blog to talk about how addicted he is.

Same jerk is trying to have me banned from Yahoo! Answers for giving answers about Wikipedia that are critical in tone. Don Murphy should get after this kid.

It's Razorflame.

http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=22494

Here's what the little boy just sent to me via the Yahoo! Answers message system that I keep "open" for communication:



Seriously, do these kids not understand what kind of trouble they are opening up for themselves when they try to censor Wikipedia critics?

Don't worry, Greg. He plans on making a comeback on the Simple Wikipedia.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia...p/Razorflame_11

He'll be too busy then to deal with Yahoo Answers!

Razorflame's protection racket is out in full force!

OTHERSHITEXISTS is the new IARDEE IAR IAR

Ja Ja