Wikipedia Sucks!

ericbarbour wrote:

Strelnikov wrote:A private subreddit to go with their administrators board where they talk crap about users behind their backs. And this is anything different from the Wikipedia IRC and the Wiki email list most people do not know about, how?

Well, as you remember (because you saw it happen), in 2014 we tried to create a #wikipediocracy channel on the Freenode IRC server. And that little wankball Maurizio "Snowolf" Lussetti kicked us all and locked the channel out. And keeps it locked out to this day. So perhaps the WOers figured Reddit would be one place to have chats without the constant threat of being kicked out by Wikipedia whores--I assume.

How stupid is it to keep using IRC in this day and age anyway?

I remember a conversation with Kelly Martin on WPO about IRC and its decline with Wikipedians. IIRC, most of the younger Wikipedians prefer voice-chat over IRC now. IRC is a dying medium. For a website that had a large number of teenage and early adult editors, you'd think the WMF would be embracing more up-to-date communication venues for its volunteers. It's hard to believe Giano and his cadre declared war on IRC years ago.

The End wrote:

ericbarbour wrote:

Strelnikov wrote:A private subreddit to go with their administrators board where they talk crap about users behind their backs. And this is anything different from the Wikipedia IRC and the Wiki email list most people do not know about, how?

Well, as you remember (because you saw it happen), in 2014 we tried to create a #wikipediocracy channel on the Freenode IRC server. And that little wankball Maurizio "Snowolf" Lussetti kicked us all and locked the channel out. And keeps it locked out to this day. So perhaps the WOers figured Reddit would be one place to have chats without the constant threat of being kicked out by Wikipedia whores--I assume.

How stupid is it to keep using IRC in this day and age anyway?

I remember a conversation with Kelly Martin on WPO about IRC and its decline with Wikipedians. IIRC, most of the younger Wikipedians prefer voice-chat over IRC now. IRC is a dying medium. For a website that had a large number of teenage and early adult editors, you'd think the WMF would be embracing more up-to-date communication venues for its volunteers. It's hard to believe Giano and his cadre declared war on IRC years ago.

They are used to IRC, their friends still use it, etc. The problem with VoIP is if somebody gets inside the channel who is there to troll by playing loud soundboard files of movie dialogue or whatever. The software doesn't have an automatic gain control to kill noise.....certainly they have passwords to make these channels private, and IPs can be banned or rangeblocked, but the dedicated troll is resourceful. So IRC wins on that front.

The truth is that there is an entire range of "obsolete" technologies still used for communication, usually by hobbyists. Morse code is still a thing in amateur (ham) radio, either using a straight key or a paddle keyer, as is slow-scan television and modified forms of analog TV. Ham radio still uses radiotelegraph (RTTY) and Hellschreiber* as transmission modes. IRC looks like an ASCII version of PSK31, a digital two-way radio mode that requires a computer, a digital-to-analog converter box, and a solid state shortwave ham transceiver. It is possible to talk to people around the world on less than thirty watts using this mode.

IRC's advantages are that few people know it exists and no records are kept (unless you are cutting and pasting things). It's disadvantages are that it looks awful, you have to zoom in to keep the eyestrain down, there are no chimes to tell you that somebody has posted something, and faster typists get the drop on slower typists.

* Hellschreiber is a fax mode invented in the 1930s in Germany by a Dr. Rudolf Hell. It only scans the dark bits of an image with no halftones, so it really only works well with printed material like typed communiques or letters. The modern version uses a computer hooked to a transceiver like with PSK31.

Strelnikov wrote:IRC's advantages are that few people know it exists and no records are kept (unless you are cutting and pasting things)

OR if the channel op and his friends are making captures of all the traffic. There are persistent rumors that most Wikipedia IRC channels (and there are a shit-ton of them!) are being captured routinely by WP insiders. It's a big dark secret and everything will be denied--yet somehow I keep seeing occasional channel captures made by persons unknown. The practice was commonplace up until around 2012 (you know, when that posh little blob James Forrester was basically the unofficial IRC fuhrer), and i fully expect it is still being done today, but just kept under tighter control.

It's disadvantages are that it looks awful, you have to zoom in to keep the eyestrain down, there are no chimes to tell you that somebody has posted something, and faster typists get the drop on slower typists.

And it's FUCKING ARCHAIC. Like the Gopher or Telnet protocols, which are still being used, just by a very tiny group of hardcore geeks. Telnet is totally insecure, easily hacked, and only a damn fool would use it today; but it's still got its fans. Even in corporate IT departments.

ericbarbour wrote:

Strelnikov wrote:IRC's advantages are that few people know it exists and no records are kept (unless you are cutting and pasting things)

OR if the channel op and his friends are making captures of all the traffic. There are persistent rumors that most Wikipedia IRC channels (and there are a shit-ton of them!) are being captured routinely by WP insiders. It's a big dark secret and everything will be denied--yet somehow I keep seeing occasional channel captures made by persons unknown. The practice was commonplace up until around 2012 (you know, when that posh little blob James Forrester was basically the unofficial IRC fuhrer), and i fully expect it is still being done today, but just kept under tighter control.

It's disadvantages are that it looks awful, you have to zoom in to keep the eyestrain down, there are no chimes to tell you that somebody has posted something, and faster typists get the drop on slower typists.

And it's FUCKING ARCHAIC. Like the Gopher or Telnet protocols, which are still being used, just by a very tiny group of hardcore geeks. Telnet is totally insecure, easily hacked, and only a damn fool would use it today; but it's still got its fans. Even in corporate IT departments.

The following are not available on Netflix, but were easily found on Giganews (a premium Usenet provider):
*Coma (the original)
*Lipstick (with the Hemingway sisters)
*Midnight Express
*Torch Song Trilogy

It was surprising that Netflix had such a limited selection.

(edited)

badmachine wrote:The following are not available on Netflix, but were easily found on Giganews (a premium Usenet provider):
*Coma (the original)
*Lipstick (with the Hemingway sisters)
*Midnight Express
*Torch Song Trilogy

though you have to admit, there's no guarantee a certain movie could be found there, just like Bittorrent. There's no impetus to maintain a database, because they know they're doing "bad things". As if anyone was standing in line to watch Lipstick today.

It was surprising that Netflix had such a limited selection.

I suspect they're using access to control or blackmail the major studios and others in the industry. Guess it's inevitable -- just having a superior technology for delivering content to the home isn't enough to dominate Hollywood. Have to use their own disgusting tricks against them?

fwiw I've been asking various people on this forum to request access to r/wikipediocracy, just out of curiosity about what the hell is so damn secret and important. I gather that Vigilant and Kohs do most/all of the talking, because they won't let anyone else in -- so far.

ericbarbour wrote:fwiw I've been asking various people on this forum to request access to r/wikipediocracy, just out of curiosity about what the hell is so damn secret and important. I gather that Vigilant and Kohs do most/all of the talking, because they won't let anyone else in -- so far.

I'm curious, but I wouldn't know what to say to get them to let me in. They may not be letting anyone, for all I know.

A few more requests by people to access r/wikipediocracy were ignored. (no, they are not me and at least one of them is a longtime WO user who has no connection to me or this forum.) I'm starting to think it is "dead" anyway.

Is it not "interesting" that Wikipediocracy is now the same kind of secretive feudal duchy that Wikipedia has been since Wales forced Larry Sanger out in 2002? Does that always have to happen whenever Wikipedia's deranged internal culture comes under scrutiny?

The End wrote:

ericbarbour wrote:fwiw I've been asking various people on this forum to request access to r/wikipediocracy, just out of curiosity about what the hell is so damn secret and important. I gather that Vigilant and Kohs do most/all of the talking, because they won't let anyone else in -- so far.

I'm curious, but I wouldn't know what to say to get them to let me in. They may not be letting anyone, for all I know.

Reddit is shot through with private and moribund subreddits nobody hears from; when u/BudrickBundy was u/jcm267 and u/nolibs, that maniac had 50+ subreddits and most were private and probably ghost-towns. This probably pleases the Reddit Overlords; they can say that Reddit produces more and more subreddits and yet not deal with the growing logistical nightmare of buying more hard-drives to keep up with use. As it is YouTube has trillions upon trillions of information bits uploaded to its system as videos, which is why it has never made a profit and probably never will make a profit - and that realization is TERRIFYING to Google/Alphabet. Everybody in the New Economy hoped to retire at 40 and walk, but the system demands that they stay.

The Wikipediocracy subreddit is not an 'official' product of Wikipediocracy. I applied for entry and never was allowed in. Tsk.