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Jacob P Secrest
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | 1  

I agree with Colbert's strategy, get the new out that that shit is worthless.

It can't be trusted, and yet people do trust it, anything that hurts its
reputation is good, because it doesn't deserve a good reputation.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | 2  

The intent of being able to edit the site is to add valid information.

Let's say I won a store and I am fine with people painting murals on my side wall. I encourage it. Doesn't mean I want some vandal spraying idiocy on the wall.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | 3  

And Jacob, I brought up hacking because earlier Randy said he doesn't have to worry about people treating his site like he treats Wikipedia since his site is not open to the public.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | 4  

I think he could get a lot of mileage from running disinformation bits on his show daily. Leno seemed to get enough mileage out of typos on ads.

Suggesting that anyone who is against vandalizing / adding false info Wikipedia thinks that that site deserves a good reputation is an "out of left field" statement.
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Jacob P Secrest
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | 5  

Mural, much better metaphor, the mural is however containable, vandals
will be caught and removed, and even then you are not claiming that the
information on your wall is credible.

Have you seen the Colbert Report?

Disinformation bits wouldn't fit into Colbert's comedy, what he said about
Wikipedia is that things are made true if enough people agree to them
being true (what he refers to as "Wikiality), and to prove environmentalists
wrong he said people should edit Wikipedia to say that Elephant
population has tripled in Africa in the past six months (or something like
that).

Pointing out preexisting mistakes doesn't fit into his persona, at all and I
don't think it would be as funny as the way he already did it.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | 6  

I have seen the show, yes. I was throwing out an example that did not mean vandalizing a web site.

Just checked to what Wikipedia claims about its content. Perhaps it would not b e an issue if this were to be true: "Inappropriate changes are usually removed quickly."


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Jacob P Secrest
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 7  

Obvious vandalism (like saying that Dante was a transvestite) is often
removed quickly, however that statement is false, very false.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | 8  

That's the thing - there are a lot of non-extreme bits of misinformation one could put in there.

As an example, since it is an open site, are you cool with someone putting your contact information there? Rumors about you? Insults or silliness? How about your family? Your family business (you know, assuming there is one for sake of example)? Your significant other?

I think as long as the misinformation is removed lots of people are okay with the "joke" of putting garbage on the site. I expect people would feel differently if it struck closer to home.
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Jacob P Secrest
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 7:16pm | IP Logged | 9  

Of course they would feel differently under those circumstances, but
since that isn't the case, there is no point bringing it up.

Though I'm sure people have done that, and others would be rightfully
pissed. I honestly don't care one way or the other if it's removed, I still
find it funny.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | 10  

Why isn't there a point bringing it up? Why does it have to impact personally before people decide it is not right?
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Jacob P Secrest
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | 11  

Adding nonsense and the activities you described are very different and
incomparable, no point comparing the two.

The nonsense is bad maybe, misinformation, etc... The personal
information and such is far worse, and probably illegal, they are two
completely different things.

I'm against Wikipedia on every principle, I want the website shut down, or
at least horribly discredited, of course I'd hate if someone put my contact
information up there, though the fact that that could happen is low on my
list of reasons to hate it, because it could happen but probably won't, my
problem with it is that it's mostly useless, plain and simple.
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David Whiteley
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Posted: 30 January 2007 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | 12  

The personal info I mentioned happens all the time - such as rumors, insults and silliness. Look at the history of JB's entry.


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