From: "Erik Moeller"
<eloquence(a)gmail.com>
I think the discussion about pages like Eon8 has been hampered by the
perception that a page, once kept, will reside in Wikipedia forever.
<snip>
We need novel thinking, because we are dealing with
novel problems.
Internet subcultures would like their every fart to be documented for
eternity. Are we going to do that? Of course not. But I don't see
anything wrong in principle with including ephemeral information in an
ephemeral manner.
Interesting but quixotic. No, I _really_ mean it _is_ interesting,
and I'm trying to let the idea soak in to figure out what it means or
ought to mean or implies... but the idea that a Wikipedia page is
forever is very deeply ingrained.
In the first AfD on Eon8, one user commented:
"Wait until the countdown reaches zero, then either Keep if it is not
a hoax, or Delete if it is. Will (message me!) 09:47, 30 June 2006
(UTC)"
But how did this user vote after the countdown reached zero and the
site was revealed to be a hoax?
*Keep Will (message me!) 09:34, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
**Any specific reason?--Andeh 09:57, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
P. S. Am I the only one bemused by the number of people who seemed to
think a teaser campaign was something novel?
One user commented "This website was a signifgant event of the
internet. It was the first of its kind: a website that absolutely no
one but the creator knew what it was."
No, I am NOT old enough to remember the ad campaign that began with
billboards saying "The camels are coming..." and eventually disclosed
that "Camel Cigarettes Are Here!"
And I am certainly not old enough to remember the business venture
floated in the early 1700s with the prospectus "A company for
carrying on an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know
what it is."