Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

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Guardian article about Wikipedia

Steve Bennett

9 Aug 2006 9 Aug '06

12:38 p.m.

On 8/7/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Since late April, I've created [[Marc J. Rochkind]], [[Kumler, Illinois]], [[PALcode]], [[CYGM filter]], [[RGBE filter]], [[MySociety]], [[Envoy (WordPerfect)]], [[Smart terminal]], [[Smart Display]] and [[Ctelnet]]. (And a zillion redirectes.)

Ok, my turn. Recently I've created: [[Adam Elliot]] (how did recent an Oscar-winning director not have an article?) [[Adam Elliot (missionary)]] (well, I couldn't let the ambiguity go could I....) [[Eric Harshbarger]] (builds lego stuff, I'm sure he'll get AfD'd) [[Kate McTell]] - I did a lot of research on this almost totally non-notable blues singer, who just happened to be married to a blues legend. I was hoping to get paid for the article, but the person offering the reward went AWOL 2 months ago :/ [[Mount Buggery]] - couldn't help myself [[Smooth call]] (poker term) [[Exposing to the right]] - photography term [[John Long (climber)]] And just to match your [[Smart Display]], I have [[Smartglass]]... I notice that the common thread in all of these articles (except Eric Harshbarger) was that I knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about the topic when I started writing them. Kind of a disturbing trend when you think about it, if Wikipedia is mostly written by people who know nothing about what they're writing about... Steve

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David Gerard

9 Aug 9 Aug

1:28 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 09/08/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 8/7/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

> Since late April, I've created [[Marc J. Rochkind]], [[Kumler, > Illinois]], [[PALcode]], [[CYGM filter]], [[RGBE filter]], > [[MySociety]], [[Envoy (WordPerfect)]], [[Smart terminal]], [[Smart > Display]] and [[Ctelnet]]. (And a zillion redirectes.)

...

I notice that the common thread in all of these articles (except Eric Harshbarger) was that I knew absolutely nothing whatsoever about the topic when I started writing them. Kind of a disturbing trend when you think about it, if Wikipedia is mostly written by people who know nothing about what they're writing about...

Heh! That's how I wrote [[Envoy (WordPerfect)]] and [[Smart Display]]. I saw both terms mentioned on Groklaw, didn't know what they meant so looked them up on Wikipedia (it's already a fantastically useful computer terminology guide - hence why the [[FOLDOC]] maintainer saw it and promptly wondered whether he should continue with FOLDOC at all. Since they didn't exist, I promptly researched them and wrote the articles. This is where a lot of my articles come from. - d.

Death Phoenix

4:01 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 09/08/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 8/7/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Oh yeah? Well I created (and am the sole contributor of) the article [[American Eskimo]], the shining example of a perfect article. So there.

David Gerard

5:30 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 09/08/06, Death Phoenix <originaldeathphoenix(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Oh yeah? Well I created (and am the sole contributor of) the article [[American Eskimo]], the shining example of a perfect article. So there.

Needs references! ;-p - d.

Garion96

7 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 09/08/06, Death Phoenix <originaldeathphoenix(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Oh yeah? Well I created (and am the sole contributor of) the article [[American Eskimo]], the shining example of a perfect article. So there.

Needs references! ;-p - d.

Plus the edit summary was definitely not NPOV. Garion

Dabljuh

7:06 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006 21:00:09 +0200 Garion96 <garion96(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Plus the edit summary was definitely not NPOV. Garion

edit summaries and talk pages don't need to be NPOV, in my understanding. The edits to mainspace are supposed to be.

David Gerard

8:21 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 09/08/06, Dabljuh <dabljuh(a)gmx.net> wrote:

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On Wed, 9 Aug 2006 21:00:09 +0200 Garion96 <garion96(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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> Plus the edit summary was definitely not NPOV.

...

edit summaries and talk pages don't need to be NPOV, in my understanding. The edits to mainspace are supposed to be.

Yep. - d.

Garion96

8:23 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, Dabljuh <dabljuh(a)gmx.net> wrote:

...

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006 21:00:09 +0200 Garion96 <garion96(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Plus the edit summary was definitely not NPOV. Garion

edit summaries and talk pages don't need to be NPOV, in my understanding. The edits to mainspace are supposed to be. _______________________________________________

That was a perfect example of why I should always use a " :) " to explain myself better. :) Garion

Dabljuh

8:54 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On Wed, 9 Aug 2006 22:23:32 +0200 Garion96 <garion96(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

That was a perfect example of why I should always use a " :) " to explain myself better. :) Garion

Heh. The problem is serious, though: people do get accused of not being NPOV for their user page and talk page contributions. there should be some sort of stupid gotcha rule like 3RR to deal with this: "Accuse someone for introducing unverifiable or POV material to the talk page and you get to take a rest"

maru dubshinki

11:13 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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Did he decide to continue? I have to agree, it does seem kind of pointless: Wikipedia is GFDL as well, contains many of the sources FOLDOC draws upon, has inherently better technical facilities (not just in linking to fuller encyclopedic entries on terms but in general), better articles etc. But I've always wondered something about FOLDOC; does its name come from the foldr and foldl operators in functional languages? ~maru Shock! Quelle horreur! We don't have [[foldl]] or [[foldr]]!

David Gerard

11:32 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 10/08/06, maru dubshinki <marudubshinki(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

> computer terminology guide - hence why the [[FOLDOC]] maintainer saw > it and promptly wondered whether he should continue with FOLDOC at > all.

...

Someone wrote to him asking for permission to use his stuff in Wikipedia, and he happily released it all under GFDL just for us :-D FOLDOC has some careless copyright violations in it - definitions cut'n'pasted from guidebooks and so forth - that I've found when adapting FOLDOC material for Wikipedia. (I can't remember what entries.) It allowed public contributions, so some people were careless. Something to watch for. It would be an interesting thing to do to recompile FOLDOC from Wikipedia ;-)

...

But I've always wondered something about FOLDOC; does its name come from the foldr and foldl operators in functional languages?

Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing.

...

Shock! Quelle horreur! We don't have [[foldl]] or [[foldr]]!

You know what to do! - d.

maru dubshinki

10 Aug 10 Aug

12:01 a.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

But I've always wondered something about FOLDOC; does its name come from the foldr and foldl operators in functional languages?

Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing.

Well, I knew *that*, from looking in the en entry if nothing else. But c'mon. Doesn't the "On-Line" look even a little contrived?

...

Shock! Quelle horreur! We don't have [[foldl]] or [[foldr]]!

You know what to do! - d.

Meh. I'll put it on the ToDo list. :) ~maru

Alphax (Wikipedia email)

9:52 a.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

maru dubshinki wrote:

...

On 8/9/06, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:

But I've always wondered something about FOLDOC; does its name come from the foldr and foldl operators in functional languages?

Free On-Line Dictionary Of Computing.

Well, I knew *that*, from looking in the en entry if nothing else. But c'mon. Doesn't the "On-Line" look even a little contrived?

Would you rather it was FODOC? :) -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia "We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP

maru dubshinki

12:39 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/10/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Would you rather it was FODOC? :) -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax

I'd rather it was FDC, so that way it is a curse word - "FDC it!" "FDC you, man." ~maru

Death Phoenix

1:57 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/10/06, maru dubshinki <marudubshinki(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 8/10/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Would you rather it was FODOC? :) -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax

I'd rather it was FDC, so that way it is a curse word - "FDC it!" "FDC you, man."

Oh, fsck you.

maru dubshinki

11:39 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/10/06, Death Phoenix <originaldeathphoenix(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 8/10/06, maru dubshinki <marudubshinki(a)gmail.com> wrote:

On 8/10/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Would you rather it was FODOC? :) -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax

I'd rather it was FDC, so that way it is a curse word - "FDC it!" "FDC you, man."

Oh, fsck you.

Hey, just because I don't want to be grepped and mounted and given stds is no call to ncurses me out; just screen & background out people who give you the stderr of rejection. ~maru or, don't know how to make "love"

Steve Bennett

2:06 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

Heh, I was wondering if it could be bent into "FOCDOC" so you could say "Oh, FOC the DOC"... (perhaps as a response to rtfm) anyway... Steve On 8/10/06, maru dubshinki <marudubshinki(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 8/10/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) <alphasigmax(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Would you rather it was FODOC? :) -- Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax

I'd rather it was FDC, so that way it is a curse word - "FDC it!" "FDC you, man." ~maru _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l(a)Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l

Violet/Riga

9 Aug 9 Aug

9:50 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

I actually think that it can be a very positive thing. I've written articles about things I knew nothing about but that just made me do plenty of research and referencing, as opposed to writing about things I think I know about (and making mistakes). Bragging examples include Albert Bigelow Paine<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bigelow_Paine>ne>, "You're never alone with a Strand<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_never_alone_with_a_Strand&g…d>", Cow fighting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_fighting>, and Conger cuddling <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conger_cuddling>. The last two reflect my current love for unusual articles. ~~~~ Violet/Riga

Puppy

9:58 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

Violet/Riga wrote:

...

The cow-fighting was interesting. I never heard of it, how did you? Conger cuddling sounds hilarious. -kc-

Violet/Riga

10:39 p.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, Puppy <puppy(a)killerchihuahua.com> wrote:

...

Violet/Riga wrote:

I actually think that it can be a very positive thing. I've written articles about things I knew nothing about but that just made me do

plenty

of research and referencing, as opposed to writing about things I think

know about (and making mistakes). Bragging examples include Albert Bigelow Paine<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Bigelow_Paine>ne>, "You're never alone with a Strand<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_never_alone_with_a_Strand ", Cow fighting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_fighting>, and Conger cuddling <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conger_cuddling>. The last two reflect my current love for unusual articles. ~~~~ Violet/Riga

The cow-fighting was interesting. I never heard of it, how did you? Conger cuddling sounds hilarious. -kc-

I heard about cow fighting on the QI (British TV show) forums at www.QI.com/talk, which has inspired several of my articles. In fact, Wikipedia has inspired many of their facts on the show and is a frequent source of information. ~~~~ Violet/Riga

Steve Bennett

10 Aug 10 Aug

7:15 a.m.

New subject: Article bragging (was: Re: en: well on the way to ... 2 million!)

On 8/9/06, Violet/Riga <violetriga(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

"You're never alone with a Strand<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You%27re_never_alone_with_a_Strand&g…d>", Cow fighting <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_fighting>, and Conger cuddling <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conger_cuddling>.

Classic! Steve

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participants (9)

Alphax (Wikipedia email)
Dabljuh
David Gerard
Death Phoenix
Garion96
maru dubshinki
Puppy
Steve Bennett
Violet/Riga