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_ The Wikimedia Foundation _ Michael Essany takes a stab at it

Posted by: thekohser

Michael Essany wrote an http://blog.intuit.com/trends/small-businesses-still-struggling-with-wikipedia/ a while back. While he spent a paragraph talking about me, he never bothered to interview me or to let me know when he published the story.

If you'd like a little chuckle, read his story, then http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&oldid=33557047 (note the author?), check http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valparaiso,_Indiana&diff=prev&oldid=33557531 out, and see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&diff=prev&oldid=264103989 and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&diff=prev&oldid=362964092.

Hmm...

Posted by: Zoloft

QUOTE(thekohser @ Sun 12th June 2011, 10:46pm) *

Michael Essany wrote an http://blog.intuit.com/trends/small-businesses-still-struggling-with-wikipedia/ a while back. While he spent a paragraph talking about me, he never bothered to interview me or to let me know when he published the story.

If you'd like a little chuckle, read his story, then http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&oldid=33557047 (note the author?), check http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valparaiso,_Indiana&diff=prev&oldid=33557531 out, and see http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&diff=prev&oldid=264103989 and http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Michael_Essany&diff=prev&oldid=362964092.

Hmm...

Well, apparently he's very distinguihed and is a customer of your day job. ermm.gif

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(Zoloft @ Mon 13th June 2011, 3:06am) *

...and is a customer of your day job. ermm.gif

Well, he was in 2006. He's probably switched to DirecTV and Frontier DSL by now.

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(thekohser @ Mon 13th June 2011, 7:19am) *

QUOTE(Zoloft @ Mon 13th June 2011, 3:06am) *

...and is a customer of your day job. ermm.gif

Well, he was in 2006. He's probably switched to DirecTV and Frontier DSL by now.


Nope! He's http://www.michaelessany.com/Contact_Michael.html a Comcast customer!

Posted by: EricBarbour

QUOTE
Of course, there is also the possibility that someone else will write about you. Antero Alli, founder of the Berkeley, Calif.-based publishing and production company ParaTheatrical Research, was pleasantly surprised to find himself as the subject of a Wikipedia article – although he takes it with the proverbial grain of salt.

“My Wikipedia page has served as a kind of generic bio that has been useful on occasions when I want to impress someone with the broader range of what I do and have done,” he says. “But it’s still odd. When I look at it and read it, it’s as if I’m reading the story of someone who has already died. I mean, don’t you have to die first before getting listed in an encyclopedia?”

Not if it's an "encyclopedia". Then you can use it to defame live people.

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE
Of course, there is also the possibility that someone else will write about you. Antero Alli, founder of the Berkeley, Calif.-based publishing and production company ParaTheatrical Research, was pleasantly surprised to find himself as the subject of a Wikipedia article – although he takes it with the proverbial grain of salt.

“My Wikipedia page has served as a kind of generic bio that has been useful on occasions when I want to impress someone with the broader range of what I do and have done,” he says. “But it’s still odd. When I look at it and read it, it’s as if I’m reading the story of someone who has already died. I mean, don’t you have to die first before getting listed in an encyclopedia?”


pinch.gif Clueless. Even the Britannica has had BLPs since the 1911 edition. The key is that you had to be a lot more famous and public than Antero Alli.

<sigh> I'm afraid the public is going to need a fair amount of Special Ed before they can even begin to participate in this debate. Right now it's sort of like asking Joe Q. Innumerate if biodiesel and ethanol are going to solve global warming.

Posted by: Somey

Where is he getting the term "Switzerland Syndrome"? That's a misapplied analogy if there ever was one.

Switzerland's long-standing policy is to avoid/eschew participation in conflict that's going on elsewhere in the world, including among countries on its own borders. When last I checked, Switzerland does not invite other countries into Switzerland to fight there, just so it can take advantage of all the publicity, and all while saying it doesn't really care much who wins (as long as the result isn't embarrassing enough for them to be criticized in some way). However, it is willing to provide a safe haven for the combatant's money, which may explain the use of this flawed analogy (i.e., it's how Wikimedia Foundation folks like Jay Walsh, quoted in the blog, tend to see it).

The best physical analogy for Wikipedia's mode of operation would be something like a paintball battlefield, other than the fact that they're not charging any money to use it (at least not directly). Of course, if they were charging money to use it, they would also be expected to clean up the paint splatter themselves.

Posted by: thekohser

QUOTE(thekohser @ Mon 13th June 2011, 1:46am) *

Michael Essany wrote an http://blog.intuit.com/trends/small-businesses-still-struggling-with-wikipedia/ a while back.


I'd like to challenge anyone to getting a comment posted on that particular blog piece. I've been waiting over 28 hours now for "moderation" to act.

Posted by: Gruntled

QUOTE(EricBarbour @ Tue 14th June 2011, 9:56am) *

QUOTE
Of course, there is also the possibility that someone else will write about you. Antero Alli, founder of the Berkeley, Calif.-based publishing and production company ParaTheatrical Research, was pleasantly surprised to find himself as the subject of a Wikipedia article – although he takes it with the proverbial grain of salt.

“My Wikipedia page has served as a kind of generic bio that has been useful on occasions when I want to impress someone with the broader range of what I do and have done,” he says. “But it’s still odd. When I look at it and read it, it’s as if I’m reading the story of someone who has already died. I mean, don’t you have to die first before getting listed in an encyclopedia?”

Not if it's an "encyclopedia". Then you can use it to defame live people.

Jimbo himself is of course in Encyclopedia Britannica.

Posted by: EricBarbour

QUOTE(Gruntled @ Thu 16th June 2011, 1:50am) *
Jimbo himself is of course in Encyclopedia Britannica.

So is Rush Limbaugh. And he's now selling iced tea in bottles.
Bottles featuring a picture of himself, http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/not-satire-rush-limbaugh-selling-tea-dressed......

Posted by: Milton Roe

QUOTE(EricBarbour @ Thu 16th June 2011, 4:38pm) *

QUOTE(Gruntled @ Thu 16th June 2011, 1:50am) *
Jimbo himself is of course in Encyclopedia Britannica.

So is Rush Limbaugh. And he's now selling iced tea in bottles.
Bottles featuring a picture of himself, http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/david/not-satire-rush-limbaugh-selling-tea-dressed......


QUOTE(from Limbaugh)

Is the tea safe for liberals to drink?
Yes, absolutely! The tea is excellent and worthy of all! The tea is a melting pot, full of American values and the taste of freedom; everyone can share in it’s magic. [Go get him, Greg!] There is a charge however, which may be a shock to some.

Can liberals pay a higher price if they choose?
Yes! However, since most liberals prefer to have everything paid for them this is highly unlikely.

Can liberals pay a lower price if they choose?
No, but we will happily accept payment from third parties buying the tea for liberals who think someone else should buy their tea for them.

Why do you have a recycling symbol on your product if you so adamantly criticize environmentalists and the green movement?
Having a recycling symbol on each Two If By Tea™ bottle is merely for labeling and industry requirements. It is not meant to be a political statement of any sort or an attempt to “Save the Planet” as many environmentalist wackos would suggest.


And predictably, the commentary from the peanut gallery is impolite:

-------------

Everyone gimmie your best. What would you think a tea with the face of Limbaugh on the bottle tastes like. No saying "shit."

Piss.

Like a monkey pissing in his own mouth.

No, I'm looking for something comparably sick.

Hmm, like puking a little in your mouth and then swallow it again and you can taste the last thing you ate or drank? Like that?

More Sick, eh? You ask, we deliver: How about bottled santorum? That sick enough?

Diet Santorum

What makes it diet?

Only half the lube?


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The Nazis are of course mentioned, but we may have a new internet version of Godwin's law here: As an unmoderated BBS conversation is allowed to run, the probability of mentioning santorum approaches 1. Okay, you read it here first. Milton Roe's Law.