Search Stereotypes: What Web Content Reveals About Cultural Biases, by Sandra Ordonez Options

[thekohser]

"Web astronaut" and Shankbone pal, Sandra Ordonez, is at it again, this time squeezing in her former employer's Wikipedia project as an "all good" counter-example to the "oh-so-bad" world of prurient search algorithms.

I felt moved to leave a comment that will probably get deleted:

I find it ironic that Ordonez holds up (her former paycheck) Wikipedia as a shining example of a “go-to source”, in contrast to search algorithms that seem locked on sexual fixations. Wikipedia was co-founded by a web-based soft-porn aggregator, and the problem of pornography — even child pornography — on Wikimedia Foundation servers has proved so intractable, the Foundation had to hire an old buddy of the Exec Director’s to come in and “consult” them on ways to remove and minimize it without pissing off the “community” that so loves its porn, they need thousands of pictures of penises to “encyclopedically” illustrate the concept of a penis.

This was a valiant effort to pull together a story, Sandra… but some of us won’t ever let you recharacterize Wikipedia as some shiny beacon of goodness that it most decidedly is not. You don’t get to deceive your readers just because you used to work there.

[EricBarbour]

IMO, Mashable has got a stiff case of "Web 2.0". Lots of dishonesty, psychological
manipulation, subtle abuse, and other kinds of psych-warfare are always on display there.

When they first started, they were going to be "unique", a "crowdsourced industry news site"
for something that isn't an industry (Web 2.0). As time wears on, their site increasingly
resembles TechCrunch or Cnet. Just another nerdy-blog platform.

I guess you could say that Web 2.0=blogging platform variations.
(If you quote me, holla back. Or don't. )

This post has been edited by EricBarbour: Wed 24th August 2011, 7:52am

[carbuncle]

"Web astronaut" and Shankbone pal, Sandra Ordonez, is at it again, this time squeezing in her former employer's Wikipedia project as an "all good" counter-example to the "oh-so-bad" world of prurient search algorithms.

After reading that article, I'm not so sure that the WMF is Ordonez's former employer.