Wikipedia Review
Edited Jun 25, 2008 9:17 am
Somey writes:
We're sorry to say that The Wikipedia Review has suffered another attack by unknown assailants. This time, recovery may take a bit longer than usual, and we're aware that WR's recovery times have not exactly been ultra-speedy in the past. And since it was the database that was attacked this time, some more-recent material posted to the site may have been lost, and quite possibly permanently.
Needless to say, we're sorry about this, and we hope to take steps soon to further secure the site against this sort of thing. However, we're not professional web security people (and we're not even all that sure who "we" are in the first place), so you might have to bear with us for a little while on that score.
At least we've changed the video since the last time.
Thanks,
The Wikipedia Review
Update: The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack on Wikipedia Review's Web Hosting Service was of limited duration and caused no damage to the contents of the site. Only the access roads leading up to the doorstep were clogged by the DDoS Attack.
Barsoom Tork - Jun 24, 2008 7:43 pm (#1 of 13)
The Final Absolution
Drama Theory
Montana Mouse - Jun 15, 2008 10:21 am (#2356 of 2369)
I never signed up to be an Internet movie star.Previously, Schadenfreude Theatre presented a pair of seemingly unrelated operas, one entitled Fear and Loathing in Lost Vagueness and one entitled No One Expects the Spammish Inquisition!. These were in addition to another Soap Opera entitled, Bildungsroman in the Age of Character Assassination, which featured Bela, Klaatu, Moulton, and a variety of walk-on cameos by various and sundry characters from the Original ATI/RI/PDR Soap Opera which Bela kicked off some five years ago.
Now the third opera in the Ring of the Neener Bomb is getting underway at the English Wikipedia. This one is tentatively called The Final Absolution and promises to have considerably better music than that previously provided by Barsoom Tork Associates.
To kick things off, a Wikipedian who goes by the name of Filll has posed the following invitation:How about you start with this, and then answer my 8 questions?The reference to the starting point is a scathing Indictment of Moulton lodged by another prominent Wikipedian, an admin who goes by the name of FeloniousMonk.
- Jun 25, 2008 4:06 am (#2 of 13)
Neil's WordCloud Image
- Jul 7, 2008 4:17 am (#3 of 13)
In Popular Culture
- Jul 13, 2008 10:34 am (#4 of 13)
Odd Socracy Tackles Wikipedia's ad hoc Ochlocracy
WAS 4.250 and Moulton have launched a new Learning Project on Wikiversity...
Ethical Management of the English Language Wikipedia
We are creating a learning resource at WikiVersity. Announcement and Request for Community Input on Ethics
Please look at Ethical Management of the English Language Wikipedia. You may wish to add your name to the list of human resources. You may wish to contribute to one or more of the items on the to-do list. May we request input on proposed ethical guidelines for management of the English language Wikipedia, or suggestions on a practical objective method of evaluating the same?
- Jul 23, 2008 3:48 am (#5 of 13)
Edited Jan 6, 2009 4:27 am
Get Fuzzy
Montana Mouse - Jul 24, 2008 1:50 am (#6 of 13)
Bill of Attainder
Last night, an unidentified admin on Wikipedia Review executed a Bill of Attainder against Moulton.
At the time of execution, Moulton was responding to a PM (Personal Message) from Somey. This reporter has obtained a copy of the message from Moulton to Somey...
Somey, I just got this unexpected message when I tried to respond to your PM of a few minutes ago...Oh, come off it, Somey.Sorry, an error occurred. If you are unsure on how to use a feature, or don't know why you got this error message, try looking through the help files for more information.
The error returned was:
Your account has been temporarily suspended. This suspension is due to end on Sun 21st September 2008, 4:58pm.
Post Data Saved!
The following post data has been saved. In some cases, using your browser's back button will empty out form fields which results in the loss of any typed and unsaved material. You may select all of the text area below and copy before hitting back.
Here are the contents of the PM I had prepared for you...[QUOTE=Somey][/QUOTE]I thought I wrote "flood control," not "flow control"?[QUOTE=Moulton]Somey, I honor the TCP/IP Flow Control Protocol....[/QUOTE]
Are you really protesting that a semi-retired educator from MIT is crafting song parodies faster than Proabivouac is able to not read them?
[Quote=Somey]Might I suggest you employ Action Research if you are going to construct theories about me. As it happens, I'm a subject-matter expert about myself, and I'd happily supply to you accurate models out of which you could trivially craft efficacious practices that would give you exactly what you want with minimum effort on your part.I mean, there's obviously more to this than just posting volume, but I had sort of figured that if you could only post, say, once per hour, then that's only about a dozen posts per day, max (practically speaking). The theory is, or was, that you're posting things like song lyrics and canned-quote comments about accuracy/ethics/excellence in online media because you're waiting for something interesting to happen in some other thread, but you've got nothing better to do while waiting, and don't like to be "idle." So if you were on flood control, you'd presumably find something more interesting to do, like go have a sandwich.[/Quote]
[Quote=Somey]Yes, that theory occurred to me when Herschel first implemented his "double secret probation" without bothering to post it first or request comments from the community. Can you explain to me why Herschel would dream up a "provisional rule" and begin actively enforcing it before either announcing it as fiat or (more sensibly, in my opinion) requesting commentary on the proposal to discover if it had any unintended consequences that he hadn't anticipated?Another theory was that this is all part of some weird anthropological experiment in how online communities behave when presented with various untenable situations. Needless to say, you'll have to promise me that there is no experiment, or no deal![/Quote]
[Quote=Somey]Well, I'm comforted that you recognize that the gambit of the Moderators was "nutty."I do apologize for the (apparent) fact that you weren't properly warned that this sort of nuttiness was being contemplated. I know there were some PM's asking you to, you know, "cool it" or whatever, and a few forum posts here and there, but there should have been a specific "this is the plan" kind of message, so really that's my bad. (Or Herschel's, if you prefer to blame him - everyone else does! :) )[/QUOTE]
~S.
After those PMs, my posting volume had dropped to where I wasn't even in the Top Ten anymore. On the day Herschel began enforcing it, NYBrad was the top poster with (as I recall) 26 posts. I had posted very little during that week you were away because WAS 4.250 and I were very busy on Wikiversity building the new course that he had launched.
Homo Schleppians have been crafting music for 50,000 years, Somey. The species had music and dance before it had written language. Most of Wikipedia is coverage of popular culture, and most of popular culture is musical. So for WR to suddenly outlaw poetry or music seems a tad countercultural.
NY Brad posted poetry. So did Milton Roe. And look at all those YouTube videos, most of which are musical.
Folk music and protest songs are ubiquitous in our culture. Back in the late 60s and 70's the only two clubs I belonged to at Bell Labs were the Ski Club and the Folk Music Club. We schmoozed with the professionals (including Pete Seeger) at the summer Folk Festivals. Most of the amateurs in the Folk Music Club were talented performers. My best friend wrote and performed song parodies. I learned the craft from him. And since I had no musical talent, I served as their recording engineer at their performances in the Holmdel Auditorium. I still have the reel-to-reel and cassette tapes from those days, 40 years ago.
So, as Steve Martin would say, "Excuuuuuse Meee!" if I was gobsmacked by the notion that music and protest songs are suddenly illegal in the protest business.
And we are in the protest business, are we not?
How would you like to proceed, Somey?
Would you like to negotiate mutually agreeable terms of engagement?
The choice is yours.
Moulton Looks like Barsoom Tork will have another Ballad to craft, eh?
(7 following messages)
Wikipedia Review