What would I do without my Wiki?
You may not know about the 24-hour Wiki blackout*, but I certainly do, because it’s cramping my style.
Just a little, anyway. Wiki is often a surprisingly good source for general background information, although it’s hardly impeccable. But then, few things are; the truth often requires assembling information from a lot of sources, and even then it can be very elusive.
There are certainly other ways to get information online. But without Wiki—and to a far greater extent, Google—bloggers like me would have trouble writing as fast and furiously as we do. It’s a race against time here. How could we do our requisite speedy research on various and sundry subjects with only the library, a home encyclopedia set, and our local newspaper?
Of course, some might say that’s a good thing: haste makes waste and all that, you know. But Wiki and other online sources have helped me immeasurably in learning a little bit, or even a medium bit, about a lot of things that interest me. And I can’t imagine that that’s not a good thing.
Way back in the mid-90s, before I even had an email address and had almost never used a computer, people would talk them up to me. But I resisted; I couldn’t figure out what I’d want to do with one. It was my son who turned the tide by showing me, not telling me. He sat down at a computer and asked me to give him a line of favorite poetry (he knew I loved poetry). Using the old pre-Google search engines (I can’t even remember what they were called, but they seem very inefficient now) he typed it in and up popped sites that showed the entire poem from which the line originated.
A whole new research world opened before my eyes. If a line of a poem or a song was bugging me and I didn’t know the source (something that happened with some frequency), I didn’t need to go crazy any more, I could just search for it and in a matter of moments I’d have the answer! And all in the privacy of my own home!
That’s all I needed; I was a goner. Now, of course, I spend an inordinate amount of time on the computer, a great deal of it engaged in the search for information, and some of it at Wiki. And now, when I type in the word “neocon” at Google, I come in #9 on the list.
[*NOTE: The Wiki blackout is to protest certain anti-piracy laws before Congress. For the details, see this.]
Disable javascript in your browser and Wikipedia works fine.
foxmarks: I probably won’t; I think I can do quite nicely without Wiki for a day. But thanks for the tip.
One day I was explaining a bit of German history to a 13-year-old American boy who is here for 2 years. I suggested that he use English wiki and then German wiki to get a grasp on the context and the German vocab he would be hearing in his classes. I then made the mistake of telling him how lucky he was to have wiki and how in my day I would have had to go to the library and hope it had the books that could answer my questions. He looked at me and said, “How old are you anyway?”
This blog would have to go if the new laws succeed… if you dont think so, then you havent followed bloggers on the ‘right’ who have had constant problems editing and working on their blogs the more popular they were.
you would be amazed at the whatfors in closing sites now… ultimately, it will be forced to be like soviet news and fascist licensing… only official news people can write, or official bathroom sweeps can sweep, and so on. a modern ancient Japanese feudal state where we lose our names for being the same and we become the jobs we are assigned.
and we are so close to finalizing all this, its truly scary to those that realize the wall they are leaning on, is not a wall, but the side of a beast to big for them to get their mind around
Great example of supply-side economics. A growing, creative economy produces things you didn’t know you needed.
foxmarks,
So that’s why I didn’t notice it–I browse without Javascript unless absolutely necessary (e.g. for posting comments on FrontPage Mag–can’t with Javascript disabled).
On the plus side, Wikipedia lays bare the bias-prone process of truth-finding that in mainstream publications is usually concealed (so you have to dig deep to find the catches in the text). On the minus side, the buildup of cliques means Wikipedia is not a resource “anyone can edit” even if the page in question isn’t write-protected. Wikipedia easily degrades to be under the thrall of majority rule without checks and balances, a tyranny of admins voting among themselves, with dissent crushed under legislation such as the Three-Revert Rule (revert a change three times against the clique and you’re banned). The majorities, of course, tend to be the same people with so much time and so little talent on their hands as have dominated the mainstream media–hard leftists.
Wikipedia is no alternative to the mainstream. It’s just more handy than the mainstream, but it’s largely run by the same gaggle of agitators and pushers of nefarious agendas.
Google cache also has wiki sites up.
Btw, this is basically the soft Leftists finding out that the hard Leftists they voted into power were actually serious. And that business and government can indeed combine without being fascism: they just call it social justice and redistribution.
I said around 2008 that the Left were going to have to regulate the internet if they wanted to maintain their propaganda dominance. Engineered crisis economically. Engineered crisis militarily. Now he’s got time for the rest of you all.
The Left endlessly complains about Wall Street sucking up money. But have they ever mentioned how much the Records and Music companies with their copyrights and Hollywood’s “movie licenses” are hording by using government legislation to put down people “pirating” stuff that can’t be pirated to begin with?
I use AdBlock et al and was disappointed that I saw absolutely no difference between normal Wiki and blocked Wiki.
I remember a few of the 90’s search engines: Altavista, Excite, Webcrawler.
The Oatmeal is also participating in the blackout. Sort of.
/hat tip Transterrestrial Musings
File under: “I can quit anytime I like.”
“It doesn’t rule my life.”
At this point, I am opposed to any legislation that increases the power of the DOJ.