[WikiEN-l] Re: The userbox fad

Fri Jan 6 15:30:52 UTC 2006

jayjg wrote:

>On 1/5/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>>From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org
>>>[mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of jayjg
>>>Sent: Friday, 6 January 2006 10:26
>>>To: English Wikipedia
>>>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The userbox fad
>>>
>>>On 1/5/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>>From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org
>>>>>[mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of jayjg
>>>>>Sent: Friday, 6 January 2006 09:24
>>>>>To: English Wikipedia
>>>>>Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The userbox fad
>>>>>
>>>>>On 1/5/06, Peter Mackay < peter.mackay at bigpond.com> wrote:
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>>>>From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org
>>>>>>>[mailto: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of jayjg
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>There are better social clubs available on the net. If socialising is
>>>>>>>>                
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>truly their main interest, then they'll go elsewhere soon enough.
>>>>>>>>                
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>There are no social clubs available on the net with the prestige of
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Wikipedia.  It is a top 20 website.
>>>>>>>              
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>Surely, using your own definition, that would mean that there are 19
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>>>>>>more attractive ones?
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>>>>>Not really, since the others don't allow people to do this kind of thing.
>>>>>          
>>>>>
>>>>Ah. So you see Wikipedia as a social club. A prestigious social club.
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Actually, I've been arguing the exact opposite.  Are you sure
>>>you're reading my e-mails?
>>>      
>>>
>>You said: "There are no social clubs available on the net with the
>>prestige
>>of Wikipedia." That looks like a statement that Wikipedia is the most
>>prestigious social club available on the net.
>>    
>>
>I was responding to *your* e-mail, in which you first introduced the concept
>of Wikipedia as a social club, and suggested there were better ones around.
>
>Are you all done playing games?
>  
>
I'm not suggesting the word-twisting should continue, but this entire 
discussion seems to have been carried on in ignorance of the fact that 
there is, in fact, a better alternative for people who choose their 
online communities based purely on the amount of traffic they get. 
MySpace currently ranks 13th according to Alexa, still quite a few spots 
ahead of Wikipedia. I'm not sure that prestigious is the word you're 
looking for (your average pundit would probably resort to the tried and 
true "hip"), but whatever it is they've got, it was worth $580 million 
to Rupert Murdoch.

--Michael Snow