Disqus - Latest Comments for wogan

Re: Fan Fiction’s Predictive Value for Nielsen Ratings

LauraHale — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:04:05 -0000

There are some shows that don't have correlation when you get down to that sort of break down. The shows that didn't? They didn't surprise me.

The lawsuit happy folks haven't really come after fan fiction in many years. They won't do so. Producers are being a bit careful about staying away from fan fiction sites or being only on sites where users, as part of the ToS, give away all rights to their ideas to the creators. The level of engagement feels pretty unprecedented.

The analysis was pretty damned fun. :) It was the right up process that was the ZOMG! I HAVE NOT DONE THIS IN WIKI FORMAT IN SO LONG! that was scary. :) I love this sort of work and in ideal world, I'd love a job where I can do this sort of analysis for pay in the entertainment industry. Debating putting something together similar for sports and online communities because it just feels like so many people are talking about how you can do this type of engagement and get all these wonderful results... with out, you know, actually showing the ROI or presenting case studies. I wanted to do one of those. :)

Re: Fan Fiction’s Predictive Value for Nielsen Ratings

wogan — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:58:41 -0000

I suppose it's only natural to see correlations in this. Art is human expression, and the better the art is, the stronger response you'll generate across the board. Fanfiction is no exception, and you're right: it should be treated as valid feedback.

If only it were possible to convince the lawsuit-happy types of this :/

Good analysis, too - as someone who deals with complicated reports on a daily basis, I can only imagine how much fun it was ;)

Re: Why Fan History won’t be moving to Wikia any time soon

LauraHale — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:55:42 -0000

So on those grounds, Laura, well done - without even getting into the specifics of Wikia's offer ;)

The specifics are pretty much this: Wikia offered to acquire us for gratis. (They aren't really a host, no matter how much they will bill themselves as a host. Most hosts don't demand your domains, don't demand your content and for you to use a license that runs counter to your business interests. Most hosts allow you to leave. Most hosts don't move your site to a subdomain to boost the host's traffic stats. Most hosts don't look at their customers as acquisitions. Most hosts don't tell you after you move that they can no longer help you, but that all future decisions will be based on the nebulous community.)

We don't particularly want to sell out at Fan History. We view ourselves as no-profit LLC, more like a non-profit in that way. If some one offered to acquire us where we thought our mission would be successfully dealt with, my admin staff has said I can pursue it. We just have never had one. (We have had awesome advice from other wiki companies on how to meet our mission better.)

And yeah, 808,000 is a bit mind blowing. We're trying to build the framework so that people can easily add information. It is about lowing barriers to entry. Our actual goal is to hit a million articles.

(Also, if you get the chance, I have an idea for a new project that I want to run past you, maybe get you involved with. It stems from something that we are doing with Fan History.)

Re: 2008/08/25/no-free-lunch-google/

wogan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:32:01 -0000

Mmmpf, sorry, all that sushi got to me. Especially love the way it's prepared in Cape Town, South AFRICA.

Re: Our Microblogging Lives: Work, Home, Lunch, Sleep?

wogan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:29:23 -0000

"Supercore", lol

Re: Why Fan History won’t be moving to Wikia any time soon

wogan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:49:01 -0000

Monopolies suck.

Not in the naive everything-I-don't-understand-sucks way, but the simple fact is that they do. Monopolies are only good for the highest stakeholders - the rest of us, ie. the consumers on the ground, ultimately suffer.

Which is why it's good to hear that there are still some people out there who wouldn't sell out nearly as quickly. What we NEED is more - more sites, more companies, more approaches to a given niche of human culture. Capitalistic optimization was never good for the spirit of creativity.

So on those grounds, Laura, well done - without even getting into the specifics of Wikia's offer ;)

And, holy cow, 800k pages? :|

Re: Judge: Microsoft Banned from Selling Word in the US

wogan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:22:15 -0000

1: "...containing *custom* XML".

Custom XML? Are you serious? The X stands for "eXtensible" - THE WHOLE LANGUAGE IS CUSTOM!

This is an absolutely ridiculous injunction - I don't expect anything less than the whole thing being overturned in MS' favor.

Re: Trying Out Disqus Comment System - Feedback Wanted

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Re: Update: Chrome OS Screenshots Were Faked.

wogan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:46:11 -0000

DUH!

Re: Facebook Farce: Top British Spy Exposed on Facebook

wogan — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:03:42 -0000

Well, slap me silly - spies are human beings too.

Re: US Texting Champ Sends 470 Text Messages per Day

rossouwh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:43:18 -0000

Ahh nice info, thanks Wogan. Profound. Even if we had those sort of unlimited plans, I simply cannot see myself loving text messaging that much.

Re: US Texting Champ Sends 470 Text Messages per Day

wogan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:24:22 -0000

Yup. Americans are crazy on their texting. Mostly because they get unlimited plans, which obviously makes it a whole lot more affordable - and a substitute for, like, real conversations and stuff.

Edit: It should also be pointed out, that at Vodacom's largest SMS bundle, 14k SMSes a month costs about R3150. That's one reason SA users aren't SMS-heavy ;)

Re: Fight Mediocrity

wogan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:09:09 -0000

As far as education goes, I think most people have it wrong. It's not about teaching - it's about enabling your students to learn. And that enablement is really more of a burden on the student than anyone else - how many college dropout millionaires can you name?

Of course, these days, to excel is not necessary in order to survive. Qualifications have become a commodity, and careers can be bought and sold. In this type of world, why bother trying to stand head and shoulders above the rest? It might have mattered in the Industrial Revolution (and the Cold War, and the digital revolution), where every new day was a struggle to innovate and come out on top, but not so anymore.

And this is why so few take the initiative to push the boundaries - to "fight mediocrity". We've built a system that thrives on (indeed, *demands*) mediocrity, and punishes those who dare to break step. We're seeing a change only now, with the global recession and the rise of work-at-home digital freelancers, but for the most part, people are still stuck in "survival" mode - instead of "succeed" mode.

But that's just me rambling, thanks largely to the incredible winter we're having :)

Re: Help to sponsor Tweekly.fm

shotbeak — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:45:39 -0000

Thanks for the tip! So far, serv is still serving me fine. I'll keep this in mind, when it becomes an issue. Thanks!

Re: Help to sponsor Tweekly.fm

wogan — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:40:15 -0000

I noticed you're hosting with Serv. I host with them too (don't get me wrong), but where R150/month gets you 5gb/66.5gb, you can get 10gb/200gb (for R95/month) with a VPS hosted in Canada, UK or LA: http://www.vpsville.ca/vps-plans

They support Moneybookers, so you don't even need a Mastercard. As it happens, I might even have an unused server I can clean out and donate - if you can handle R100/month ;)

Get me at wogan.may{at}gmail.com if you're interested.

Re: Making Millions via Twitter: @DellOutlet Surpasses $2 Million in Sales

wogan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:51:20 -0000

Isn't this sort of a "duh hello?" moment? Obviously you're going to sell stuff if you present your offers directly to consumers. That's sort of how marketing works.

Re: Facebook Usernames are LIVE; 200,000 Usernames in 3 Minutes

Wogan — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:00:09 -0000

http://facebook.com/wogan <-- First name's the best name ;)

Of course, it's not as if googling for my full name *doesn't* turn up my Facebook profile in the first 10 hits, vanity url or not. Remember when Facebook started including full names in the /people/ urls?

Still, i'm done, and I can go to bed again...

Re: WARNING: Juste is Latest Twitter Scam to Avoid

Wogan — Sat, 30 May 2009 17:10:07 -0000

Just my luck. I want to click on it, but the site won't load :/

I was assuming juste used a javascript hack, but if there's something that can be done via a PHP script to compromise a Twitter account, I'd be very curious to know how it was done.

Re: Whose art is it, anyway?

sockii — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:08:18 -0000

> There's one unfortunate reality here - the Cloud never forgets.

Very true. Once something is out there, it's out there. Whatever "netiquette" one community or another may propose to uphold, it doesn't stop others from violating those rules. And you have to accept as a reality that this is going to happen and do your best to protect yourself and your intellectual property.

I do the low-res/watermarking thing on my own website. I've only had one or two instances of people taking some artwork for their websites, remarked to them politely about it and had it removed. Or just asked to have credit and a link back to my site added because hey, "free" publicity.

Re: Whose art is it, anyway?

wogan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:50:16 -0000

There's one unfortunate reality here - the Cloud never forgets. Once you post something on the internet, private or not, locked or not, watermarked or not, it's public domain, and there's nothing you can do about it.

There are really only 2 things you can do. If you need to make a living from the Internet (selling paintings etc), place very low quality/heavily watermarked versions online. If you really want a painting, the watermarks won't put you off, but if you intend to repurpose it illegally, you'll look like an idiotic thief.

The second option, if the art is not critical to your survival, give it a CC Attribution license and turn it loose. You'll earn far more credit by letting people use your work (and linking back to you), than by being a constant nag about it being "stolen".

And if you do sell artwork (and people are nabbing the previews), having them link back to you could even drive sales, since: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/21/stu... - any publicity is good publicity.

But yeah - if you're going to stick something online and try to dictate how/where it can be used, you're gonna fail miserably, suffer stress and look like a stone-ager all at the same time.

Re: Another Twitter client to give Seesmic & Tweetdeck a run

wogan — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 07:17:10 -0000

You know what I'd like to see? A twitter client that doesn't use AIR. It's a great platform, if you have a machine that can multitask properly, and has loads of RAM to spare.

Re: I'm having an impossible amount of trouble getting SMTP set up on my LG KU990 - anyone out there with experience? #lazyweb

wogan — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:54:17 -0000

Never mind. Problem solved.

Re: Defamation in 140 characters

wogan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 03:32:19 -0000

If blogs were missiles, Twitter would be a chaingun nuclear rocket launcher. It's all the power of social media, sped up to the point where it can run hopelessly out of control, before sanity has a chance to settle things.

So yes - don't underestimate it. Especially if you don't intend on paying a designer, and then cause a stink over it. While you might have gotten away with that in your private life, you're now choosing to disregard your own rights to privacy, and that will have backlash.

Re: Facebook shouldn’t copy Twitter

wogan — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:52:56 -0000

I love the new "twitter-like" thing, because what it does is it allows you to post status updates, links, photos and videos right from that little box. And it allows you to discuss any item in the stream. It's much, much better than Twitter in just about every respect.

All they've done is condensed the best of Facebook into an easy-to-use interface. It's a good job, imo.

Re: Why I am a Facebook fan again

pauljacobson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:08:55 -0000

Ironically MySpace has one of the best content license frameworks in its terms of use I have seen. It is clearly set out, doesn't go further than it needs to and even explains itself. I used it as the model for Zoopy's terms of use a little while ago.