Changes

To conclude. I envision a facebook, wikipedia, business profile hybrid becoming a dominant force of the internet. Dominant = putting the kids through college, and of course a porsche 911 turbo with chrono package. I am an experienced wiki editor with 4 years investment experience ranging from unit investment trusts to exchange traded funds (and an IQ of 139). Getting in on the ground floor of something big would be beneficial for my dream of a house in the hills and a trophy wife. I'm here to help. [[User:Garrett|Garrett]] 15:45, 1 February 2007 (PST)

To conclude. I envision a facebook, wikipedia, business profile hybrid becoming a dominant force of the internet. Dominant = putting the kids through college, and of course a porsche 911 turbo with chrono package. I am an experienced wiki editor with 4 years investment experience ranging from unit investment trusts to exchange traded funds (and an IQ of 139). Getting in on the ground floor of something big would be beneficial for my dream of a house in the hills and a trophy wife. I'm here to help. [[User:Garrett|Garrett]] 15:45, 1 February 2007 (PST)

:See my response at the [[Centiare:Water Cooler (proposals)|water cooler]]. [[User:Snerfling|Snerfling]] 17:58, 1 February 2007 (PST)

:See my response at the [[Help:Water Cooler (proposals)|water cooler]]. [[User:Snerfling|Snerfling]] 17:58, 1 February 2007 (PST)

==Call==

==My suggestions and critiques==

Gregory, It's me from Wikinfo. Let me know when I can call you (i.e. day and how late in the day.) I'm up until 11:30 each night (ET) but few others are, and I see you have kids, so, you may be one of those "early to bed" people. ;-) My email is my username, then at comcast dot net.- [[User:Nhprman|Nhprman]] 18:03, 17 January 2008 (PST)

I had a great phone chat with Gregory a few days back and want to share a few of my own ideas here, and expand on the things about which we spoke.

 

* This cannot be a clone of Wikipedia, nor should it try to be. Pages other than People, Place or Business name pages should not exist here. (more on that below) Three distinct namespaces: People, Place (BRIEF descriptions of cities, states/provinces/regions and nations) and Business namespaces should be sufficient. The generic use of “Directory:” for everything was a mistake, and is not easily linkable.

 

*Creating business pages here is not intuitive. I know how to create wiki pages because I’ve done it many times before. Cutting and pasting the “fake” name and business pages was easy for me, but will not be for a majority of people. Other sites are far easier, and faster. See LinkedIN and Naymz.com. I created pages on each within minutes. Gregory said he’s looked into something like this.

 

*Apparently, the creation of pages like [[Directory:Ask the Doctors/alpha-Mannosidosis]] are meant to generate hits and a higher ranking from sites like Google and Yahoo. Two points here: 1) I hope you know that Google and other search engines are wise to this strategy and take steps to de-list sites that deliberately try this to increase hits and rankings in this way. And 2) Adding fluff and chaff like this to a so-called business site degrades it. When someone takes a look at the “recent” entries and sees a bunch of nonsense like this (and Hollywood actors, and watermelon, and recipes) they will leave and not return. I would recommend that the pointless daily creation of fluff articles end, and that all People, Place and Business name articles be saved and the rest junked. Having 65,000 pages of crap is not a benefit. Having 65,000 pages about separate businesses IS something to brag about. (I say this, knowing that apparently a family member of Gregory’s is well-meaningly creating these pages. Oops. Sorry! No personal offense intended.)

 

*I second the idea above that eventually it cost a minimal amount to create business-related pages here. I think most would pay a one-time fee. Other sites charge recurring fees which discourage their use. This would be a draw for this site.

 

*It is nearly impossible to network here. I hunted for 10 minutes for others in my profession who have signed up here. I finally searched by my profession’s NUMBER I.D. and found similar businesses. That is not reasonable. Categories should have been employed (such as <nowiki>[[Category:Attorneys]]; [[Category:Marketing]]; [[Category:Website designers]]</nowiki>) rather than this rather odd categorization/numbering system that’s been used (or use both.) Without an easy categorization system, the usefulness of this site is far, far diminished. If this site is for only I.T. nerds, then I retract this idea. If the site is for real businesspeople, then this system needs to be rethought.

 

* The huge problem with Wikipedia is that it was created by an anarchist who believed in starting up “The Machine” and walking away, “hoping” that people of good sense would prevail and ONE DAY create a clutter-free, conflict-free Website. As I told Gregory, businesses don’t work that way, nor does real life. Real, solid rules need to be created  - by the site owner(s), not rules arising from hundreds of 450,000-word, pointless “policy debates” led by power-mad, increasingly dictatorial “admins”.) These rules should state clearly that conflict, vandalism, libel, and spam will not be tolerated. The only way to do  this is to have strict rules, and enforce them. Anarchy leads to tin pot dictators, not to paradise. At least not in the business world or in the rest of the real (non-Internet) world. Sorry if that’s a shock to some. I won’t join a wiki in which we’re going to get into extended peeing contests about content and style and whatever else. Been there - on Wikipedia. Done with that.

 

I’m sure I’ll have more to say, but that’s it for now. [[User:Nhprman|Nhprman]] 22:06, 24 January 2008 (PST)