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Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by staticshock on Sunday March 02, 2008 @10:41AM (#127385)
it's safe to assume this will be more prone to vandalism, since each page will have less of an audience (and thus less chance of a vandalized page being fixed) than any given page on wikipedia
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by bobp on Sunday March 02, 2008 @01:54PM (#127488)
I agree. Despite the guidelines, I can see this potentially being used to spread rumors, gossip, lie, or just stuff that's plain unflattering on people. I doubt many people will be actively monitoring their Biographicon profile and this content could go undetected for a while, causing the subjects real harm.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by staticshock on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:32PM (#127584)
i don't think it'll be particularly harmful. i think in the long term the wiki's reputation as a reliable source information may suffer. when something is well known not to be reliable, it doesn't have much of a way of inflicting harm.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by vlad on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:39PM (#127589)
http://biographicon.com/view/l966v

There's somebody named Hairy Beaver linked to from a home-page featured profile listing.

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by ivankirigin on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:59PM (#127605)
I'd like to see a graph of the number of times someone has commented on techcrunch that is the equivalent of "how did this get funding?! no value". I wonder if there are spikes for YC company launches.

Who do these people think they are? Nobody, clearly, as they are usually anonymous.

Remind me to stop reading the comments there.

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by pchristensen on Monday March 03, 2008 @10:22AM (#128092)
Hey Ivan, stop reading the comments on TechCrunch (ValleyWag too)
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by ivankirigin on Monday March 03, 2008 @02:00PM (#128224)
Ohh wow, thanks! I totally needed that.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by marketer on Sunday March 02, 2008 @10:22PM (#127769)
1) I'm not a big fan of the name, maybe it has subtle meanings that I'm not getting. It just doesn't flow. It sounds like a military term.

2) A lot of space is wasted in this site. The whole left column, which is about 40% of the site, is completely blank. I have mixed feelings about the little feedback bar, which, being a black log and over a yellow background, reminds me of ___.

3) Eventually you'll have to start making money, and thus putting up ads. The nice thing about wikipedia is it is non-profit and doesn't serve ads. If wikipedia did serve ads, I probably wouldn't bother contributing.

4) You should study the usage patterns of wikipedia, and what made it successful. I think there was an essay about that somewhere. The conclusion is that most of the edits come from a small minority of hyper-dedicated users, and the general high quality of writing on wikipedia can be attributed ot them. How are you planning to attract those types of people?

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by optimal on Monday March 03, 2008 @06:48AM (#128004)
I agree--at minimum make the bio the width of the name header, and put the navigation links above the bio. The "Feedback" link could be made the same color as the backing oak leaf/acorn cluster, or green for more contrast and consistency with the organic theme.

I don't mind the name so much. It's almost like "Biographic Icon." Or perhaps "Biography Con" (just kidding).

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by acangiano on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:13AM (#127270)
I had this idea several years ago. I gave up on it due to the possible legal implications.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by alaskamiller on Sunday March 02, 2008 @09:33AM (#127352)
you thought up wikipedia several years ago? should have went for it. aaron swartz did. twice.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by eb on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:19AM (#127274)
...and what would those be?
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by chengmi on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:55AM (#127280)
defamation, libel
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by acangiano on Sunday March 02, 2008 @05:04AM (#127281)
Absolutely. Also, we weren't so willing to give up our privacy online up to 4/5 years ago.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by vuknje on Sunday March 02, 2008 @10:45AM (#127392)
one of the simlplest and clearest web app interfaces i've seen so far. who did design? it's great!
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by herdrick on Monday March 03, 2008 @12:21AM (#127843)
The great Devin Hunt of Fuzzwich.com (with contributions from the also-great Laurence Honderick of Fuzzwich). It's amazing, isn't it?

Was it only the visual design that you liked or did you like the workflow/feel of it too?

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by vuknje on Monday March 03, 2008 @08:33AM (#128040)
i like both. for example, on the homepage when you click on input 'your name goes here', two new buttons appear.. that's just details, but details are what distinguish great design/interface from an average one.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by herdrick on Monday March 03, 2008 @07:51PM (#128467)
We feel strongly about that stuff. Glad to hear it paid off.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by sarosh on Sunday March 02, 2008 @09:39AM (#127358)
To the founders (Ethan and Daniel?): will you reserve any editorial control? I guess the most obvious factor that could led to the entire site's corruption is bad data (e.g., Han Solo, God, etc.) or particular data that a party may not want public (e.g. Oprah's home phone number). Or has there been some clever thinking done to resolve that problem? I've read the guidelines and they seem quite cogent.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by staticshock on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:38PM (#127588)
note to the developers: this initial prototype has some pretty severe client side glitches in Opera 9.26
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by herdrick on Monday March 03, 2008 @12:32AM (#127855)
Thanks, staticshock. We're aware of it. That's Opera in Windows, right? We've seen it work fine in Opera on the Mac.
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by staticshock on Monday March 03, 2008 @06:37PM (#128429)
correct
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by gibsonf1 on Sunday March 02, 2008 @05:35AM (#127289)
Nothing like Scheme with flat files to make a web app :) (Why use a db when you don't have too?)
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by mattmaroon on Sunday March 02, 2008 @05:20AM (#127287)
Biographicon's interface is just plain slick.

I see the site being popular for people who care about celebrities.

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by slackerIII on Sunday March 02, 2008 @11:14AM (#127410)
Are there any editors? I wonder if an inner circle will develop like on Wikipedia to keep the peace.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/wikipedia_secret_mai...

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by staticshock on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:35PM (#127585)
well, there is no way that people who don't know you can monitor your profile and filter out the fiction from the truth, so a single unified "inner circle" is unlikely to be of much use
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by tokipin on Sunday March 02, 2008 @03:14AM (#127255)
i can see this becoming very popular, particularly for students in school/college who could very quickly populate it with their circle of friends

one thing: what will happen with people who have the same names?

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by rrwhite on Sunday March 02, 2008 @06:07AM (#127295)
disambiguation pages of course!
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by JaredRad on Sunday March 02, 2008 @12:39PM (#127449)
This has been done: wikiyou.com Good luck guys!
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by whacked_new on Sunday March 02, 2008 @02:02PM (#127493)
"Who would most likely want to buy you?"
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by whacked_new on Saturday August 09, 2008 @02:05AM (#271468)
Hi comment feed readers. RIP Biographicon (WFP 08). http://blog.biographicon.com/2008/08/03/biographicon-closing...

I just don't feel like submitting it as a story.

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by eusman on Sunday March 02, 2008 @03:30AM (#127259)
that feeback button is everywhere!
Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by rrwhite on Sunday March 02, 2008 @06:10AM (#127297)
It's undeniably the hot trend if you're a responsive and loving site curator. :)

Then again I'm biased since I have a user feedback focused startup and we're hoping to be putting those tabs on a lot of people's websites.

example.uservoice.com

Re:Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The N... by dhouston on Sunday March 02, 2008 @04:26AM (#127276)
congrats ethan & daniel!