Author: Larry Sanger
-
Jimmy Wales reiterates support for Wikipedia porn filter
Over on Twitter, I’ve been having the first conversation, of sorts, I’ve had in years with Jimmy Wales. First, I wrote (pointing to my post, “What should we do about Wikipedia’s porn problem?”): Jimbo replied: Hmm, I thought: Jimbo had a couple of replies to this, too: I found it implausible that the God King…
-
What should we do about Wikipedia’s porn problem?
I want to start a conversation. I. Problem? What problem? So, you didn’t know that Wikipedia has a porn problem? Let me say what I do not mean by “Wikipedia’s porn problem.” I do not mean simply that Wikipedia has a lot of porn. That’s part of the problem, but it’s not even the main problem.…
-
An assortment of things that should exist
Occasionally I wish I had time to write a book to explain these ideas in detail. (Some of these are actually book ideas. Some of them are project ideas.) 1. A tutorial system, independent of any university, managed via a neutral online database; and an expanded system of degrees by examination. 2. Textop! I love…
-
Why is spaced repetition not better known?
Suppose a method let you remember things with a 95% success rate–in other words, whatever information you’ve put into a system, you’d have a 95% chance of recalling it–and this effect is permanent, as long you continue to use the method. That would be quite remarkable, wouldn’t it? Well, there is such a method, called…
-
How not to use the Internet, part 4: how “social” is social media?
<< Part 3: How the Internet’s current design philosophy fails 4. How “social” is social media? A person who is “social,” we think, gets along with others and does not always stay at home. They mix well. This is, we hope, because they like other people, not because they’re trying to take advantage of them. They…
-
How not to use the Internet, part 3: how the Internet’s current design philosophy fails
<<Part 2: The pernicious design philosophy of the Internet 3. How the Internet’s current design philosophy fails. Websites compete for the really limited commodity online, namely, attention. That much is understandable, and not likely to change. How they compete is the problem. Putting lots of menus, internal links, feeds, and self-promotional media on pages drives traffic…
-
How not to use the Internet, part 2: the pernicious design philosophy of the Internet
<< Part 1: It’s a problem that the Internet distracts us 2. The pernicious design philosophy of the Internet. The way that the Internet is designed—not graphic design, but overall habits and architecture—encourages the widespread distractability that I, at least, hate. This basic notion is not my idea; I freely admit that I learned it from…
-
How not to use the Internet, part 1: it’s a problem that the Internet distracts us
For almost a year, I’ve been at work on a very long essay about some problems with the Internet and social media in particular. I’ve worked on it now and then and occasionally I think I’m really going to finish it—but I never do. So, as a concession to failure, or partial failure anyway, I have…
-
Memory method
(The following is edited and elaborated from my comments in this BrillKids Forum discussion. The BrillKids Forum is awesome. The method we follow is greatly updated in this post.) I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Miles Jones, an accelerated learning and memorization expert. I asked him for his advice on how we might best remember…
-
Wikipedia’s porn filter DOA, and a proposal
Warning: this post has links to pages that are definitely not safe for work or school. I’ll warn you which ones those are with “NSFW.” The post has two parts. The first is about the availability of porn on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, which for most people reading this is probably old news; but they’ve…