User talk:Jonamerica

Thanks for stopping by to drop me a line, please wipe your feet before coming in.

Hi, I'm sorry that you seem to be having a bad experience with Wikipedia so far, it's really not that bad of a place. As for advice, I'd highly suggest leaving the redirect on Ourcolony and merging any useful information from it into OurColony.net. You might want to focus on establishing notably some where in the introduction, maybe include an estimate of current player base. Let me know if have any questions!

Hopefully you might find something helpful from this:

Welcome!

Hello, Jonamerica, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few good links for newcomers:

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Dave, I am asking that you reconsider your vote to delete OurColony.net -Jonamerica 07:12 (UTC) on Monday, April 11 2005

The reason I have voted to delete is that ourcolony.net seems to lack notability, especially as compared to the hundreds of thousands of other websites out there. It only has an alexa rank of 178,074 . If you can somehow show that the site is otherwise notable, I will gladly change my vote. Dave the Red (talk) 09:00, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

If ourcolony.net was just another website, I'd agree with you that the low Alexa rating would indicate that it isn't notable. For example my personal website would be a bad entry for wikipedia, as nobody ever visits or would even care to read about it.

However ourcolony.net is both a website and an ARG. In terms of games, the ARG is a realatively new genre, which currently has a small following and a small number of similar games. For this reason I feel it is more important to judge the ourcolony article as reporting on a game, or other forms of entertainment, rather than a website.

If you take some time to browse through the board game category you'll see that there are over two hundred games listed, and I would venture to say that more than a few of these games are not only obscure, but fairly unpopular and unnoted by the mainstream.

We could also touch on the subject of books, art, independent movies and music, documentaries, etc. If the number of "hits" were an important measure for these subjects I'm sure we'd find out some staggering results based on library checkouts and bookstore sales. But popularity is a poor judgement of a book or movie's notability.

If ourcolony.net were just another site, another search engine or another blog, I'd say the Alexa rating is of utmost importance to the site, especially if the same information can be found on other, more popular sites. But ourcolony.net is more than just a site and its notability must be judged in a way more befitting its nature.

I feel it is important to document ourcolony.net as an ARG and an example of viral marketing, both very new mediums, so that as these mediums grow people can reseach this and other early examples and judge their success or failure.

-Jonamerica 20:28, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

You seem to be arguing that we should keep ourcolony because it helps cover the subject of ARGs. This seems to me like a reason to have an article on Alternate Reality Games, which we do. In this case, it would seem that ARG's are notable, but OurColony.net itself is not. If you believe that ourcolony is essential to the coverage of ARGs, what I would suggest you do is go to the Alternate Reality Game article and insert a mention of it there. As for your point about board games, I admit we do have different stantards of notability for different things. Using the same standard of notability for all things would not be practical. Hope this helps. Dave the Red (talk) 21:40, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

I can see how you may have gotten that impression from my last paragraph. I'm not arguing that ourcolony should be kept to explain what an ARG is, but to record the history of this specific game. It is impossible to tell at this early stage what effect ARGs will have on future gaming, and it would be a shame to lose information because something is simply not popular. We're lucky that so much is remembered about the game pong, but there are possibly several early and highly influential computer games that have been entirely forgoten.

I guess what I'm asking is that a new, more lenient standard be adopted for this still young genre, and not to simply apply a standard for other catagories that don't take into consideration all them elements of these games.

-Jonamerica 22:39, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but your asking me to change the rules in this one case, something I cannot and will not do. If we start making exceptions to the rule, the rule will become meaningless. OurColony.net must hold up to the same standards as every other website. Maybe in the future, if it gets more popular we can have an article, but not until then. Dave the Red (talk) 17:57, Apr 12, 2005 (UTC)

Hey Dave, I wanted to give you an update on the notability of OurColony.net in hopes that you would reconsider your vote. Recently Haunted_Apiary was nominated for a Webby award. This is an award for websites that show excellence in web design, creativity, usability and functionality, and are presented by the International_Academy_of_Digital_Arts_and_Sciences.

In its heyday ilovebees.com had a peak of about 130 people per million (daily reach) and a max rank of about 11,000. So far, and the game will continue to be played till May 12th, OurColony.net has a daily reach of about 220 and a 1 wk rank average of 4,868. If at its peak Haunted_Apiary was notable enough to gain the attention of the IADAS, let alone be nominated for an award, than I'd submit that OurColony.net, with its higher daily reach and rank, is notable.

-Jonamerica 00:10, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Firstly, I'd like to point out that receiving a Webby award does not make a site inherrently notable. However, as Ourcolony.net does seem to be a pioneer in the ARG realm, I'm willing to change my vote from delete to abstain. Not a ringing endorsement, but not a negative vote either. Dave the Red (talk) 01:10, Apr 15, 2005 (UTC)

Large image added. --Mateusc 16:43, 13 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Hey Jon, I just wanted to drop you a note to say I think you've done an enormous amount of improvement to the article and to congratulate you on your hard work. Hope there are no hard feelings. For me it was never anything personal, just a differing opinion -- hope you stick around to contribute elsewhere too. · Katefan0^(scribble) 14:38, Apr 25, 2005 (UTC)

Hello. I've noticed that you added several interwiki links to the Christian Science Hymnal article. However, looking at the links they all seem to be versions of the main Christian Science article instead. Am I missing something here? -- MisterHand 00:33, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe I don't understand how Interwiki is supposed to work, but I thought that the links we put there were for the corresponding article in different languages? -- MisterHand 15:04, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi,

We started a proposal Wikipedia:Wikiethics to state the existing policies coherently and make suggestions on improving the editorial standards in Wiki. I thought you might be interested in contributing to that proposal.

Unfortunately, a pro-porn and pro-offense lobby is trying to make this proposal a failure. They unilaterally started an approval poll although almost no one including me believe that it is time for a vote, simply because the policy is not ready. It is not even written completely.

Editors who thinks that the policy needs to be improved rather than killed by an unfair poll at the beginning of the proposal, started another poll ('Do we really need a poll at this stage?') at the same time. The poll is vandalized for a while but it is stable now. A NO vote on this ('Do we really need a poll now?') poll will strengthen the position of the editors who are willing to improve the ethics policy further.

If you have concerns about the ethics and editorial standards in Wiki, please visit the page Wikipedia:Wikiethics with your suggestions on the policy. We have two subpages: Arguments and Sections. You might want to consider reviewing these pages as well...

Thanks in advance. Resid Gulerdem 01:03, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I wouldn't thank me before you know my stance. I've read through your proposal and take some serious issues with what you're suggesting. It seems to me that you feel wikipedia needs to be "cleaned up" and protected from the "pro-porn and pro-offense" lobby. Frankly I have yet to read an article that was pro-porn or pro-offense, but I'm sure there out there. Maybe I just don't go looking for them. I really don't need to read an article on pornography.

The question of your proposal comes down to this: by what do we measure "visual or verbal descriptions or expressions that are intended to cause sexual excitement?" My sexual excitement is aroused by different things than yours or anyone else's. Are we to create a "standard sexual excitement" test? How would someone determine when "manipulation of information to influence public opinion" is occurring?

This is a very slippery slope indeed, and in my mind it breathes an air of fascism.

I have always been against censorship of almost any sort. Once you allow censorship you allow manipulation.

Jonamerica 03:34, 23 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Hi I'm a new Wikipedian from Natick, Mass (A Mile 1/2 From Rt 16)... just popped in to say hello to a neighbor:"

This user is a citizen of the United States of America.

This user is from Massachusetts.

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