Web 2.0, antesonic Style: An Update
Just heading to bed now, but I’ve had a few thoughts on my mind that seemed to merit a cursory mention.
1. Cluster is not dead, and it is certainly not finished. EZ-E is taking a judiciously-designed break in order to modify his thoughts based on his experience of The Fountain, which like my tumultuous relationship with The Counting Crows’ ”’Round Here,” destroyed all forms of art as he once knew them. Cluster 2.0 will follow at some point, with Meta being the appointed (somewhat undemocratically) as the starter of the story.
2. I have been mulling over this idea to create a separate website to provide a Web 2.0-type collection of “Colorful Idioms.” I’m not talking Tarantino fare here. In fact, much of the idioms I have noted so far have a tendency to avoid obscenity.
This grew out of a roommate conversation, in which various forms of “Southern” lingo were thrown about, with many comparisons and contrasts made based on personal experience and various word origin discussions. Examples (not necessarily mine) such as: “colder than a well-digger’s butt [in the winter]”, “nuckin’ futs” (thanks, Cluster), and “kicking butt and taking names” were all thrown about in various modifications.
Yes, obscenity will arise. But there could be a filtration system, peer-moderated. Pretty simple DB work with a Google-spartan UI. No fancy highlights and DHTML animation here. Just a usable system.
I consider some sort of Slashdot-esque Karma system for “author ratings”, with some RPI-like (as in, BCS-like strength-of-schedule) composite of site participation/citizenship (Slashdot moderation/metamoderation), ratings from peers (a la Digg, etc.), and a strength-to-noise ratio measuring how “well” your terms tend to do.
I know this is turning into a name-dropping bonanza, but a Flickr-like tagging system would allow taxonomy with no moderator-implied structure.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot, if one hasn’t noticed. You might say, “Why not UrbanDictionary?” Because Urban Dictionary has a buttload of funny stuff buried in noise. Definitions of individual words are ranked and prioritized, but it’s hard to get to a good or even mediocre one like the definition of O Canada when you have do deal with total excrement like this sullying the whole experience with some clumsy inside joke.
Digg does it right by allowing the noise but only displaying the signal. If you make it easy to bury stupid stuff, or even uninteresting stuff, people will do it. The value of the network will multiply.
I would be happy to entertain thoughts and doomsayers on this one.