
Biographicon (YC Startup) Wants To Be Wikipedia For The Non-Notable Masses - mqt
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/01/biographicon-wants-to-be-wikipedia-for-the-non-notable/
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staticshock
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

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bobp
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.

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staticshock
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.

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ivankirigin
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.

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pchristensen
Hey Ivan, stop reading the comments on TechCrunch (ValleyWag too)

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ivankirigin
Ohh wow, thanks! I totally needed that.

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marketer
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?

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optimal
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).

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acangiano
I had this idea several years ago. I gave up on it due to the possible legal
implications.

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eb
...and what would those be?

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chengmi
defamation, libel

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acangiano
Absolutely. Also, we weren't so willing to give up our privacy online up to
4/5 years ago.

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vuknje
one of the simlplest and clearest web app interfaces i've seen so far. who did
design? it's great!

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herdrick
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?

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vuknje
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.

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herdrick
We feel strongly about that stuff. Glad to hear it paid off.

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sarosh
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.

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staticshock
note to the developers: this initial prototype has some pretty severe client
side glitches in Opera 9.26

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herdrick
Thanks, staticshock. We're aware of it. That's Opera in Windows, right? We've
seen it work fine in Opera on the Mac.

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staticshock
correct

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gibsonf1
Nothing like Scheme with flat files to make a web app :) (Why use a db when
you don't have too?)

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mattmaroon
Biographicon's interface is just plain slick.

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

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slackerIII
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...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/04/wikipedia_secret_mailing/page2.html)

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staticshock
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

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tokipin
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?

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rrwhite
disambiguation pages of course!

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JaredRad
This has been done: wikiyou.com Good luck guys!

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whacked_new
"Who would most likely want to buy you?"

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whacked_new
Hi comment feed readers. RIP Biographicon (WFP 08).
[http://blog.biographicon.com/2008/08/03/biographicon-
closing...](http://blog.biographicon.com/2008/08/03/biographicon-closing/)

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

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eusman
that feeback button is everywhere!

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rrwhite
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

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dhouston
congrats ethan & daniel!

