Editing Openwaterpedia

evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
edited March 2014 in General Discussion
This discussion was created from comments split from: 110 miles, 53 hours: Questions for Diana Nyad.
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Comments

  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited March 2014
    On a related note, does anyone else find it either curious or troubling for the sport that the Openwaterpedia article on Diana Nyad make no mention of ANY of the questionable or fraudulent aspects of the story?

    No mention of the law suit by Walter Poenisch, no mention of the false MIMS claim, no mention of the changing rules during previous swims, no mention of all the various questions, the review panel, no mention of this discussion, or her continued proven lies about providing post-swim data?

    Like most people I think @Munatones deserves credit for Openwaterpedia. In theory it's a valuable repository for our sport but such an egregious omission doesn't speak well for the integrity of the project as a reference tool. People can apparently write literally whatever they want about themselves, the project's growth is based on this ability. However anyone coming to the site from outside, or even many within the sport, who might use it for reference may not realise that there is little cross-checking or little barrier to falsehood or self-promotion.

    Here's a video where @Munatones presents the tool at Columbia University where he states that anyone can join and edit or upload. He gives an example of searching "the fastest Catalina crossing".

    But he also says in response to a question from I think Syd Cassidy, about veracity and accuracy, that the community is the source for peer accuracy of the database. However all the questions raised by this community or others are absent from the Diana Nyad article.

    While for 99.9% of swimmers the data may be accurate, for it to be so wholly truncated, insufficient and even inaccurate for such an important subject for the entire sport, certainly makes Openwaterpedia fail its most important test.

    I'd like to call on @Munatones to address this blatant and mis-representation of the truth.

    loneswimmer.com

  • gregocgregoc Charter Member
    If it is true that "anyone can join and edit or upload" to Openwaterpedia, then maybe a few people from the community should update the DN page.
  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited March 2014
    I used to have editing rights which disappeared sometime in the past. Which may be understandable considering my criticism, but I've certainly never written anything that wasn't true. I don't have access to anything. (I only realised that when a forum member asked me to update their entry last September).

    I also believe that article is locked to those who do still have editing rights.

    loneswimmer.com

  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member
    Interesting.... If it was/is presented as a Wiki, then edit rights should be open to (nearly) anyone, else all bets are off.
    Oddly, there is an article about me in there, but I have never written anything in it, so someone other than me has editing rights about me.

    -LBJ

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    Editing rights to the Diana Nyad article are limited to user 'Admin,' which I assume to be Steven Munatones. I am an occasional contributor/editor to Openwaterpedia, but my account is not allowed to edit Diana's entry.
  • Do you have the rights to update their pages and make reference back to DN?
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited March 2014
    Niek wrote:
    I'm wondering if that is the only restricted page or are there more controversial pages?
    No. There are quite a few restricted pages on Openwaterpedia. I've asked @Munatones about this before, and he says it's to prevent spammers/defacers. I suggested to him that MediaWiki software must have a better solution to this problem than locking down pages to everyone except administrators... I have not heard back on this yet.
  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member
    I believe that Wikipedia and the like do it in various ways:
    1) They do occasionally lock pages. When George W. Bush was president they had to lock his page at one point due to trash-talking on both sides of the aisle.
    2) For some "hot" topics, they do occasionally review edits before they can get through.
    3) They have people who review articles, often adding notes like "this claim needs a reference", etc. and sometimes roll the article back to a previous version if it has be trashed.
    4) The general public is invited to alert editors to articles that are trashed as well.

    -LBJ

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • MunatonesMunatones Charter Member
    Leonard and Donal, you are free to edit as you wish. So are others. I have protected many entries on Openwaterpedia because of previous defacing that has occurred. If others would like to help monitor the site, it would be most appreciated. The size of Openwaterpedia has grown far, far, far beyond my abilities to function as an singular effective administrator.
    Donal, you are free to edit Diana Nyad's entry as you wish. If you cannot get in for some reason, please register again and I can easily approve your editing privileges. Contrary to your belief, your criticism of me or my online properties has nothing to do with your editing privileges on Openwaterpedia. As I have told you many times in private and through the Daily News of Open Water Swimming, you are doing a great service to the sport of open water swimming. There are few in the sport who have written so eloquently and brilliantly as you. Please continue your good work and please (re-)register on Openwaterpedia so you can edit any entries as you see fit. If you find some entries that are locked, please tell me and I can unlock them for you. I believe there have been several people on this forum (Dave Barra knows of one in particular) whose entries I have unlocked at their request.

    Steven Munatones
    www.worldopenwaterswimmingassociation.com
    Huntington Beach, California, U.S.A.

  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    Credit and thanks to Steve @Munatones for listening and responding. (If he thinks @evmo or I would ever have defaced an article on openwaterpedia regardless of our opinions, even Diana Nyad, he has us wrong).

    However if I regret anything about the Diana Nyad affair for myself, it's that I gave her more respect on the panel than I believe she was entitled.

    Here's my initial proposed draft of additions. I don't propose changing anything Steve has already written, but adding counterpoints. Please feel free to offer suggestions. OWP refers to Openwaterpedia.

    ____________________

    [Section] Cuba to Florida
    Add: In an extensive discussion many questions were raised by the members of the Marathon Swimmers Forum [Forum discussion link] about feeding, currents, timing, Observers and assistance. These included analysis of the swim time and speeds by Andrew Malinak [OWP Link] which seemed to indicate a faster than world record pace occurring over thirty hours into the swim.

    A "review panel" populated by many well-known individual marathon swimmers and the members of the Diana Nyad was held where many issues were raised. When questioned about the lack of Qualified Observers, despite decades in the sport, Ms. Nyad said that she was unaware of the requirements. The speed was explained by navigator John Bartlett [OWP Link] as an irregular current that runs counter to the normal south-west to north-east flow of the Florida Strait currents and of which there is no other record and no satellite record during the time period of the swim. Diana Nyad asserted no knowledge of pre-swim offers of assistance in setting up a Cuba to Florida swim association by IMSHOF [OWP Link] member and honor administrator Ned Denison [OWP Link]. Others who were on the same circulation confirmed receipt.

    No public statement from the Review Panel was issued. Some individual panel members, all experienced marathon swimmers, have given a range of opinions from support to dismissal of her swim and claims[loneswimmer link]. During the review panel repeated statements were made that actual hard data including charts and Observer's Logs would be subsequently released. No such disclosure of any supporting data or documentation has yet been made. The documentary The Other Shore, released within weeks of the swim, does not contain any footage from during the claimed successful swim.

    Repeatedly since the swim, Diana Nyad has claimed a world record without any clarification of what record is being claimed and the lack of any Awarding OrganisationTwo people have previously done assisted swims from Cuba to Florida and lack of any awarding organisation. In a vote [Forum link] on the simple matter of Assisted or Unassisted members of the Marathon Swimmers Forum overwhelmingly voted in favor of Assisted. This would make Diana Nyad nether the first or fastest Assisted (not marathon) Cuba to Florida swimmer. No vote was held on the question of the legitimacy of her swim.

    In a reddit.com AMA [reddit link] interview in January of 2014, Diana Nyad has continued to claim a world record and untruthfully asserted that she and her team answered all panel questions.

    Many if not most of the questions raised by experienced marathon swimmers worldwide remain unanswered.

    [Section][Marathon Swims]
    In 2013 NYCSwim [http://www.nycswim.org/] Director Morty Berger [NYCSwim bio Link] indicated on the New York Times website that since the 1970's NYCSwim had been trying to stop Diana Nyad falsely claiming a Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) [NYCSwims Link] record [NYT link].


    [New Section][Walter Poenisch]
    Walter Poenisch [OWP Link] was the first assisted Cuba to Florida swimmer, followed by Susie Maroney [OWP Link]. Following his swim Diana Nyad cast aspersions on his swim and character [614 Columbus Link]. Mr Poenisch successfully sued Ms. Nyad for libel [Link]. His widow Faye Poenisch later reported that Diana Nyad had "ruined his life". In 2014 and almost 40 years after the events, when the matter was raised after her claimed Cuba to Florida swim Ms. Nyad said she regretted her actions [WSJ link].

    loneswimmer.com

  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member
    I've tried registering a couple of times but never got anything back. Perhaps the emails went to my spam folder and I missed them?

    @Munatones, I'll re-register. I'd like to edit my entry. ;)

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • JBirrrdJBirrrd MarylandSenior Member
    edited March 2014
    Coincidentally when I tried to edit my Openwaterpedia entry last week, I found my page locked. (Probably to prevent all those wetsuit haters from hacking my account after Tahoe crossing. ;-) ) A quick e-mail to @Munatones got me access to my page and a nice follow-up e-mail asking if I was able to get in alright. In addition, after I wiped out all the links that were on my original entry, Steven offered to fix them and did so last night.

    Openwaterpedia is a helpful resource and I use it often. People are always quick to point out problems and don't always remember to acknowledge when someone goes above and beyond. So thank you Steven Munatones for all that you do. :-)
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member
    @Munatones & Co. got me set up today and I edited my page, as well as fixed another page that was my name but had only info about @jcmalick's C3 swim. :-S

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited March 2014
    Glad to hear Janet and Mike had good OWP customer service experiences. Kudos to Steve.

    But I think this discussion is obscuring a larger issue. This isn't really how wikis are supposed to work. Pre-emptively locking down wiki pages until someone specifically requests it to be unlocked is not an effective implementation of wiki technology. Otherwise, it becomes just Steven Munatones-pedia.

    I encourage people to read the (ahem...) Wikipedia entry on wiki for further info.

    There are security & permissions protocols built into MediaWiki software (which OWP uses) to protect against spamming and defacing of pages. There should be no need to "lock down" wiki pages, except perhaps on the highest-traffic pages of Wikipedia itself when the sheer volume of users & edits overwhelm the built-in precautions. A relatively small community like OWP should be easy to maintain by simply setting up the user registration & permissions parameters properly.

    So when Steve says:

    The size of Openwaterpedia has grown far, far, far beyond my abilities to function as an singular effective administrator.

    I just don't think that's true -- assuming the permissions were set up properly.

    Please note, I'm not trying to be "quick to point out problems" as @JBirrrd says... I think Openwaterpedia is a potentially great resource for our community, and simply want it to function more effectively.
  • loneswimmerloneswimmer IrelandCharter Member
    edited March 2014
    I don't understand what permissions and procedures etc have to do with the fact that the Diana Nyad article was updated to include Dancing with the Stars, the movie, the science of so-called "documentary" etc, but no updates to mention any of the controversial or disputed aspects. Data integrity via the context of the Diana Nyad article was the issue with which I was concerned.

    Like @evmo, you'll note in my comment above that I noticed my editing permissions changed many months ago, but made no mention of it until this week, so not "quick to point out problems" either.

    I'm more interested in the data integrity issue (not saying editing procedures aren't important). How many non-swimmers looked up Diana Nyad on OWP during the last six months and saw no mention of the various controversies? They won't return to see a more balanced version when I edit it in. (Still open to suggestions before I do that).

    As for its importance, I think I pointed that out. It's precisely because of its importance that I raised the issue. Like others, I have used OWP as reference and links in many blog articles and on the forum also. I used it to help when I was compiling that resource article of known marathon swims around the world. It gets used by us all as both a reference in the academic sense and in the interpersonal sense.

    @Leonard_Jansen, Steve or I guess Open Water Source Network people wrote many of the entries early on and populated the database, not every entry on OWP is written by the subject. Some are updated by the subject, but I'd suggest many or even most aren't, as a guess. Steve @Munatones wrote very complimentary things about me/my blog (that actually made me a bit uncomfortable with its praise, we Irish don't do compliments well) when he created my entry. Maybe three years ago? He also interviewed me on cold water for his Open Water Wednesday series back then and gave me an account. Until now it had never occurred to me that people might think I wrote my entry myself whereas I only ever updated links and list of swims, that I recall.

    Furthermore, I suggest the Wikipedia Diana Nyad article needs to be rebalanced also, which at least, unlike OWP, did at least mention the controversy. Does anyone have a Wikipedia editor account?

    loneswimmer.com

  • Leonard_JansenLeonard_Jansen Charter Member
    Here is the make or break question: Is OWP supposed to be/chartered as a true Wiki or is it something else? If a true Wiki, then I would expect it to follow Wikipedia-type rules, editing and access. If it is something else, then rules, editing and access can be almost anything at the descretion of @Munatones.

    As to my OWP entry, I don't really care one way or the other about my access ability since it doesn't say anything untrue, like accusing me of kidnapping Jimmy Hoffa or cross-dressing in women's swimsuits for my races. I was just a bit surprised to see it.

    -LBJ
    dpm50

    “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.” - Oscar Wilde

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited March 2014
    Here is the make or break question: Is OWP supposed to be/chartered as a true Wiki or is it something else? If a true Wiki, then I would expect it to follow Wikipedia-type rules, editing and access. If it is something else, then rules, editing and access can be almost anything at the descretion of @Munatones.
    From the OWpedia homepage:

    Openwaterpedia is like Wikipedia for the Open Water Swimming World
    ...
    Anyone can enter or amend information in Openwaterpedia.


  • sylmarinosylmarino San FranciscoMember
    Leonard, I would like my bikini back. I always thought it was you who took it, but the hot pink with yellow stars? I just didn't think it would suit your skin tone.
  • david_barradavid_barra NYCharter Member
    I’m certainly no expert on the politics and ethics of wiki, but I think its pretty clear that Steve’s @Munatones intention is to promote all things open water. I’m grateful for the resources that he has made available, and have been the beneficiary of his generocity of time and knowledge on many occasions... even during the wee hours while in transit on some redeye to who-knows-where.
    So... with that, it doesn’t surprise me that the negative or controversial would be absent from OWpedia profiles.
    I did get an email shortly after the launch of OWpedia alerting me that some nonsense had been posted to my listing and was cleaned up. I imagine thats around the time that the editing default was set to a more restrictive standard.

    ...anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited May 2016
    I’m certainly no expert on the politics and ethics of wiki
    It does give the appearance of an ethical issue, but I think it's actually mostly a technological incompetence issue.
  • swimmer25kswimmer25k Charter Member
    Mine page defines me as a "former American open water swimmer". I'm still an American. I'm still healing from 5 back operations in 5 years, but am working to get back to the top. The link to my Channel video is the original upload, which is screwed up. Anyone want to help edit it for me? I'm computer challenged and have no web skills.

    I'll hang up the marathon Speedo when I swim Catalina.
    Chris
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    Chris, let me know what you want your page to say, and I'll help you out.

    The list of marathon swimming luminaries who have asked me to change some bizarre item or another on their OWP page is quite extensive and distinguished, and you would only make it more so.
  • swimmer25kswimmer25k Charter Member
    edited March 2014
    evmo wrote:
    Chris, let me know what you want your page to say, and I'll help you out.
    Thanks Evan.
    I'll shoot you an email soon.

    Chris
  • phodgeszohophodgeszoho UKSenior Member

    Does anybody know how you register with Openwaterpedia? There seems to be no way that I can see to do it.

  • phodgeszohophodgeszoho UKSenior Member

    Thanks @Niek. Not a big deal will leave it. Not that fussed. Was more curious then anything.

  • I just completed a project to overwrite over 20,000 spammer pages on openwaterpedia. The goal is to remove the massive pile of crap that bastards posted, get the site off blacklists, and reindex the site on search engines. I also looked for the account registration link and couldn't find it either, so I've asked Damien and Steve about that issue. Let's see what happens.

    NoelFigartAnthonyMcCarleyIronMikesuziedods
  • ChrisgreeneChrisgreene Mercersburg PA/Atlanta, GAMember

    Glad you brought this up, I tried to register so I could edit and never got anywhere with it.

  • EricEric Member

    There's so much inaccurate information on Openwaterpedia. I looked around for a registration form or some way to gain edit access, but can't find anything. Who besides Steve Munatones can contribute to OWpedia? Doesn't this sort of defeat the purpose of a Wiki?

    evmosuziedods
  • rosemarymintrosemarymint Charleston, SCCharter Member

    I emailed who I thought was Steve Munatones a while back about getting a login to edit my entry (because mine is a total mess as well) and the response was not exactly encouraging. His response was he only knows his log-in information for Openwaterpedia and asked me to register again. And when I said the reason I contacted him was because there is no way to register, he said he himself did not know how to register and he could share his log-in, but that was it.

    Needless to say, ain't got time for that and I'm not going to bother. It's not a true wiki. It's a mess. That's what happens when people develop stuff without actually understanding how they function and only care about drawing traffic, not being accurate.

    /rant.

    evmosuziedods
  • AnthonyMcCarleyAnthonyMcCarley Berwyn, PACharter Member

    I have found @Munatones to be very responsive to corrections and new information. It may not function in a way that meets everyone's expectations, but it is the go-to source and takes a lot of time and work... and it is free.

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited May 2016

    @AnthonyMcCarley said:... and it is free.

    It is "free"... paid for by the use/abuse of hundreds of personal names to produce Google clickbait advertising for the Munatones network of websites.

    Many of the entries are little more than "Person X is an open water swimmer who completed Swim Y" ... followed by a long list of irrelevant links to Steve-owned websites.

    IGotStung.com... Really?

    Here is one recently created example, for an unsuspecting SCAR swimmer:

    http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Karen_Charney

    Maybe some folks don't mind having their names used for advertising without consent... personally I find it an unethical nuisance.

    loneswimmerJenArosemarymintphodgeszoho
  • AnthonyMcCarleyAnthonyMcCarley Berwyn, PACharter Member

    Fair point.

  • edited May 2016

    I have wondered who actually started and/or edited my entry - I find it a truly bizarre selection of information, but haven't been especially motivated to do anything about it/edit/add...

    Edit: Oh, go figure. It's been changed. Still weird, but maybe better written ;)

  • NoelFigartNoelFigart Lebanon, NHSenior Member
    edited May 2016

    Ummm...

    Who puts people in that? I'm showing up and that's REALLY weird.

  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member
    edited May 2016

    evmo said:

    Maybe some folks don't mind having their names used for advertising without consent... personally I find it an unethical nuisance.

    I asked to get my page taken down. There had been a bit of press for a swim I attempted a few years ago, but the swim was unsuccessful. I didn't have the access to update any of this information.

    After he took only part of what I said to misconstrue my statement in a story he posted in his daily news, I got irritated that I couldn't change it, and asked to have it taken down.

    loneswimmerevmo
  • rosemarymintrosemarymint Charleston, SCCharter Member

    Niek said:
    To create an account:
    http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Special:RequestAccount


    To contact Steve:

    Through this website you can pm our fellow forum member Steve

    Or look on his site at the end of the very long left column where you'll find one of his email addresses.

    Thanks @Niek. I already did what you posted outside of the forum. What I posted above is what happened. @evmo's assessment is exactly the same as mine.

  • rosemarymintrosemarymint Charleston, SCCharter Member

    NoelFigart said:
    Ummm...

    Who puts people in that? I'm showing up and that's REALLY weird.

    I suspect entries may be automatically created through DNOWS. If you participate in an event where the RD or someone else sends a press release to DNOWS, they create entries for all names, or add to entries that already exist. Oddly enough the only thing I am included in is for winter swimming, nothing else.

    Like I said above, ain't got time for it. I'm not interested in helping aid and abet clickbait and google ads abuse. If he bothered to set it up so people could register and edit their own entries, then perhaps I'd be more interested, but now it's done without consent and knowledge and whatever. I'm not a fan of DNOWS for numerous reasons and this is one of them.

    loneswimmerdanswimsevmophodgeszohotimsroot
  • IronMikeIronMike Northern VirginiaCharter Member

    Someone (@Munatones?) pulled my "about me" page from my old blog and put it on Openwaterpedia years ago. I'd really like to get rid of it, because it makes it look like I was successful in all the swims listed, which I was not.

    He also created one for my then under-age son, and messed up not only his last name but also which month of the 2015 calendar for which my son took a picture. Guess I need to write him.

    We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams

  • EricEric Member
    edited May 2016

    IronMike said: He also created one for my then under-age son

    This is just creepy and wrong. Why are people OK with this practice? Are their egos flattered that someone made a wiki page for them, so they forget about the underlying creepiness?

    evmotimsroot
  • DanSimonelliDanSimonelli San Diego CASenior Member
    edited May 2016

    Couple neutral comments:

    1. You can edit or delete your profile yourself.

    2. What's the difference with this vs anything else that comes up if you google yourself?

  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited October 2017

    DanSimonelli said: Couple nuetral comments:
    You can edit or delete your profile yourself.

    Couple clarifications on that--

    1. You can edit IF you have an account - but I think the point of the above posts is that people are finding it unreasonably difficult to register an account.
    2. Only Steve can actually delete pages, not regular users.
    rosemarymintrlmIronMikeNoelFigartphodgeszoho
  • malinakamalinaka Seattle, WACharter Member

    I personally enjoy the entertainment and hours of soul-searching meditation on the unanswered questions Openwaterpedia brings up, and I feel that tampering with the site by any of us ruins the beauty of its natural state.

    For example, I could go an correct the following for NOWSA: "noun - NOWSA, Inc. or the Northwest Open Water Swimming Association, Inc. is a non-profit corporation registered in the state of Washington under RCW 24.03. It is also refers to the National Open Water Coaching Association." OR I could leave it alone and spend days and months pondering why NOWCA would chose to spell their acronym with an S. What is NOWCA's secret??? I must learn!

    evmossthomasJenArosemarymintSydneDsuziedods

    I don't wear a wetsuit; it gives the ocean a sporting chance.

  • phodgeszohophodgeszoho UKSenior Member

    I have repeatedly attempted to get an account, both via the form and by emailing him directly. Both approaches ignored. Most likely because there is no commercial benefit in giving a nobody like me access. ;-)

    rosemarymintNoelFigart
  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member

    So, a while back, @Munatones cherry picked part of a tweet that I sent after END-WET to miscategorize something I said. I asked it to be corrected, the quote was removed. I noticed some things that were out of date and misleading on my OWpedia page, and since I couldn't get an account to correct it, I asked that the page be taken down. It was.

    Yesterday, @ForeverSwim posted the link to the DNOWS about the 3RMS, and I was listed there, but my name was a link, to am OWpedia article that had been created about me. I commented to the article, and ask that the link be removed, and the OWpedia article be taken down. It looked last night, when I went to bed, like it had.

    This morning, my comment has been removed from that article (that is fine), the link is back up, and the OWpedia page is still there. I do not understand. This is incredibly frustrating. I did not get into this sport for publicity, or to grow any supposed "brand". It is frustrating to me that seemingly every time I sign up for a swim, I become click bait for someone who is not directly associated with the swim. I am happy to help out race directors, and have pictures of me from the swim used as promotional material for that swim or that race director, but not from some guy out in California who needs to generate page views littered with all manner of banner ads.

    Can anyone offer any insight why this continues this way? It really makes me not want to sign up for any WOWSA sanctioned swims.

    evmo
  • EricEric Member
    edited May 2017

    Openwaterpedia could have been a useful resource for the swimming community, but the way @Munatones has implemented it, borders on creepy.

    @timsroot, it seems he removed the page for "Tim Root":
    http://www.openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Tim_Root
    but neglected to remove the page for "Timothy Root":
    http://www.openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Timothy_Root

    Probably an honest mistake, but one that wouldn't have happened if not for Munatones' practice of adding Openwaterpedia pages for anyone's name he ever encounters in any context related to open water swimming.

    General message to Forum members - if you don't want your name used as clickbait advertising for IGotStung.com and other weird websites, I suggest emailing headcoach@openwatersource.com with a request for removal, and keep emailing until he removes your page. Don't forget separate pages for name variations.

    IronMike
  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member

    @Eric - I did that this morning, that's why Tim Root is gone. I didn't realize that one was there. Good grief

  • timsroottimsroot Spring, TXCharter Member

    Looks like I'll have to start registering for swims in pseudonyms

    thelittlemerwookie
  • phodgeszohophodgeszoho UKSenior Member
    edited November 2019

    Interestingly the openwaterpedia's content appears to be available under GNU Free Documentation License.

    "The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others."

    http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.txt

    Which potentially means there is nothing to stop someone creating a bot to scrape the entire wiki site content and republish it under an "open" wiki.

    Creating a duplicate might seem to initially be a pointless step but the benefit going forward is that the content would be accessible to people allowing them to publish useful information, competing views and not just reproducing DNOWS articles and click bait (Looking at a random simmers page of the 50 odd "external" links listed about 85% of them were to DNOWS). At the very least it may force the current admin to open it up to wider users to compete.

    evmothelittlemerwookierosemarymint
  • evmoevmo SydneyAdmin
    edited May 2017

    @phodgeszoho said:
    Interestingly the openwaterpedia's content appears to be available under GNU Free Documentation License...
    Which potentially means there is nothing to stop someone creating a bot to scrape the entire wiki site content and republish it under an "open" wiki.

    I'm almost certain SM hadn't fully considered the implications of that license. @loneswimmer and I have had numerous run-ins with him over the years over misappropriating ideas/content; so scraping OWP, even if technically legal, would smell a bit hypocritical.

    I'd rather try to tackle a subset of what OWP covers - e.g., marathon swim results (dates, times, distances, routes) - and do it really, really well, with a focus on accuracy and verification. For certain types of structured information, a wiki is simply not the right technology - you need a relational database.

    thelittlemerwookiephodgeszohorosemarymint
  • phodgeszohophodgeszoho UKSenior Member
    edited May 2017

    I agree a wiki is not the best solution for some of the things you have discussed above, but it is a good solution for information sharing. At the moment everything posted on MSF has to be done via the thread based message board format, which is also good for some things but not others. It's main fault being that it is linear and time based. Which is good for narratives/discussions but not so much as a reference tool.

    For example you have a thread on the forum called "New Forum Member? Introduce yourself here" and you also have basic profile pages to support the users posting to threads. This sort of thing could benefit from wiki pages where the creation of a users profiles also generated a swimmer profile wiki page. Added benefit is I can search through users and they are also free to supplement the content and cross link to threads etc. Permalinks to these profile pages could then be shared on the new member forum if the user so chooses to with an introduction. Benefit of a linear narrative on the thread but also a permanent searchable reference for the users profile.

    The "long swims database", "Documented swims" and "gps track database" could all benefit by there being a MSF wiki as the wiki permalink for a swimmer could be stored in an additional lock-up table and this is used as a bridge between the different bespoke reference tables and the swimmers details, and vice versa. For example when I go to a users wiki page I would see auto links generated for the content you display in the Long Swims, Documented Swims and GPS Track Database.

    In that sense the wiki becomes a way for you to have a common reference/publishing framework for all you bespoke solutions. Basically a way to bring them together, cross link and provide a way for users to augment the content. As well as the swimmer profiles other examples of wiki content that would work well with the bespoke solutions could be pages on locations, events, types of swims, organisers etc.

    A wiki could still support monetisation of a standard/premium format as you have currently advertised on your Long Swims pages but personally I would prefer MSF investigate a Patreon and or Subscription style service that supports open content contribution rather then potentially limiting the content providers only to those who, most likely, have a vested interest in promoting their own content.

    Also as I am sure you are aware when I say "wiki" I don't necessarily mean the Wikipedia framework. Any open source publishing tool or content management system would work just as well.

    Sorry, just some random thoughts...

    evmo
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