Welcome to Wondir. Please ask a question. — The road to perdition. Here’s a new search engine idea. People ask questions and other users answer them. A hoot. Check it out. I’m not yet sure what to make of it.

More confirmation of this week’s “Dumbing Down of America” column on PCMag.com.



  1. jojo says:

    Yes, lot of dumb people out and about. I don’t think this is new though. Before computers, only the dummies limited circle of acquaintances knew how stupid they were. But now, with computers and the net, we all see that we are overrun with people like this. Certainly explains the popularity of American Idol, shoot-em up games, tabloids and such.

    Don’t forget though that people join together in organizations. Then you often wind up with organizations run by and populated with fools who make a lot of foolish choices/decisions. For instance, take PC Magazine. This is a company that is supposed to be imbued with technology smarts. But they only talk the walk. Their forums are a mess, very poorly designed. Their site is a mess. Their management is a mess. I used to subscribe but there was so little meat, that I gave up on them. I could go on for a long time about dumb companies, but I think you get the point.

  2. Jim Dermitt says:

    What do you make of this John?

    Steve Ballmer watched Red Hat Linux running on an early version of Virtual Server Service Pack 1, due for release by year-end.

    I know, I don’t have to ask. I’m sure you will write something about it soon. You might be writing about it now. Write faster! Hurry up, everything just changed.

    Another Linux dispute. New kernel management.
    Robert McMillan at CW reports
    “As a result of the dispute, Torvalds is now working with other Linux developers to create software that can quickly make changes to 17,000 files that make up the Linux kernel, the central component of the Linux operating system. “Git, to some degree, was designed on the principle that everything you ever do on a daily basis should take less than a second,” Torvalds said in an e-mail interview.”

    Everything in less than a second! I guess you have the minutemen and now we’ll see the rise of the half a secondmen. I’ve decided that I’m just slowing things down. As I get older, things seem to take longer, but I seem to have more patience and fewer things really upset me.

    I don’t know how the technology columnists can keep up with this stuff. Now everything will change in a fraction of a second and take a week to figure out, write about and we may be more confused a second later after it is all changed again. The technology columns will always be out of date, because this stuff is changing so quickly. You will have to update your blog every half a second just to be current. If you aren’t, your entire column could be a waste of time because it took more than a second to write and the code changed the entire dynamic of the current state of technology and you might as well be writing about the Model T. Can we slow things down just a little bit? Future applications could know what info you need (even before you do) and where you’ve been–raising some privacy concerns. They’ve modeled the user experience after way people think and feel, not after the way computer and networks are designed.

    They’ll know what you need before you do and change where it is at and you will have to pay them to tell you where it is at or you will need a question engine to ask somebody where it went!

  3. Glen Tomkins says:

    Herodotus described this method over two thousand years ago. The Babylonians, he reports, (with what fidelity to mere facts is a matter known only to the gods of the era) made a practice of putting out sick people whose cases baffled the local doctors on litters at the main city gate. Newly arrived visitors to the city were required to render their admittedly non-expert opinions on the nature and treatment of their maladies. While displaying an admirable lack of chauvinism in assuming that even non-expert foreigners might succeed where local experts had failed, the paitents must have found some of the remedies suggested fairly terrifying. Of course, I guess that goes for the conventional treatments of the day as well…

  4. Allen Searls says:

    Thanks for checking us out. We’re doing our best to build a platform (simple, open, live, free Q&A for everyone), and we understand that there may be a little immaturity there for a while — but we find as people spend more time on the site that the community culture — of being respectful and helpful — does start to take hold. We’re continuing to add checks and balances, self-policing measures, moderators and automatic filters all the time to keep quality at a reasonable level, but realize we have a long way to go. Feel free to let us know your further thoughts and suggestions when you find time. We certainly have a great deal of respect for your insight. Thanks again.

    Allen

    VP Community
    Wondir, Inc.
    http://www.Wondir.com
    Blog: http://wondiring.typepad.com

  5. Robert Johnson says:

    I have been kicked off of wondir.com twice now because my ex-girlfriend thinks that I am harassing her. The truth is I am just defending myself against her lies, threats, and false accusations. I have repoted her for abuse (she has called me a drug addict, porn addict, told lies about my behavior andthreatened me on the site) yet she is allowed to stay on wondir.com. What are the policies about this? Can members say whatever they want and non/members get kicked off for defending themselves? Wondir does not even allow you defend yourself from being kicked off. What ever happened to free speech in this country?

  6. Bond Hunter says:

    Hi Robert, I’m an old fan of yours back from the day when I still subscribed to the rag you work for…personally I like you just not the mag anymore…not enough info and too much fluff and ads.

    Now onto your “Not knowing what to make of Wondir”…

    I find it interesting that you actually made it to Wondir and STILL failed to see what Wondir is and it’s potential.

    Not only is Wondir a Q&A site, it has the potential to reach out to those in need. It’s Google with a “personal touch”

    Google and Google Answer are good for research questions, but not good for those that need a more personal touch. This is not something that other sites offer.

    As forthe post by Robert Johnson, I suggest you email info@wondir.com about your problem…or even better…go to another site where she isn’t at. No one would know about who you are and what the whole mess is about unless you make it an issue.

    No one knows anyone unless one of the parties makes it all known, and in those cases the moderators at Wondir, like myself, step in and delete the posts as we either see them or are informed of them.


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