Talk:Spymac

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Contents

[edit] List of members

The list of members gives a short overview of important members on spymac. Please do not delete it again. 80.62.170.94 12:46, 7 May 2005

The list isn't encyclopædic (ie, there are no notable persons in the list, a small article about the website is quite enough) and will be deleted. Inter\Echo 14:16, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
I have a strong disagreement in the case of the founders and signifigant events (fx the recent hack). The two founders should be listed as spymac is a company that was founded by someone in the same regards CNN was founded by someone and the moderators/admins should be listed as well. The CNN article has a long list of personalities that I am using as grounds to keep atleast the founders and add the admins to the list. OrbitOne 14:21, 7 May 2005
Sorry, but there is quite the difference between spymac and CNN. Inter\Echo 23:52, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
Okay, then wired magazine, the Wired article also has a list of past writers. Both Wired.com and Spymac.com are magazine sites and Spymac has over 1 million registered users. OrbitOne 11:04, 8 May 2005
As you can see from the Wired magazine article, they list the founders in the history section as part of the text, not as a list. I suggest you adhere to that precedent, as your current revert does not look good. I won't revert (or protect the page) but somebody else might come along and say the same I do. Inter\Echo 11:51, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV concerns

I believe that there is an issue regarding the NPOV of many comments in this article. The entire article is a NPOV mess with some parts scolding Spymac for "letting down the whole community" and other parts claiming Spymac is the best thing since sliced bread. A few specific examples:

  • Club will offer one of the web's easiest-to-use blogs - this is POV.
  • The premier paid e-mail service on the Internet - Opinion, POV.
  • Spymac World offers an unsurpassed suite of services - unsurpassed based on what? Smells like POV.
  • providing unique and visually impressive images to all areas of the site - Opinion, POV.
  • an immersive and visually stunning Web experience - again POV.
  • As a result Mr Vincent is infringing upon many people's moral and economic rights, and Spymac - who claim to be strongly against copyright infringement - are aiding him. - I've read the associated footnote to this article, and if it is accurate, then I am also of the opinion that it constitutes a copy infringement. However a lawyer, the Apple Collection website, or any Joe Blow may not agree. If this is to stay it requires a rewording - ala "it is the opinion of some that..." etc. - Whytee 06:22, 20 October 2005 (UTC)
I suggest that we go through and 'correct' or balance some of the obvious biases in the article, some of which Whytee pointed out. David Fuchs 28 October 2005 (UTC)
Action taken and ALL issues mentioned above corrected/addressed. See my edit summary for greater clarification HowardBerry 13:28, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
Looks good to me, Howard. David Fuchs 17:28, 13 November 2005
There's some more back, I think, and I don't have time to change it. But it looks like some angry Spymaccers have been taking out a bit of bias, especially in the Comments & Criticism Section. --Lowfatsourcreme 12:00, 10 April 2006 (UTC)
I agree - try "Spymac prefers to release unfinished software and services and offer them for sale." and " From the wording on the advertisement it can be deduced that Spymac finally admits version 4 ... was a complete failure, so the plug had to be pulled due to broken promises regarding their services. " (lets not deduce) . In general this article just isn't that good, I have flagged it and will try to change some of these. --TXAggie 01:45, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
I'd vote for just eliminating the comments and criticism section unless someone wants to do major work. It's terribly biased in every way shape and form. --Lowfatsourcreme 22:24, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
I disagree. The comments and criticism section may need work, but it's an exaggeration to call it "terribly biased in every way shape and form". Going through point by point (as I did last time - see above):
  • "The Spymac website, Spymac mail and almost all other features had been experiencing excessive amounts of downtime...." Fact. The transition was long, the downtime has existed. Paid members were frustrated for having paid for services they were not receiving. The problems were mostly unresolved when version "V" was announced.
  • "Some prizes have been offered but not received....." Fact. Being that actual member who did not receive the prize until 10 months after winning, I can vouch for this. I have actual proof, plus the threads on Spymac (when it is up) show this too. Perhaps it could do with some rewording at the end, such as:
...Spymac failed to make sure this prize was delivered to the recipient. Although the magazine was delayed, not enough of an effort was made on behalf of Spymac to inform the winner of the circumstances, nor did Spymac attempt to offer a different prize when the prize was delayed by over half a year.
  • "Judy Wescott..... etc. etc." Fact as revealed in the links. This states the plagurism, explains Spymac's efforts to rectify the error, and sources both the original article and the Spymac thread.
  • "Throughout January 2006...." Fact. The moderator team resigned and gave the same reasons as given in this paragraph. The actions described are true and are not exagerrated, although the sentence about the tech support team being "grossly incompetent" should be made to be more apparent that that was the viewpoint of the resigning moderators (or this could be reworded/removed).
  • "On January 30, 2006, Spymac ceased POP services to all free accounts, thus cutting off one of the service's major appeals. Spymac has also started inserting text-based ads throughout the site...." Hmm... This does need reworking. The comment about the text ads needs adjusting. If the ads have been removed from posts, then why keep the comment here? The issue was a test which Spymac decided didn't work based on negative feedback. They withdrew it. This isn't like Spymac offering a prize and not delivering, or Spymac offering a paid service and then taking it down once people had paid. Why report on this here, when it was a simple forum issue which no longer exists?
  • The rest of the text about Spymac V should be moved to the top, as it descibes the site in it's current state. It needs re-writing though.
  • The external links text needs rewriting. This isn't a soapbox for all those other sites, and it's not a forum to attack such sites either (the "goofing around and bashing Spymac" comment is totally unnecessary). It should just be stated that some sites have been set up to emulate Spymac past, as some members have left the community. No more, no less.

Comments, ideas? Howie ☎ 23:00, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] White iWalk - how did they do it?

This might be a bit offtopic, but has anything emerged how the very elaborate white iWalk hoax [1] has been done? Was it a Palm pilot with some attachments, or were all the pics cgi or what? Thanks for any hints. Peter S. 02:15, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] External links and competing sites

I'm wondering about this (growing) list external links. The only thing that they have to do with Spymac itself is their member base and a few hate threads here and there.

Also, it's fine and dandy for the last paragraph of Comments & Criticisms to be there, but the last sentence, mentioning Mellaflusia is completely superfluous. It smacks of self-promotion (whether by the owner of that site or by its members). Thoughts? Robbie Mac 18:18, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

True Dat. I'm getting rid of the Mellaflusia bit in the C&C, it's up to aa consensus on getting rid of the ex-member sites. David Fuchs 23:36, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
The statement makes more sense when an example is given, and Mellaflusia /is/ the most obvious example to give. The fact is, it's still the most prominent of these sites, and whether it's the best or the worst, it was definitely a trend setter. These sites have become a significant aspect of Spymac's history, and they most certainly deserve to be mentioned in this article. Whosawhatsis 10:00, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
Agreed. The other community sites should remain linked in as they are a part of the Spymac culture. 84.92.158.162 03:34, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] XML claims

Re "All dynamic content has a dedicated XML stream...": this does not appear to be true. I sampled a few blogs and none of them offer RSS feeds. It could be that individual users have opted out, but I can't tell. A-giau 12:54, 8 March 2006 (UTC)

That function has been intended for a long time, and was partially implemented (blog feeds) in version 3, but not implemented yet in 4. Robbie Mac 04:09, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rewriting Spymac Page

I think the Spymac Wikipedia page needs a complete rewrite. Most of the information has been taken verbatim from Spymac.com, and isn't really original. A lot of it is opinion, and not fact.

true, but address your posts with four tildes. David Fuchs 23:24, 6 April 2006 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/p/y/Talk%7ESpymac_50b2.html"