Talk:Where's George?

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Contents

[edit] Imitators?

Hrm.... I don't like the word "Imitators". I feel it has a negative connotation. Certainly the other websites were inspired by WG, so I suppose I need a synonym for "inspire". UtherSRG 21:45, 7 Dec 2003 (UTC)

How's this now? "Influenced" seems to work well.

--Kyle 04:41, Feb 13, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Chain Letter?

How does this compare with chain letters? A-giau 22:23, 8 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Quite different, it seems to me. -DavidWBrooks 01:00, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Defacing currency

"DoshTracker in England. In the UK its illegal to deface notes, so writing on notes is not an option, hence DoshTracker has not had the same kind of success as Where's George."

Shouldn't this be clarified? I think it's illegal in most places to deface currency, just not widely enforced. — Phil Welch 01:04, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

It's not illegal to write or otherwise marks US currency. However, to do so with intent to change (ie upgrade) the value of the currency is illegal. - UtherSRG 01:06, May 13, 2005 (UTC)
No, I think it's illegal because Where's George had to stop selling their stamp.- Nathan July 11, 2005
You "think", but your logic is flawed. I know that it is not illegal. I've been Georging for about 4 years. WG had to stop selling their stamp but others did not. WG FAQ - UtherSRG 15:31, July 11, 2005 (UTC)
The U.S. law on defacing currency is pretty clear, and simply writing on it is not illegal (else those brown pens that stores use to test the new bills would also be illegal). They don't care if you write on the bill, so long as the intent is not to deceive, defraud, or render useless. The law states: Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined not more than $100 or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service. --Birdhombre 19:06, 19 September 2005 (UTC)
WheresGeorge stopped selling stamps mainly because it is taboo (if not illegal) to advertise on currency. If he was selling the stamps for his own site it might be considered advertising. However, if a WheresGeorge user wants to get a stamp for himself and goes to an online stamp seller, that's not illegal. --Cyde 02:01, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
You're exactly right. Hank had to stop selling stamps because it was considered advertising, which is indeed illegal. Other people selling stamps, however, isn't considered advertising, because the other sites are not the site being promoted. I think also the problem was this was seen as Hank encouraging people to stamp or otherwise mark their bills. The WG? site now does not encourage marking bills anywhere, except for very subtle remarks. Search4Lancer 07:26, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] US Code on Defacing Coin and Currency

USC 18, 331:
Mutilation, diminution, and falsification of coins
Whoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States, or any foreign coins which are by law made current or are in actual use or circulation as money within the United States- or Whoever fraudulently possesses, passes, utters, publishes, or sells, or attempts to pass, utter, publish, or sell, or brings into the United States, any such coin, knowing the same to be altered, defaced, mutilated, impaired, diminished, falsified, scaled, or lightened— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. [1]
USC 18, 333:
Mutilation of national bank obligations
Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both. [2]

There are both laws, in Title 18, § 331 and § 333. myselfalso 16:21, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Except, 331 is in reference to notes, not coins. I've taken the liberty of making bold the important part of 333, most pointed out by Georgers, and most obviously making what we usually do, not illegal. Search4Lancer 18:16, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name origin

Perhaps a mention of the name (not necessarily the original idea) probably being influenced by the "Where's Waldo?" books that were so popular earlier in the decade? CFLeon 23:03, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Sounds silly. And if anything, it'd be best to ask Hank before saying something like that. Search4Lancer 03:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] scienceblog.com research article link

This is linked to twice, once at the beginning of this article, and once at the end. This is redundant. -EdGl 19:55, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

Then fix it. I find it comical how people will moan about things in articles when they can easily edit things themselves. OsFan 20:32, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
You mean, like you just did? - DavidWBrooks 20:49, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
I didn't even check to see if it had been fixed or not. Has it been almost six months? OsFan 00:48, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

This is also a blog, and unusable as a source unless it can be shown that the writer is a well-known journalist or professional researcher. Infact I can't see the entry being attributed to anyone whihc pretty much disqualifies it since the website asserts "published by a team of science editors, writers and enthusiasts". None of those fall under professional researcher, and since its not named we can't ascertain that it was written by a well known journalist. Any material referenced from it will have to be removed as will the source.--Crossmr 16:36, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Gone?

I think the wheresgeorge website has been disabled and is no more.

No, it's still around. 68.54.163.153 20:51, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Notability

We need some additional links to establish notability. The website being told not to sell stamps by the government and some of its data being used in a study is really stretching the notability guidelines. Actual coverage of these events or other articles from a reliable source in which where's george is the main subject would be useful here. --Crossmr 16:39, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

  • Thank you for your suggestion! When you feel an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the Edit this page link at the top. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes — they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. --Dystopos 17:02, 18 March 2007 (UTC)
I'm well aware of how to edit. I can point out a flaw in an article without being required to fix it. As it stands I don't really think this article meets the requirements, so rather than nominate it for AfD I've made a note so that an interested party can find the appropriate sources if they exist.--Crossmr 17:11, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

The site has been featured in dozens of national magazines, newspapers, TV and radio news programs, etc. For instance:
Money Magazine: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2000/07/01/282746/index.htm
ABC News: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2436133
Wired Magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.05/start.html?pg=12
Or any of the other news items posted on the website: http://www.wheresgeorge.com/news.php (USA TODAY, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, AP, NPR, CNN, Business Week, just to name a few).
The release of Nature study and article released last January was picked up by hundreds of news outlets (printed and virtual) around the world. You can google "where's george? max planck" just for a sample of the stories still online.
And as far as website popularity, Alexa has Where's George? ranked at about 19,026 of ALL websites. Bookcrossing.com (which was inspired by Where's George?), whose Wikipedia article is not questioned for notability is ranked at 32,745. Where's George? has been around since 1998 and gets more than 1,500 new registered users every day, and is mentioned in some press outlet, somewhere, about once a week (local TV, newspapers, magazines, etc). Henryhank 22:17, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Since some of this is already in the article, I think your notability concerns are misplaced. If you're looking for non-notable articles, wikipedia has about a bazillion to choose from. - DavidWBrooks 22:21, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
I was just responding to the comment "We need some additional links to establish notability" posed by Crossmr directly above. I believe it was a valid response to a direct query. Did I mis-understand the question or was he looking for something else? Henryhank 22:25, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
No, sorry, I was unclear - I was responding to Crossmr; that is, I was agreeing with you that his objection was unsupported. - DavidWBrooks 23:23, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
None of those appear in the article currently. Hence why I asked for notability to be established. these should be included at the end of the article.--Crossmr 04:37, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

One more thing.. see this Wiki article Currency_bill_tracking -- The creation of Where's George? has inspired no less than twelve other money tracking websites around the world (several of which have their own Wiki entry). There are several not even listed because they are now defunct due to the Euro replacing other currencies. Henryhank 13:18, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

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