Talk:Joe Firmage

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Contents 1 Material added by anon User talk:71.139.97.67 2 Washington Post story from March 31, 1999? 3 Section headings 4 Students beware 5 Major update 6 Compete analytics

[edit] Material added by anon User talk:71.139.97.67

This appears to be unverifiable and off-topic, so I removed it. If you disagree, please stay calm and discuss your reasoning on this talk page. ---CH 10:12, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Nonsense. That ISSO existed and that Jack Sarfatti was a key figure in it is well known. Did Hillman make any effort to check the information? Obviously not. For example http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/8/prweb153446.htm

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.126.46.19 (talk • contribs)

Oddly enough, the pltn13.pacbell.net is suspected of socking for Jack Sarfatti, who has been permabanned by edict of Jimbo Wales, and who should not be editing the Wikipedia at all.---CH 10:31, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Just to clarify: both Bernard Haisch and Jack Sarfatti, who happen to both be physicists who have promoted somewhat similar theoretical speculations, and who happen to both live in the Bay area, have used this domain (associated with internet access in the Bay area) as IP anons, but for the record, Haisch is not suspected of involvement of the events which lead to Sarfatti's permaban and in fact has responded constructively to discussions of a few mildly unwise edits. Indeed, just for the record, some of the Sarfatti edits have been snide comments about Bernard Haisch (which were promptly reverted). The above edit by 68.126.46.19 (talk · contribs) represents an edit by the suspected Sarfatti anon, not the suspected Haisch anon.---CH 00:05, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

I seem to have found contemporary print media references to this apparently defunct organization, although Sarfatti's alleged involvement probably belongs at Jack Sarfatti, not here. ---CH 23:06, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Washington Post story from March 31, 1999?

It seems that on 03/31/99, the Washington Post carried a story titled The CEO from Cyberspace: Joe Firmage, a master of the Universe at 28, Wants to Defy Gravity and Visit the Far Corners Of His Realm, bylined Joel Achenbach. I believe this is the story

1. quoted at Virtually Strange, which discusses paranormal topics,
2. quoted at the anticult website of Rick Ross,

but obviously the original source would be far preferable. Alas, it seems that the official link is broken.

If the quotes are accurate it seems that the Borland story tells only the second half of the story of Firmage's life changing experience. Does anyone have more information or a working link to the Achenbach story? ---CH 23:06, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

BTW, I am thinking of trying to reorganize this article to follow a more chronological order, also adding some more information. I'd like to use information from the alleged Achenbach story, because of its human interest is greater than the Borland account. ---CH 23:06, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

I am now satisfied that the quoted article is genuine and in fact by far the most engaging media account of Firmage's mystical experience, so have added link. Haisch (talk · contribs), IRL Bernard Haisch removed the reference to himself, but I think this is too interesting to be removed. However, I am quite willing to discuss here how to phrase this to emphasize that while Firmage certainly appears to endorse Haisch, the converse is untrue (as the current version puts it). ---CH 23:55, 7 June 2006 (UTC)

My edit line was munged: I was trying to say that I removed "fringe physicists" as per User:Haisch, without neccessarily agreeing that this characterization violated WP:NPOV, since the internal links should adequately explain who Haisch and Puthoff are. ---CH 00:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Section headings

From edit lines, there seems to be some disagreement. I changed two and hope the new headings will be acceptable to all. Regarding fringe science versus pseudoscience, I created Category:Fringe physics as a less pejorative alternative to Category:Pseudophysics (example: Hutchinson effect, perpetual motion machines), so I have no problem with "fringe physics" rather than "pseudophysics". ---CH 17:56, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Although not completely neutral, the headings are much better now. Aquirata 19:47, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Students beware

During my year as a Wikipedian, I made a mild attempt to improve this article, but I am leaving the WP and am now abandoning this article to its fate.

I emphatically do not vouch for anything you might see in more recent versions. Given WP edits by Haisch (talk · contribs), who is personally involved in much of the subjects discussed in this bio, edits which I regard as sometimes rather blatantly self-serving, and motivated by a disturbing and self-admitted financial incentive on the part of Haisch, I have reason to believe that at least some future versions of this article are likely to contain slanted information, misinformation, or disinformation. Beware also of external links to other websites, which may attempt to misleadingly describe pseudoscience or fringe science as beloning to the canon of established mainstream science.

Good luck to all students in your search for information, regardless!---CH 00:55, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Major update

In the interest of full disclosure (assuming anyone is interested) as you can see, I have begun to add more content to this page. I do know Joe personally, and have developed a great respect and fascination for him and his uncanny vision, his intelligence, and his passion for making the world a better place.

That said, I encourage all to hold me to the highest standard of objectivity and fairness.

While there has been a debate on the web 2.0 page about who came up with the concept, it obvious to anyone who was involved in USWeb and OneCosmos starting the late nineties, that Joe's personal vision of web 2.0 was fully refined by 1998.

Joe will be the first to suggest that no one owns the term of Web 2.0 any more than they do business 2.0 or media 2.0, or anything else 2.0. But what I can tell you, is that when ManyOne launches next month the standard for web 2.0 will be set, and we will begin talking about Web 3.0.

So, keep me honest! I have referenced all of my additions and edits and have more to do. Thanks Ffilcnoyl, 6 September 2007

[edit] Compete analytics

I removed a sentence attempting to analyze traffic for ManyOne and the Earth Portal. Unfortunately, as a source it relied on a chart generated by Compete.com that said pretty clearly at the top: "We do not have any data for manyone.com, and little data for, earthportal.org, so these are rough estimates." With that kind of a disclaimer, I don't think it can be claimed that it provides any meaningful information. --Michael Snow (talk) 23:08, 7 February 2008 (UTC)