Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Fark Creator Slams 'the Wisdom of Crowds'

Posted by timothy on from the respond-below-with-wit-and-vigor dept.

GovTechGuy writes with some harsh words from Fark.com founder Drew Curtis, speaking at a conference Tuesday in Washington, DC: "'The "wisdom of the crowds" is the most ridiculous statement I've heard in my life. Crowds are dumb,' Curtis said. 'It takes people to move crowds in the right direction, crowds by themselves just stand around and mutter.' Curtis pointed to his own experience moderating comments on Fark, which allows users to give their often humorous take on the news of the day. He said only one percent of Web comments have any value and called the rest 'garbage.' Another example Curtis pointed to is the America Speaking Out website recently launched by House Republicans to allow the public to weigh in on the issues and vote for policy positions they support. Curtis called the site an 'absolute train wreck.' 'It's an absolute disaster. It's impossible to tell who was kidding and who wasn't,' Curtis said."

6 of 507 comments (clear)

  1. kettle, meet pot by girlintraining · · Score: 1, Troll

    This, from a guy that used to post boobies and weenies links? Dude, you haven't got enough IQ points to fill a mayonnaise jar. Seriously -- there are people with letters after their names that back this stuff. What do you have? "A popular website marketed to Joe Average." Woooow... some cred there, man.

    --
    #fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
  2. Re:It cuts both ways by muckracer · · Score: 0, Troll

    > Garbage in, garbage out.

    Isn't this the MS-equivalent of stdin and stdout?

  3. Garbage in Diamonds Out by neoshroom · · Score: 1, Troll

    Even if 99% of all comments are garbage, that is simply an argument for better filtering, not that the crowd has no wisdom. The whole point of the wisdom of the crowd in the first place was to apply filtering mechanisms to ensure the best gets to the top. It seems to work well for Wikipedia and it even will work for this comment if you mod me +1.

    --
    Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
  4. The wisdom of Somalian crowds. by EWAdams · · Score: 0, Troll

    A 13-year-old girl was stoned to death for reporting that she had been raped. I'm sure the crowd that threw the stones was a fuckin' collective genius.

    --
    I piss off bigots.
  5. Re:What ? Wisdom ? Republicans ? by blair1q · · Score: 0, Troll

    Democrats are actually trying to provide a government, while Republicans are using the imprimatur of government as a means to funnel funds from the treasury to corporations.

    Like I said. Anyone who doesn't see that is not paying any fucking attention.

  6. In fairness... by matunos · · Score: 0, Troll

    With Republicans these days, it's always difficult to tell who is kidding and who isn't.