Re: Irregulars Inquiry: how to judge unique, rivalrous item
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: At 09:09 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Julia Thompson wrote: Ronn!Blankenship wrote: At 12:39 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Robert J. Chassell wrote: For example, do you know whether the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757; do you know about his birthdate controversy? No, but I know I have the same problem (although the dates are roughly a century and a half later) with my father's father's birth date, in that I have original or copies of three official records (census, marriage certificate, WWI service papers) which each give a different year (same month and day) for his birth. How many census records do you have for him? If you have, say, 3 different census records, and 2 of them agree with either the marriage certificate or the WWI service papers, the year for which more things agree is more likely. If the WWI papers give an earlier year of birth, he may have been lying to get in. (Though I'm sure you've thought of all this already) And I'm sure you can guess that those are the only three "official" records I have which contain his birth date. :D --Ronn! :) Actually, I was guessing that there would be more than one census record available -- if he was in WWI, there would be the 1910 one, and unless he died there, the 1920 one, and the 1930 one is available, as well (unless he died before that one). Of course, there is ample record of a certain ancestor of mine in the 1860 census and the 1880 census, but absolutely no trace anywhere in the 1870 census, so there's no guarantee of anything. :) (I don't think your ancestor had the excuse mine did of not wanting to have any contact with anything having to do with the feds on account of not having surrendered in 1865 or anytime after that I'm trying now to remember if he was the one who got shot at Gettysburg. I think he was.) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars Inquiry: how to judge unique, rivalrous item
At 09:09 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Julia Thompson wrote: Ronn!Blankenship wrote: At 12:39 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Robert J. Chassell wrote: For example, do you know whether the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757; do you know about his birthdate controversy? No, but I know I have the same problem (although the dates are roughly a century and a half later) with my father's father's birth date, in that I have original or copies of three official records (census, marriage certificate, WWI service papers) which each give a different year (same month and day) for his birth. How many census records do you have for him? If you have, say, 3 different census records, and 2 of them agree with either the marriage certificate or the WWI service papers, the year for which more things agree is more likely. If the WWI papers give an earlier year of birth, he may have been lying to get in. (Though I'm sure you've thought of all this already) And I'm sure you can guess that those are the only three "official" records I have which contain his birth date. :D --Ronn! :) "Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" -- Red Skelton ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars Inquiry: how to judge unique, rivalrous item
Ronn!Blankenship wrote: At 12:39 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Robert J. Chassell wrote: For example, do you know whether the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757; do you know about his birthdate controversy? No, but I know I have the same problem (although the dates are roughly a century and a half later) with my father's father's birth date, in that I have original or copies of three official records (census, marriage certificate, WWI service papers) which each give a different year (same month and day) for his birth. How many census records do you have for him? If you have, say, 3 different census records, and 2 of them agree with either the marriage certificate or the WWI service papers, the year for which more things agree is more likely. If the WWI papers give an earlier year of birth, he may have been lying to get in. (Though I'm sure you've thought of all this already) Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Irregulars Inquiry: how to judge unique, rivalrous item
At 12:39 PM Sunday 11/13/2005, Robert J. Chassell wrote: For example, do you know whether the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757; do you know about his birthdate controversy? No, but I know I have the same problem (although the dates are roughly a century and a half later) with my father's father's birth date, in that I have original or copies of three official records (census, marriage certificate, WWI service papers) which each give a different year (same month and day) for his birth. --Ronn! :) "Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country and two words have been added to the pledge of Allegiance... UNDER GOD. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools too?" -- Red Skelton ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Irregulars Inquiry: how to judge unique, rivalrous item
On the Internet, how does one provide a mechanism for judging a certain kind of unique item and reporting the results? You can build trust for a online news story or encyclopedia article: give some `points' for a few days to a regular and ask that person to allocate them in judgements of news stories or articles, along with others. Few need be asked at any one time, and most who are asked will be willing to do the task gratis. I know, from personal experience with Slashdot, that the method succeeds probabilistically. Generally, `level 5' items are better than `level 1' items and there are far fewer of them. Slashdot provides only one judgement number. Another entity might offer more. For example, an encyclopedia could have a `how truthful' judgement as well as a `how well written' one. (My hunch is that more people will be able to judge `how well written' an entry is than `how truthful' it is. For example, do you know whether the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States was born in 1747, 1755, or 1757; do you know about his birthdate controversy?) But what about an item such as an apartment for rent? (In economists' jargon, an apartment is `rivalrous': your use of it `rivals' mine, much like a shoe or shirt. On the other hand, because the cost of manufacturing a new instance -- what we call `copying' -- has dropped so low, a news story on a computer, a Brin-L posting, or software is `non-rivalrous'.) Recently, I helped a friend post an apartment for rent on Craig's List, a gratis Internet service that lists apartments (and other items) for rent or sale. If you are looking for an apartment, Craig's List permits you to search according to various criteria. This reduces the number of entries you see. But you may still see too many. In my case, to check the posting, I set the criteria for what I figured would be a reasonable search and ended up with 497 ... Unlike a single news story or a single encyclopedia article, I do not see how anyone else can judge `how truthful' such an entry is and provide you with the appropriate trust-building and evaluation information. Moreover, repeat business is or should be sufficiently infrequent that no one can judge the reputation of the poster as is done for frequent sellers on EBay. To reduce spam, Craig's List makes it time consuming to enter the details. In addition, Craig's List has a `five letter verification word' in an image that is hard for robots to read. An alternative to forcing humans to spend time on each transaction is to charge, as is done by hardcopy newspapers with classified ads. Both methods are designed to reduce the number of entries as user sees by costing the enterer resources: either of time or of money. Morevoer, electonic search is supposed to reduce the number of items for an online user. But as far as I can see, none succeed. Can you tell me of some way to convey selection information to a person online, as can be done with comments, stories, encyclopedia articles, and the like? -- Robert J. Chassell [EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8 http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
