Comments on: "Coined the term 'weblog', never made a dime"

"Coined the term 'weblog', never made a dime"

progosk — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:36:35 -0800

jorn's been somewhat under the radar of late. looks like he might need a helping hand (again?).

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:45:16 -0800

I once built a weblog. Made it run. Made it race against time. I once built a weblog. Now it's ...uhm, brother can ya spare a shave and a hair cut?

By: so_

so_ — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:49:43 -0800

Can't even arrange $10 for his own domain? That he doesn't even update anymore? Seems a shame.

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:53:40 -0800

He should try wine. Cheaper than a domain name and infinitely more satisfying than posting a few shitey links that nobody will look at.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:53:51 -0800

There but for the grace of god...

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:55:39 -0800

I really hope this thread turns into something other than an opportunity to ridicule this guy.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:56:46 -0800

Previously and previously. Save robotwisdom.com, send $10 (username: jorn) to Misk Accts Rcvble; 973 Main St., Suite B; Fishkill, NY 12524-1782

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:56:49 -0800

such a bizarre situation. man is clearly brilliant, lucid enough to understand his surroundings, and would seemingly be unwilling to make the slightest effort to capitalize on what fame he's acquired even at the cost of his single occupation.

By: bhouston

bhouston — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:58:33 -0800

I think its called mental illness.

By: so_

so_ — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 16:59:31 -0800

Well he does have a very anti-commercial stance about putting anything like google adwords on his site. I always assumed he worked at a university somewhere, but I never really followed things that closely.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:05:32 -0800

so_, years ago he worked at the Institute for the Learning Sciences, but had differences (of philosophy, perhaps of personality) with the management. Since then Jorn has basically not worked professionally, so far as I know. It is sort of peckish to frustrate any way of making a dime, and then to complain about it.

By: spock

spock — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:06:44 -0800

I wouldn't worry about it. He's probably just totally immersed in Yahoo Pipes.

By: slickvaguely

slickvaguely — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:27:35 -0800

robotwisdom is still at the top of my bookmarks (above mefi) when it was good, it was really good. And I hate to admit the loss of a good thing. Yeah, and mental illness sucks.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 17:45:28 -0800

Does the assumption that Jorn is mentally ill have any evidence?

By: breezeway

breezeway — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:03:14 -0800

My father views Jorn as a sort of Patrick Leigh Fermor of the internet, an islandophile with a story to tell and not much time left to tell it. When he stopped posting months ago, we both wondered if this running memoir would be cut short for good. I hope not.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:03:47 -0800

Right now robotwisdom.com appears to be just a blank page. Is it down, or does it just not like Firefox?

By: so_

so_ — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:06:14 -0800

clevershark, must be you, it shows a domain parking page which it basically a bunch of advertising

By: spock

spock — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:06:36 -0800

A truly clever shark might click the links and read.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:32:52 -0800

spock writes "A truly clever shark might click the links and read." hahaha! Very clever! Obviously you are much cleverer than I am, because I did go to the links and found that... - link 1 is a wikipedia entry that does not feature the current status of robotwisdom.com (really). In fact it implies that Robot Wisdom is back online since 2005. - link 2 is robotwisdom.com which, as I mentioned, shows up as a blank page - link 3 is a collection of writings by Jorn Barger that are not on robotwisdom.com, and a request for contributions. - link 4 is a wired article generously referenced in link 1. I am, however, happy to see that other MeFites are so clever as to deduce information when there really are no hints or indications that would allow a lesser shark such as myself to draw conclusions! You see, when I say I get a blank page on the second link, I get exactly that. A blank page. No ads, no content, no nothing. So if it's a page-full of ads by provider Misk.com (which the first link in the 3rd link makes me think it might be), well, I don't see those ads, or any mention of the company that hosts them.

By: dfan

dfan — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 18:45:28 -0800

You see, when I say I get a blank page on the second link, I get exactly that. A blank page. No ads, no content, no nothing. In Firefox, I got a blank page too, and then when I chose View / Page Source, I saw a comment with the text The domain "robotwisdom.com" has expired. Please contact your reseller.

By: Joseph Gurl

Joseph Gurl — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:12:55 -0800

I've read Jorn's weblog since 2000, and when he has troubles it always makes me feel bad.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 19:27:26 -0800

does jorn still care? (seriously, he needs to re-evaluate his priorities and his choices ... if i was permanently gone from my job, i wouldn't be asking for money for my blog, i'd be looking for a damn job)

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:00:54 -0800

I've been hitting his site for years like most people, but it got easier and easier to recognize when he was off his meds. I figured he started having paranoid delusions that the Jews were after his server or something, that is why he shut down again. I would gladly have clicked on some ads, but I really don't care enough to send him money. For a bright guy, he is kinda retarded.

By: vronsky

vronsky — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:04:50 -0800

And it probably wouldn't hurt if he put the bong down once and a while. Those longer posts on RW Auxiliary were laughable.

By: commander_cool

commander_cool — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:10:16 -0800

The irrational anti-Semitism is a sign of either some sort of mental illness or just plain evil. If he had spoken similarly about African-Americans, Barger would have been written off entirely at least five years ago.

By: damn dirty ape

damn dirty ape — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 03:45:56 -0800

It looks like he let the domain slip and now is collecting money to buy it back from some domain parker. Err, no thanks. We shouldnt be encouraging paying off domain parkers and if his blogspot page is any good people will link to it, raise its pagerank, while the original sites pagerank falls.

By: norm

norm — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 06:12:27 -0800

I get nothing but a blank, too, mr. shark. RW is, as far as I am concerned, the best link aggregator in the history of the weblog. but what is that worth? I guess not much. a pity. I have been reading for close to 10 years now, I'd guess.

By: Substrata

Substrata — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 06:14:53 -0800

The irrational anti-Semitism is a sign of either some sort of mental illness or just plain evil i resent that, Jorns opinions were always balanced and thoughtful. not very mainstream though.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:48:49 -0800

damn dirty ape, you're making sense about not paying off domain parkers (near spammers in their useful qualities), but the robotwisdom.com domain had an unbelievable amount of stuff inside, stuff I don't see any way to migrate to Blogger, where the new domain is. There were semi-academic papers, a Flash MP3 jukebox (one of the first I'd ever seen), just tons of stuff, all set up over the course of more than a decade. Setting it up again would be like rewriting a few books because somebody stole your manuscripts; it would suck.

By: doublesix

doublesix — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:55:30 -0800

Firefox users! If you really must see robotwisdom.com, disable adblock.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:08:25 -0800

Damn, I thought at first this was about jon's weblog, which has been somewhat under the radar.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:32:27 -0800

regardless of intent, horrible post. get some real links. flagged as noise.

By: so_

so_ — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 11:48:33 -0800

Well, it's not domain parkers per say, it's just his hosting company parking it for 60 days or whatever, until you decide to renew or they sell it off or they acquire it for advertising.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:00:26 -0800

For anyone unfamilair with Jorn's Robot Wisdom work, here is a glimpse from the Wayback Machine.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:34:07 -0800

Thanks, nickyskye! The Wayback Machine is definitely best of the web. There's a post waiting for somebody who can describe sites like WebCite^® or Furl and the efforts to archive web ephemera, with links to explanations of those efforts. It's something I'd like to understand, but I want to read summaries, not do the studies myself.

By: Rev. Syung Myung Me

Rev. Syung Myung Me — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 12:51:27 -0800

Another second on jon's VOX blog. AWESOME music. Many's the time I've downloaded a song by someone I typically hate (Bob Seger anyone?) only to find out that jon's RIGHT.

By: Substrata

Substrata — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:47:48 -0800

Jorn is back

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:51:09 -0800

Thanks, Substrata. I'd like to see Jorn thank the folks who donated, though.