Three Minutes to Midnight

And there you have it. The third most-visited conference on The WELL right now is flame.ind -- more visits than conferences on movies, politics, music, web, health, books, and 1000 other subjects. (I wonder why the vue conferences aren't even showing up in the top 30... are they that uninteresting?According to the latest monthly WELL census data -- 1 June to 1 July -- pre.vue is #46; inkwell.vue is #47; and deadsongs.vue is #189. These are conferences readable by the whole world via any web browser.)

Public conference visits
Thu Jul  1 00:00:06 2004 through Wed Jul  7 23:59:57 2004

 1. 5524  news           11. 1770  macintosh      21. 1077  words
 2. 5064  media          12. 1657  sports         22. 1068  krakhaus.ind
 3. 3168  flame.ind      13. 1625  sanfran        23.  963  berkeley
 4. 3146  genx           14. 1617  books          24.  945  decor
 5. 3137  movies         15. 1578  obsess         25.  900  newmusic
 6. 3028  tv             16. 1513  plumage        26.  899  windows
 7. 2862  popcult        17. 1492  music          27.  848  cars
 8. 2105  politics       18. 1244  ny             28.  843  hosts
 9. 2069  chow.ind       19. 1164  web            29.  797  travel
10. 1972  current        20. 1122  health         30.  764  gd

I wonder how proud Salon Media Group is about flame being #3. (I wonder if Salon Media Group knows?)

Addendum:
One of the ugly side-effects of bozo-filtering (configuring The WELL so it automatically skips over postings by users you don't wish to read) is that given the rise of flame.ind, and the corresponding rise in the use of bozofiltering, more and more discussions get sidetracked by the fact that people who are bozofiltering an individual start commenting on the automatic filtering, rather than on the topic at hand.

For instance, right now in the News conference, someone brought up the fact that Tom Ridge has come out with another terror warning and the subsequent talk is all about crying wolf. One regularly-bozofiltered individual (whose three-letter name ends in 'x' and, shall we say, whose name would win lots of points on a triple word score in Scrabble) inserted a comment and since then others have come along not to comment on his comment, to comment on the fact that he's bozofiltered. Such behavior doesn't produce anything useful, doesn't add anything to the discussion, and shows how destructive the whole bozofiltering practice has become.

I wonder what would happen if bozofiltering were to become completely private: no longer could you share the list of names you're ignoring, and no longer would the automated utility that goes around scanning for any changes to bozo lists work. People should have the ability to filter who they choose, but would it be any great loss to the community if the community didn't know on an individual level who was ignoring who?

Four Minutes to Midnight

... and closing in on three:

Public conference visits
Wed Jun 30 00:00:20 2004 through Tue Jul  6 23:59:42 2004

 1. 5373  news           11. 1711  macintosh      21. 1061  health
 2. 5056  media          12. 1586  sports         22. 1034  words
 3. 3104  genx           13. 1501  books          23. 1003  krakhaus.ind
 4. 3058  flame.ind      14. 1465  sanfran        24.  950  decor
 5. 3041  movies         15. 1463  plumage        25.  909  windows
 6. 2962  tv             16. 1446  obsess         26.  791  newmusic
 7. 2717  popcult        17. 1424  music          27.  751  gd
 8. 2142  politics       18. 1248  ny             28.  750  cars
 9. 2093  current        19. 1201  web            29.  697  cooking
10. 1874  chow.ind       20. 1083  berkeley       30.  672  hosts

Flame Watch

So the highschool clique that is the Flame conference on The WELL has finally discovered W.N.O.T.W. And of course, they're apoplectic over it, gleefully tearing it apart, hurling insults left and right at yours truly, desperately looking for violations of The WELL's user agreement and You Own Your Own Words rules when there aren't any violations.

Life goes on, bra.

Update: now there are people in flame.ind copying paragraphs here and there from this blog and posting them verbatim on flame.ind, while at the same time raising insinuations of YOYOW violations.

Update II: Just got the following email.

Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 11:12:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Janson
To: brian
Cc: jeffreyp, lala, maj
Subject: brian restricted in flame.ind conference

This notice was automatically generated when the issuing host placed your account on restricted status in the flame.ind conference. During this restriction, you may continue to visit and read this conference, but you will not be permitted to respond to any topics, nor may you start any new topics. The host has designated your restriction run for 3 days from the time of this notification.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss the reasons for this restriction, please reply to the hosts of the flame.ind conference. You will find the WELL's policy on independent conferences posted in the policy conference.

Good old WELL.

Update III: Lots of traffic coming from The WELL's "backstage" conference, a smoke-filled room, er, a private conference, for which I guess one needs a "backstage pass", so to speak. One can only guess what's being discussed there.

From the Bulletin of Salonic Scientists

Yikes.... first, flame drops to #11, and then suddenly it's climbed all the way to #5....

Public conference visits
Sat May 29 00:00:28 2004 through Fri Jun  4 23:59:46 2004

 1. 5738  news           11. 1849  chow.ind       21. 1122  plumage
 2. 4889  media          12. 1671  words          22. 1042  ny
 3. 3474  tv             13. 1663  macintosh      23. 1014  byline
 4. 2900  movies         14. 1606  books          24.  925  gd
 5. 2852  flame.ind      15. 1432  obsess         25.  903  classifieds
 6. 2847  genx           16. 1413  sports         26.  859  web
 7. 2625  popcult        17. 1394  music          27.  823  health
 8. 2365  politics       18. 1351  berkeley       28.  808  newmusic
 9. 2270  current        19. 1253  hosts          29.  736  parenting
10. 1882  sanfran        20. 1183  games          30.  703  cooking

Flameout

There may be hope yet....

Thu May  6 00:00:01 2004 through Wed May 12 23:59:40 2004

 1. 5448  news           11. 1946  flame.ind      21. 1124  health
 2. 5435  tv             12. 1791  chow.ind       22. 1030  parenting
 3. 5013  media          13. 1777  sanfran        23.  994  music
 4. 3237  genx           14. 1725  obsess         24.  983  newmusic
 5. 2811  movies         15. 1685  books          25.  982  gd
 6. 2735  politics       16. 1674  sports         26.  880  games
 7. 2486  popcult        17. 1559  plumage        27.  869  web
 8. 2224  hosts          18. 1523  words          28.  847  travel
 9. 2142  current        19. 1436  berkeley       29.  841  attack
10. 1965  macintosh      20. 1352  ny             30.  805  cars

flamewatch for 5/3/2004

Wow.... down to #9.... could it fall out of the top ten!?

Public conference visits
Mon Apr 26 00:00:00 2004 through Sun May  2 23:59:54 2004

 1. 5533  news           11. 2202  chow.ind       21. 1062  games
 2. 4667  media          12. 2052  sanfran        22. 1000  cars
 3. 4009  tv             13. 1956  books          23.  994  gd
 4. 3061  hosts          14. 1856  macintosh      24.  984  health
 5. 3047  genx           15. 1762  current        25.  893  web
 6. 3044  popcult        16. 1646  words          26.  865  newmusic
 7. 2592  movies         17. 1581  plumage        27.  843  parenting
 8. 2344  politics       18. 1534  sports         28.  824  attack
 9. 2290  flame.ind      19. 1321  ny             29.  823  berkeley
10. 2288  obsess         20. 1117  music          30.  802  byline

Flamewatch for 27 Apr 2004

Hmm... now at #4, but very close to becoming #3...

Tue Apr 20 00:00:00 2004 through Mon Apr 26 23:59:19 2004

 1. 5807  news           11. 2055  sanfran        21. 1106  music
 2. 4745  media          12. 2006  words          22. 1082  decor
 3. 3970  tv             13. 1940  macintosh      23. 1034  parenting
 4. 3294  flame.ind      14. 1757  sports         24. 1017  web
 5. 3249  movies         15. 1690  current        25. 1015  games
 6. 3143  genx           16. 1660  obsess         26.  979  newmusic
 7. 2775  popcult        17. 1471  books          27.  953  gd
 8. 2418  hosts          18. 1387  ny             28.  875  pets
 9. 2349  politics       19. 1356  health         29.  838  cars
10. 2254  chow.ind       20. 1303  plumage        30.  788  berkeley

flamewatch for 14 Apr 2004

flame.ind moved up to #5 today:

Public conference visits
Wed Apr  7 00:00:01 2004 through Tue Apr 13 23:59:25 2004

 1. 6169  news           11. 2318  sanfran        21. 1266  health
 2. 5015  media          12. 2129  chow.ind       22. 1174  berkeley
 3. 4090  tv             13. 1983  books          23. 1149  decor
 4. 3863  hosts          14. 1845  macintosh      24. 1114  music
 5. 3345  flame.ind      15. 1775  current        25. 1099  byline
 6. 3286  genx           16. 1646  words          26. 1080  cars
 7. 3249  obsess         17. 1629  sports         27. 1045  gd
 8. 2869  movies         18. 1496  plumage        28.  898  parenting
 9. 2612  popcult        19. 1483  ny             29.  849  work
10. 2362  politics       20. 1297  games          30.  834  newmusic

flamewatch for 13 Apr 2004

Flame.ind at #6 today.

Public conference visits
Tue Apr  6 00:00:08 2004 through Mon Apr 12 23:59:49 2004

 1. 6137  news           11. 2318  sanfran        21. 1248  health
 2. 4956  media          12. 2013  books          22. 1231  berkeley
 3. 4029  tv             13. 2006  chow.ind       23. 1229  games
 4. 3684  hosts          14. 1813  macintosh      24. 1104  byline
 5. 3171  genx           15. 1734  current        25. 1090  gd
 6. 3163  flame.ind      16. 1659  sports         26. 1033  decor
 7. 3085  obsess         17. 1612  words          27.  994  cars
 8. 3060  movies         18. 1436  ny             28.  915  newmusic
 9. 2626  popcult        19. 1410  plumage        29.  875  parenting
10. 2389  politics       20. 1318  music          30.  823  cooking