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DNS over Wikipedia

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Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#51

Post by Cyberdog »

Once upon a time I built an iOS language translation/dictionary app which used Wikipedia as a back end. Basically, if you entered a word in language X and the Wikipedia version for language X had an entry, it could find the translation for that word in language Y by looking at the "this article in other languages" information in the source for that page. It was useful for finding translations or transliterations of terms that wouldn't commonly appear in standard dictionaries, like neologisms, brand names, or even just really obscure topics. Unfortunately it eventually got taken down from the App Store because Wikipedia's asshole lawyers didn't like that I used a serifed W in the logo even though I made it clear it wasn't an official Wikipedia product everywhere and I didn't have the motivation to "correct" my audacious use of an upper-case W which Wikipedia now apparently holds the copyrights to.

I still use this technique "manually" for finding translations when dictionaries, though. Wikipedia has a lot of information which isn't in a typical API-friendly format, but with a bit of regex there's some interesting possibilities.

If this sounds interesting, the Objective-C source is still available here: https://github.com/garrettalbright/wptrans You might also be able to find clones of it in the App Store since I know people were taking my source and republishing it back in the day, some even for a profit (mine was always free).

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#52

Post by protoman3000 »

kikokikokiko wrote: post #39

We live in a distopia where one of the last search engines that returns real results related to anything the western mainstream "hidden forces" do not want you to be able to see is Yandex, a company located under a dictatorship. In 2022, the only way for a regular citizen to approximate what is reality, what is the "truth", is to look for information provided from the opposite side of any argument you're trying to un…

I disagree. I find fringe information readily available, after a few more easy steps that is.

Could it instead be that the environment (or, to speak in your words: “the western mainstream hidden forces”) has altered your perception?

You can always exit the Matrix.

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#53

Post by kfiven »

Why Wikipedia though? Wikidata should be one to get this kind of data and all Wikipedia articles has Wikidata items. On top of that Wikidata even keep records of site name, like when someone change their site name.

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#54

Post by alpos »

What are you going to do if people start to trust this and then someone edits the wiki sources to redirect people to phishing sites mocked up to look real?

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#55

Post by Cyberdog »

ajross wrote: post #43
kikokikokiko wrote: post #39

We live in a distopia where one of the last search engines that returns real results related to anything the western mainstream "hidden forces" do not want you to be able to see is Yandex, a company located under a dictatorship. In 2022, the only way for a regular citizen to approximate what is reality, what is the "truth", is to look for information provided from the opposite side of any argument you're trying to un…

Quoted post unavailable.

> How about this: try posting an URL for kiwifarms or stormfront or whatever right here, in this thread. See if it stays up. See who's willing to tolerate it.

Man, I almost did. But people just get so irrationally angry about words on the internet nowadays that I decided against tempting fate. I don't need people trying to destroy my career because I don't irrationally hate the right people right now.

Yes, Kiwi Farms exists and has information and opinions you might not like. It certainly has ones that I don't like. But at the end of the day, it's just words on the internet; the stuff about "organized harassment campaigns" and all that is a media lie. I really wish people would just visit the place and realize that it's just a bunch of shitposters with a clear "look, laugh, but don't touch" mentality and not the demonic bogeyman the press has made it out be. But I realize that irrational hatred is faster and easier, so…

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#56

Post by nequo »

p0pcult wrote: post #49
psychphysic wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't know is, I see mainstream media become increasingly curated and clearly agenda driven. Is this a function of reality or me getting better at spotting it? I felt as though in the 90s CNN legitimately was a good news source. Early 21centuey VICE was legitimately good. Today there is next to nothing given anything other than a heavily biased view. I think the internet has made things worse, there's a new ki…

I think it is a function of game theory akin to Prisoner's Dilemma. If all the news sources are rather centrist (i.e., they all "cooperate"), then no one gains or loses audiences because of bias. This is a good strategy when publishing is expensive. However, as the costs of publishing drop, it becomes profitable to shave off niche (smaller) audiences, with biased publication. This begins the defection phase of the PD…

This makes a lot of sense. Here is a classic paper that tests a model like this on US data:

https://web.stanford.edu/~gentzkow/research/biasmeas.pdf

  We estimate a model of newspaper demand that incorporates slant explicitly, estimate the slant that would be chosen if newspapers independently maximized their own profits, and compare these profit-maximizing points with firms’ actual choices. We find that readers have an economically significant preference for like-minded news. Firms respond strongly to consumer preferences, which account for roughly 20 percent of the variation in measured slant in our sample.

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#57

Post by psychphysic »

p0pcult wrote: post #49
psychphysic wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I don't know is, I see mainstream media become increasingly curated and clearly agenda driven. Is this a function of reality or me getting better at spotting it? I felt as though in the 90s CNN legitimately was a good news source. Early 21centuey VICE was legitimately good. Today there is next to nothing given anything other than a heavily biased view. I think the internet has made things worse, there's a new ki…

I think it is a function of game theory akin to Prisoner's Dilemma. If all the news sources are rather centrist (i.e., they all "cooperate"), then no one gains or loses audiences because of bias. This is a good strategy when publishing is expensive. However, as the costs of publishing drop, it becomes profitable to shave off niche (smaller) audiences, with biased publication. This begins the defection phase of the PD…

I think that would make sense if these were new smaller news media but I see it mostly the bigger players.

Even the BBC which is state funded. Okay, that might be a bad example as they are a state broadcaster and so propaganda is really their remit.

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#58

Post by galaxyLogic »

Bad information is like viruses. Right?. So what we need is an immune-system. Bad information will still be there but it is prevented (to an extent) from multiplying.

What would an immune-system for online information look like?

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#59

Post by aew4ytasghe5 »

mmahemoff wrote: post #25

If the point is to get to the site faster, why is the TLD "idk"? Couldn't it be 1 letter or at least the same three letters? On a separate note, someone could actually make a website do this without any extension. It would need to use wikipedia dumps and has the advantage it can't be suddenly edited by a malicious actor.

> On a separate note, someone could actually make a website do this without any extension. It would need to use wikipedia dumps and has the advantage it can't be suddenly edited by a malicious actor.

Why would we trust "a website" more than random wikipedia edits to provide correct or up-to-date data?

The purpose of this app is to get the current url of those sites, which keeps changing url semi-frequently, so a offline copy of wikipedia would not work.

Re: DNS over Wikipedia

#60

Post by dontbenebby »

galaxyLogic wrote: post #58

Bad information is like viruses. Right?. So what we need is an immune-system. Bad information will still be there but it is prevented (to an extent) from multiplying. What would an immune-system for online information look like?

How do you define “bad” information? I found a list of CSAM sites via a link in a Wikipedia book about onion services- having a known evil target to practice getting a dot onion to reveal its ip was both good and bad data, depending on who you ask.

(The CFAA has since expired, and those rude little pedophiles DEFINITELY noticed me.)

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