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

February 10, 2007 4:36 PM

jorn's been somewhat under the radar of late. looks like he might need a helping hand (again?).
posted by progosk (37 comments total)

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?
posted by ZachsMind at 4:45 PM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

Can't even arrange $10 for his own domain? That he doesn't even update anymore? Seems a shame.
posted by so_ at 4:49 PM on February 10, 2007

He should try wine. Cheaper than a domain name and infinitely more satisfying than posting a few shitey links that nobody will look at.
posted by fire&wings at 4:53 PM on February 10, 2007

There but for the grace of god...
posted by loquacious at 4:53 PM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

I really hope this thread turns into something other than an opportunity to ridicule this guy.
posted by Dave Faris at 4:55 PM on February 10, 2007

Previously and previously.

Save robotwisdom.com, send $10 (username: jorn) to Misk Accts Rcvble; 973 Main St., Suite B; Fishkill, NY 12524-1782
posted by nickyskye at 4:56 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by shmegegge at 4:56 PM on February 10, 2007

I think its called mental illness.
posted by bhouston at 4:58 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by so_ at 4:59 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by dhartung at 5:05 PM on February 10, 2007

I wouldn't worry about it. He's probably just totally immersed in Yahoo Pipes.
posted by spock at 5:06 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by slickvaguely at 5:27 PM on February 10, 2007

Does the assumption that Jorn is mentally ill have any evidence?
posted by cgc373 at 5:45 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by breezeway at 6:03 PM on February 10, 2007

Right now robotwisdom.com appears to be just a blank page. Is it down, or does it just not like Firefox?
posted by clevershark at 6:03 PM on February 10, 2007

clevershark, must be you, it shows a domain parking page which it basically a bunch of advertising
posted by so_ at 6:06 PM on February 10, 2007

A truly clever shark might click the links and read.
posted by spock at 6:06 PM on February 10, 2007 [1 favorite]

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.
posted by clevershark at 6:32 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by dfan at 6:45 PM on February 10, 2007

I've read Jorn's weblog since 2000, and when he has troubles it always makes me feel bad.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 7:12 PM on February 10, 2007

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)
posted by pyramid termite at 7:27 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by vronsky at 9:00 PM on February 10, 2007

And it probably wouldn't hurt if he put the bong down once and a while. Those longer posts on RW Auxiliary were laughable.
posted by vronsky at 9:04 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by commander_cool at 9:10 PM on February 10, 2007

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.
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:45 AM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by norm at 6:12 AM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by Substrata at 6:14 AM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by cgc373 at 9:48 AM on February 11, 2007

Firefox users! If you really must see robotwisdom.com, disable adblock.
posted by doublesix at 9:55 AM on February 11, 2007

Damn, I thought at first this was about jon's weblog, which has been somewhat under the radar.
posted by Eideteker at 10:08 AM on February 11, 2007

regardless of intent, horrible post.

get some real links.

flagged as noise.
posted by mrgrimm at 10:32 AM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by so_ at 11:48 AM on February 11, 2007

For anyone unfamilair with Jorn's Robot Wisdom work, here is a glimpse from the Wayback Machine.
posted by nickyskye at 12:00 PM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by cgc373 at 12:34 PM on February 11, 2007

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.
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me at 12:51 PM on February 11, 2007

Jorn is back
posted by Substrata at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2007

Thanks, Substrata. I'd like to see Jorn thank the folks who donated, though.
posted by cgc373 at 2:51 PM on February 12, 2007