"Wikipedia biography is doomed"... plus beta signup form!

Via Dave Winer, Mark Bernstein sings some sweet music today as Tai (flirting briefly with the name Tony, but now reverting like a Wikipedia edit) and I are putting the finishing touches on Tinfinger in preparation for the beta, which we envision as happening this week some time (see signup form below).

Wikipedia biography is doomed, at least for living people. People who are passionately admired by some and detested by others are going to generate revert wars and nonsense. People who don’t, won’t — but nobody will notice.

That is exactly what Tinfinger is for. As our 5-second pitch goes: Tinfinger will be to the Who's Who what Wikipedia was to Encyclopedia Britannica. Through our fandom system - where only the most devoted fans of a person get top-level editing privileges over profiles, pictures, tags and similar biographical information for the objects of their devotion - the idea is that profile pages for people on Tinfinger will present a positive face.

Not that it's going to be all whitewashed niceness. Trolling will play a big part in Tinfinger. But that will have to wait for the full launch. In the meantime, here's the signup form if you're interested in the closed beta. Like I said, it should be open by the end of the week.

Name:

E-mail: