I can’t believe that he chose a proprietary solution (TypePad).
Professor Robin Hanson should put his actions in accordance with his big mouth. If he professes the Wisdom of Crowd, then he should use Word Press, Live Journal or DruPal.
My Message To Mike Linksvayer: Please come forward and give us your take on this big scandal in the making.
Technical Note: Midas Oracle is proudly powered by Word Press (which is also available as a free, web-hosted solution).
Addendum: Professor Robin Hanson has posted a comment.
… I never said that no one should ever use something else when an open source version is available. Customers should mainly pay attention to tradeoffs in price, quality, and lockin when choosing between open or closed source products.
I don’t recall taking a position for or against open source software, but I’m sure I never said that no one should ever use something else when an open source version is available. Customers should mainly pay attention to tradeoffs in price, quality, and lockin when choosing between open or closed source products.
Also, the choice between prediction markets and alternatives is not mainly a choice between crowds and experts, and if you had a choice between crowds and experts I’m not sure I’d recommend the crowd.
If there’s a scandal in the making (no, but ok, I’ll play along) it has to do with control of identifiers (i.e., domain names), not source code.
In any case obviousname.typepad.com is now password protected. Perhaps Hanson plans to use a domain he controls. TypePad does support this.
#1. What do you mean by “control of identifiers”????
#2. Robin Hanson will open his blog later, when it is built.
#3. And he does not give the first fig about my ranting in favor of open-source blogging software. He swallowed every thing the two guys at Marginal Revolution (which is on TypePad) told him.
#1, compare, e.g., midasoracle.typepad.com and midasoracle.org.
Kapeshe.