And Another Interview for NewsTalk 106

Posted Wed, 03/29/2006 - 22:32 by John Breslin

I followed up my previous media appearances this past week with a more serious interview about the advantages and disadvantages of social networks (and Bebo in particular) for "Lunchtime with Brendan O'Brien" on NewsTalk 106.

You can also download an MP3 of this interview here.

This topic has received such coverage this week there must be an increase in the pocket jingling noises in Bebo's San Francisco HQ... Mark Tighe was interviewed on Dave Fanning's Monday show, and our director of Computer Services Kieran Loftus was on Today FM's The Last Word with Matt Cooper the same day. I also got a call from 2FM on Monday asking some questions about social networking - crazy!

Comments

Interesting, I'll give it a

by Gareth Stack (not verified) - 03/30/2006 - 04:00

Interesting, I'll give it a go, might be a better idea than the draconian settings I recommended. Theres something just so unclean about people soiling your wiki *shiver*.

Hi Gareth - thanks for the

by Cloud (not verified) - 03/30/2006 - 01:56

Hi Gareth - thanks for the tip, must give those settings a go; I upgraded my wiki installations at wiki.ie, boards.ie/wiki, boards.jp/wiki and didn't have time to do my own :) But the good news is there was no content, although that'll soon change once I upgrade to MediaWiki 1.5 (might as well drop the database).

But I'd recommend the SpamBlacklist plugin; there's also a nice cleanup script that you can run if something manages to slip through...

I noticed your wiki has gone

by Gareth Stack (not verified) - 03/30/2006 - 01:21

I noticed your wiki has gone to spam, might I suggest you try throwing the following in the end of your localsettings.php -

## Group Permissions - edits from http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:User_rights
// Only SysOp (Admin) can create accounts -
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['edit'] = false;
$wgShowIPinHeader = false; # For non-logged in users
$wgWhitelistRead = array( "Main Page", "Special:Userlogin", "-", "MediaWiki:Monobook.css" );
$wgGroupPermissions['*']['read'] = true;
function loginToUse() {
$titleObj = Title::makeTitle( NS_SPECIAL, "Userlogin" );
$this->redirect( $titleObj->getFullURL() );
}

$wgWhitelistEdit = true;

[...] UPDATE: I hear that Dr.

by Tuppenceworth.ie blog ยป Explaining Bebo (not verified) - 03/30/2006 - 00:19

[...] UPDATE: I hear that Dr. John Breslin of boards.ie fame cited Gareth’s idea that part of Bebo’s attraction has been its lack of a search facility while being interviewed on Newstalk 106. Bebo» Gareth Stack» social networks» TCD» Technolotics» Trinity College» Tuppenceworth» Tuppenceworth.ie» [...]

That was you, huh? Nice job -

by Ann (not verified) - 03/30/2006 - 00:04

That was you, huh? Nice job - you came across very well.