New Civilization News: Beacon Postings    
 Beacon Postings8 comments
16 Aug 2005 @ 14:00, by Flemming Funch

One weird thing with blog postings and google power is that sometimes one individual post becomes, like, THE place to go for a certain subject. Just because Google has made it show on the first page for that search term. I've had a few of those, where one post over many months attracted hundreds and hundreds of people, who think that this somehow is one of THE authoritative places to go. And they leave lots of comments, and a whole little community forms.

I did a post two years ago, which was just a few paragraphs about my own experience about almost falling for a Romanian e-bay scam in buying a non-existent computer. Still, today, if you search in Google for ebay scams, my article is number 5. And there are 255 comments so far. Lots of people have shared their experiences and tips there. Even the Romanian scammers have shown up, to occasionally taunt their victims, in Romanian.

And if you search for Yamashita Treasure, you'll see my post as number 2. Which was just a mention of a review of a book. But, there too, a whole little community has formed. 167 comments. Every day treasure hunters are sharing their tips, asking for help, etc. You know, they've found some interesting underground spot in the Philippines, and they need somebody with a ground radar, or explosives expertise, or whatever. And, hey, it was just one of my thousands of blog postings. I'm not even participating. Intriguing.

A blog posting is not particularly suited to this, even though it kind of works. The comments are one long thread, and it is easy to find out how to add a new comment. But, I mean, if one had known that that posting was going to be a central gathering place for that subject, maybe one would have put some more facilities there. Like, on my ebay scam page, it would make sense to list other resources that could be helpful. So, should I go back and change my original posting? Doesn't quite make sense to me either.

But maybe one could have some additional features available that might spring into action when a certain post transforms from being just a note written at some point in time into being a *place* that people go to as a resource. A beacon that gathers people around a certain subject. If it really is a gathering place then maybe it should be linked with more of a forum, or a wiki, or a bookmarking feature, and maybe it should display resources from other places on the same subject.

It is a little odd. Meeting in an old blog post is kind of like meeting on page 207 of "Moby Dick". Maybe everything ought to be a potential meeting place.

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8 comments

16 Aug 2005 @ 14:20 by jstarrs : I think everything IS a potential...
..meeting place.
I like the idea/name of a 'beacon' that would automatically create a conducive environment if a certain number of people group around a posting.
By the way, just for fun, I googled 'page 207 of Moby Dick.'
Here it is: [link]  

16 Aug 2005 @ 16:11 by ming : Moby Dick
Hah, that is great! ...[reading]...hm, don't know if any mysterious synchronicity emerged from that, but it is still fun.

"In our way thither, he says, about four o'clock in the morning, when we were about one hundred and fifty leagues from the Main of America, our ship felt a terrible shock, which put our men in such consternation that they could hardly tell where they were or what to think; but every one began to prepare for death. And, indeed, the shock was so sudden and violent, that we took it for granted the ship had struck against a rock; but when the amazement was a little over, we cast the lead, and sounded, but found no ground. The suddenness of the shock made the guns leap in their carriages, and several of the men were shaken out of their hammocks. Captain Davis, who lay with his head on a gun, was thrown out of his cabin! Lionel then goes on to impute the shock to an earthquake, and seems to substantiate the imputation by stating that a great earthquake, somewhere about that time, did actually do great mischief along the spanish land. but i should not much wonder if, in the darkness of that early hour of the morning, the shock was after all caused by an unseen whale vertically bumping the hull from beneath."

But, now, the technicalities of how something can be a meeting place gets me thinking. Well, a webpage can be a place people can hang out. There have been several attempts of making programs that will overlay a chat or comment space on any arbitrary webpage, whether its owner agrees or not. None of them really caught on as any lasting thing, as far as I know.

And, also, there would probably be multiple places you'd find the same thing, like page 207 of Moby Dick. So, another approach could be that one references it more abstractly. Like a tag. To make it simple, various people might go around attaching the tag "Moby Dick" to items. Including webpages. And maybe there could be a meeting/chat space attached to the tag. So that even if you come from a number of different starting points, you might still "hang out" at the "Moby Dick" tag.

Also, to make good meeting places, one might need to have a way of knowing what kind of activity is happening in different places. Like, where are people swarming to, for whatever reason. I shouldn't have to wait on page 207, wondering why nobody else comes by, if there's a very stimulating dicussion going on on page 202. I'd need to be able to sense it somehow.  

8 May 2007 @ 13:51 by GenerSumilang @86.62.225.4 : Ming-Eye opener
Dear Ming,
I am just one of those bloggers in one of your best forum "YAMASHITA TREASURE" I am actually just few months participating there and it seems to be very interesting in giving advice and taking new ideas about the treasure activities which almost if not infested by filipino treasure enthusiast. you wont believe that this site is the talk of the town in my country if not worldwide! that if they want some inquiries regarding hidden treasures and they want help or anything, they simply brouse for this familiar"ming" forum. eureka! they got answers. maybe your not much familiar or not even interested in that subject but you really help a lot specially those who are active in their digging expeditions or experimentations. Not knowing that few are already successful to their projects and perhaps tons of gold were already recovered, and i noticed that most of it were because of the advice from ming forum. I am not really sure if anyone from them had approached you and say thank you at least, but this is what i am telling you, your hell a lot of big help to us. thank you, more power and may god bless you...  

10 May 2007 @ 21:58 by ming : Treasure hunters
I'm glad that it is working for you guys. It certainly seems to be a very popular and busy place.  

11 May 2007 @ 21:21 by GenerSumilang @86.62.250.3 : MING
Certainly its popular and busy place and im really terrified of whats going on in there. im not actually in the philippines but i can feel that my presence is just there! treasure sites which actually not known to many could be shared in ming thought they had openess and feel free to ask help. organizations for treasure hunters were already formed which never in my imagination that that will actually happen. so their resources and movement will be more freely and wider for them to be succesful to their common dreams, someday that someone will get successful and they can remember the big help for them from ming forum, i know very much the heart of most filipinos, they wont forget you and they will do everything to find you to get a share......at least.  

23 Jan 2008 @ 06:59 by George @121.54.107.38 : In need of a financer
we have a potential hidden tunnel measuring about 5 feet by 150meters, more or less between 50-60 feet below the ground. Can be detected the cement of the 12 compartments in the tunnel. No moey to operate we need help either a financer.  

12 Feb 2008 @ 03:19 by 1 @206.191.69.149 : 1
1  

1 May 2008 @ 00:44 by Manny Calimba aka Lemurian Guard @63.169.186.5 : Its Positve Site for Treasure!
I have been treasure hunting for 20 years and the common marker for Philippines treasure sites are the words "UMAAPOY NA BURAT" if you find this its surely a treasure in it but very little amount. The very rare site with big finds has the words "Pambansang Tanga". This is only applicable in the Philippines ok  

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