Wikipedia Founder Carries SureFire M6

Max Brightness

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Yeh, I'm not really sure why the article was written either although it seems to be a way to introduce the concept of flashaholism to the "outside world". The title of the article reads

"Possessed - Industrial Art Illuminates Life " as if to say "an exorcism is needed to combat an uncontrollable urge to buy superbright handheld flashlights". :grin2: This kinda suggest flashaholism.
 

nekomane

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Quoted from the NYT article
I started reading flashlight-geek Web sites and just went crazy and got very into this.

He must have been lurking here, Hi Jim :wave:
 

indenial

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This potentially can be huge to the custom/high-end flashlight industry.

Could you imagine expensive lights becoming the new fashion statement? Maybe similar to how haute horology (high-end watches) has experienced a dramatic resurgence after a few prominent dot commers in the 90's annointed them as the must-have status-symbol/accessory. Until then, expensive watches had been dealt a near-fatal blow in the seventies when less costly quartz watches hit the market.

There's no telling if lights will now take-off in much the same way! And I like to think if it does that it will be a good thing. It will be odd, however, to imagine meeting anyone else in real life who ever heard of a Chamelion.... Stay tuned........
 

carrot

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He's definitely one of us. Even if he doesn't post here!

"Who needs a baseball bat?" said Mr. Wales, who keeps his M6 on his bedside table not as a weapon but in case he, you know, needs a flashlight. "You have to love the kitsch of that, that there's an assault flashlight now."

The $400 M6, which is eight inches long, holds six lithium batteries and is housed in aerospace-grade aluminum, is the product of a design school that might be called Modern Militant, the most familiar example of which is the Hummer. "It's really, really, really, really bright," Mr. Wales said. "Anyone who tries to one-up me with their fancy car or whatever, I've got 'em. I say, 'Well, I have a brighter flashlight.' "
[emphasis mine]

One of us! One of us! One of us! :crackup:
 

indenial

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I think someone with a far more vast knowledge of the history and technology of LED flashlights should contribute to and expand the
wikipedia.org listing on "Flashlight".

I just placed a link for this forum on their links section. Would you believe there were no enthusiast sites linked until now? I would guess others are checking out wikipedia info on lights after reading the NYT article.
 
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carrot

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indenial said:
I think someone with a far more vast knowledge of the history and technology of LED flashlights should contribute to and expand the
wikipedia.org listing on "Flashlight".

I just placed a link for this forum on their links section. Would you believe there were no enthusiast sites linked until now? I would guess others are checking out wikipedia info on lights after reading the NYT article.
I have worked on it in the past. It was at one point decided to remove "enthusiast links" for reasons I am not sure I understand. (This happened during my siesta from Wikipedia.)
 

roguesw

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they said the average light was 60 lumen compared to the 250 lumen from the M6

is the average consumer light really averages 60 lumen? by average consumer i am speaking about non lithium 123 powered.

well at least surefire's name was mentioned.
 

jnj1033

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roguesw said:
they said the average light was 60 lumen compared to the 250 lumen from the M6

is the average consumer light really averages 60 lumen? by average consumer i am speaking about non lithium 123 powered.

"The SureFire M6 blasts the competition, which averages 60 lumens, with a 250-lumen light beam." (From the NY Times Article)


I wonder what they meant by "the competition." A 4D Mag is about 60 lumens, but that's hardly competition for Surefire. I would think their competition would be companies like Streamlight or maybe Pelican, but even they seem to be a step down from Surefire's level of refinement. Who are Surefire's competitors anyway?

That said, it's nice to see the hobby getting some press, and maybe some credibility outside the "flashlight-geek Websites."
 

Trashman

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I wonder if Wikipedia entries get made when a number of searches for an unlisted item are done? Say, if we all do a hundred Wikipedia searches for "flashaholic", might they see it as something that warrants an entry? (heh, heh)

Great link, BTW. (or not so great--it makes me want an M6)
 
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carrot

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Wikipedia entries are made based on what other pages need. If there are hundreds of links pointing to [[flashaholic]] for instance, and the page does not exist already, then somebody may come across this and make a page. However, I seriously doubt that we will see a [[flashaholic]] entry in Wikipedia any time soon. :(
 

joema

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cyberspyder said:
funny they don't mention CPF...
There has been a huge debate on the discussion page of the Wikipedia flashlight article about linking to CPF. Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashlight
Discussion page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Flashlight

Wikipedia guidelines generally recommend against linking to blogs and social networking sites. Unfortunately some misguided Wikipedia editors don't read that closely and misinterpret the guideline as prohibiting any link to any discussion forum, period. In most cases these same editors aren't even aware of CPF and the high quality narrowly focused technical discussion. They simply make a mindless knee-jerk reaction, delete the link, and refuse to reason on it.

That is unfortunate. Wikipedia is a great resource, but things like that adversely impacts Wikipedia's quality. It's ironic Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (whose carrying of a Surefire M6 started this thread) is worried about article quality: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14186665/.
 

joema

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watt4 said:
it's not the wikipedia staff deleting it. regular users are doing it.
Let me clarify: In Wikipedia parlance, all regular users are called "editors". There is no official Wikipedia staff at all, except for (I think) four people who formed the Wikipedia foundation.
 

carrot

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There are. They are moderators who have extra user capabilities like locking pages from editing, etc.

Joema, are you talking about [[User:Betterthanyouare]]?
 

joema

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carrot said:
There are. They are moderators who have extra user capabilities like locking pages from editing, etc.
In Wikipedia parlance, the term is "administrator"; yes they exist, but they are unpaid volunteers, not official staffers who work for Wikipedia. I was explaining to watt4 that the term "editor" doesn't mean an official Wikipedia staff person, rather just any contributor.

carrot said:
Joema, are you talking about [[User:Betterthanyouare]]?
Not uniquely. There have been problems on several Wikipedia articles due to a wording change a few months ago regarding guidelines for external links. That change discourages (but does not prohibit) links to discussion forums. The goal was to cut down links to social discussion forums, Myspace blogs, etc.

Some Wikipedia editors (that is, regular contributors) just quickly read the new guideline and think every link to any forum must be deleted. Sometime they do this repeatedly without apparently examining the forum in question. In the Wikipedia flashlight article, links to Flashlightreviews.com and CPF have been repeatedly deleted.
 
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