Monday, January 21, 2008

PigeonRank™ and Textual Criticism

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I have just finished putting together my own website. I was trying to figure out how to get it to come up on a Google search (yes, I am that lame) when I came across some information on the technology that powers Google. I am wondering if this patented method of mass data collection and organization could be used in TC. Read more, here.

6 comments

  1. Well...don't leave us in suspense. What's the url for your website? :)

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  2. It can be seen, here. Nothing too exciting, apart from the Coptic Links pages which needs updating.

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  3. This technology only works on the day preceding Ante Diem IV Nones Aprilis.

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  4. Well, I suppose PigeonRank could be turned into a ranking system for the TC, but that requires a preset validation system with text-critical rules to be implemented (the Pigeon). The problem is that it creates a mechanical or semi-mechanical (with fuzzy logic algorithms) system that does not cope very well with scribal exigencies (read, idiosyncracies that are not mechanical) unless the resulting output is really fuzzy :)

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  5. My guess is that the pigeons would be thoroughgoing eclectics.

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  6. I have been thinking this "pigeon" for quite some time actually, being an engineer previously. It is possible to create whatever kind of PigeonRank - whether Byzantine Priority, thoroughgoing or whatever, but to find a proper balance with whatever rules is difficult. And as I said, it would be at least semi-mechanical. I have yet to come up an idea how to built an artificial intelligence that copes with intentional changes. That's the problem. Besides, any probability game is just that, a probability game. This in my view is the biggest problem in genealogical systems like CBGM as well.

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