Wheel Questions

[crenshawseeds.livejournal.com]

I'm Ashley Taylor, a reporter for the Somerville News writing a story about John Monsarrat's Wheel Questions installation currently at Davis Square in front of the 7-11.  

What do you think of it?  

Have you posted questions, and did you appreciate the answers?  Or do you just read it?  

Or have you never heard of it or seen it?

Particularly, as members of an on-line community, what do you think of the idea of having a community based around a physical structure, "the Wheel"?  

Please let me know  explicitly, when you reply, whether or not I can quote you in my article. 

Thank you.

 

Comments

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

Is that why it disappeared? Good to know.

Also, I'd think it'd be better and more of a "community interaction" piece if it were possible for the general populace to both ask and answer questions, instead of having him be the only person who can answer questions (especially since he can be kind of a jerk to the people asking).

[purgatori84.livejournal.com]

Feel free to quote:
I feel that a project like this exists to enlarge the ego of its creator. Also, I hope people consider the character of said creator and take it into account when reading his answers. Someone with numerous publicly recorded harassment allegations against him is not someone I would wish to receive advice from.
As to the community aspect of the project, I don't think there is one: it is centered around one person. Only if the project was interactive in both asking and receiving questions would it truly be a community project.

Please do not quote: I also have personal misgivings against the creator, as I ended up living in a house with him from a craigslist advertisement. I do not believe he should be in the position to give out advice based on my day to day dealings with him.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

I pretty much echo what others said. When I first saw the wheel I thought it was for anyone to ask AND anyone to answer, and I thought that was pretty cool. But when I realized it was just one person doing the answers, that kind of ruined it for me. Still, my 6-year-old enjoyed writing a question and putting it in the box. I don't think it has occurred to him to wonder whether his question got answered. (just looked on the website and found it, so maybe I'll show it to him later.)

I particularly agree with the poster above who said that it's misleading to refer to a "community" based around the Wheel. There is no such thing as far as I can tell. Just a bunch of people writing questions and one guy answering them. That's not a community.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Well, ok, I should clarify that I am *assuming* that the creator of the wheel moved, based on the fact that someone at the house was leaving out a bunch of stuff for taking shortly before and the subsequent radical change in the yard. There could be another explanation, though.

[usernamenumber.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the above (and anything else I say in this thread) may be quoted.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Everything really interesting in the world has to start with the idea that it's important to oneself. No one does amazing things that aren't.

Also, thanks for the update about what happened to it in it's original home. I was so sad when it disappeared. Another interesting, challenging, creative thing gone from the community.

Re: A bit of a dumb idea, IMO

[badseed1980.livejournal.com]

Or maybe something where we ask personal but not privacy-violating questions of any random person and put them in a box, and then draw out another person's question to answer. Stuff like, "What's the most interesting dream you've had lately?" "Do you believe in an afterlife, and if so, what's it like?" No names or contact info or anything. So we'd be able to see input from all kinds of people on all kinds of topics. Plus, it'd be more of a community interactive thing.

[turil.livejournal.com]

You can quote me.

I find it inspiring. I find it challenging. And I hope that others will similarly choose to go out on a limb and do something creative with themselves, for their community, and for themselves.

Also, as a general suggestion, this community is packed full of snarl lovers, who make it a hobby of being obnoxious. So this probably isn't the best place to find honest, healthy opinions. But maybe that's not what you're looking for? I know lots of news media likes to play up the drama of stories. In which case, the Davis Square Snark LJ community is where you want to be. :-)

[turil.livejournal.com]

Heh. I meant snark lovers. Not "snarl". Though they probably love snarling too.

Re: A bit of a dumb idea, IMO

[ron_newman]

I like that idea, too. It would improve the installation and its reception in the community.

Re: Wow!

[ron_newman]

Or perhaps the word you all are looking for is 'oracle' .

[ron_newman]

I feel that a project like this exists to enlarge the ego of its creator.

Leaving aside the character of this particular creator ... isn't the above statement to some extent true for any piece of art?

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I love that he's giving his age as "35" when he graduated from MIT in 1989. No, Johnny, we don't believe you graduated from MIT at 15.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, that infamous Valentine's Day match service, with all the privacy violations, is totally unrelated to thematchup.net, which is a project of the MIT Media Lab's eRationality group.

[ron_newman]

How long should we hold his past offenses against him, and is it possible that he has genuinely changed and found a new path (as reflected by this installation)? I've never met this guy, and I don't know the answers to either question*, but they're worth asking.

* and no, I'm not going to submit either one to The Question Wheel. Someone else can, though.

[contradictacat.livejournal.com]

As long as he's still running "Midnight Seduction", there's no such thing as "past offenses". Being a creepy ethically questionable guy wrt the dating site is one thing- trying to lure teenage girls into his house under a pretense of a "game about vampires" is something else. and AFAIK, that's still going on.

[ron_newman]

Now that, I knew nothing whatsoever about. My comment was based only on the 'MIT-Harvard Match-up' incident. I do think he owes people an apology for that one, however.

[ron_newman]

The MIT online alumni directory confirms his graduation year as 1989.

(which article or website says he is 35?)

[rumpleteasah.livejournal.com]

you can quote this: This "traveling art installation" definitely misses the point. Having ONE person answer all the questions not only gives a limited view on the situation, but also exacerbates the problem that the creator CLAIMS to be trying to solve, which is that people don't solve their own problems. If it were a FULLY interactive, with the option to ask AND answer questions, it likely would have been better recieved. As a note, I've read a number of the "answers" the creator has put up, and have been continually skeeved out by them. I'm also troubled that this man is referring to himself as a life coach.

do not quote this: I am against it. I always have had misgivings about it. I was one of the people who helped to build the original, which I ALSO considered an eyesore (I somehow convinced him to let me put plants into the garden, however.) This is a man who has alienated almost everyone who I know has had contact with him, and I don't think that he's qualified to be giving ANYONE advice.

I know some have asked how long we can hold someone to their past mistakes, but the issue isn't ONLY in his past. Less than a year ago, there were numerous incidences involving him that got to the point of my being completely unable to come close to the house while I was with one of the people who lived there, out of fear of having to deal with this man. He is socially manipulative and not above using his stature to get his way (though to my knowledge he has not used actual violence.) While I was living there, I was never comfortable having any of my female friends come over. The one time I did was when I was moving out, and he leered at her so hard that she told me she was going to go wait by the car rather than re-enter the house.

Re: A bit of a dumb idea, IMO

[rumpleteasah.livejournal.com]

I really like that idea! It strikes me as much more effective than what's been done.

[rumpleteasah.livejournal.com]

lure teenage girls (as young as 16) into his house under a pretense of a "game about vampires" which actually has NO game aspect, has no mention of vampires, and is actually just a big play party complete with alcohol.

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

This 2004 article talks about a MatchUp that was "under new management, with more emphasis placed on privacy concerns."
http://tech.mit.edu/V124/N4/4matchup.4n.html

[m-b-w.livejournal.com]

Today's Globe article says that he is 40.

[genesayssitdown.livejournal.com]

JON MONSARRAT IS A CREEP

here are some resources:

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/Jonmon
http://media.www.hlrecord.org/media/storage/paper609/news/2003/04/17/News/Dating.Service.Creator.Accused.Of.Harassing.Students-419629.shtml

everyone i have ever known to have ever dealt with him personally will tell you. he has no business harvesting the imagination of youth.

Re: A bit of a dumb idea, IMO

[rmd.livejournal.com]

reminds me of the 'USENET oracle'