Let's start SPCR wiki

VERiON · **Posted:** Mon Jun 13, 2005 11:59 pm

SPCR forum is growing lightning fast. If I don't have time to read forum for few days - I have to run through hundreds of post when I get back

And 50% (or more) posts are same old song (best case, best fan - all over again).

So I was thinking - why don't start a SPCR wiki using existing (and future) SPCR content?
Already written articles and stickies could make great wiki already.

Wiki is a great way to share information and I think that wiki is a better tool for MikeC to deliver (and control) great content with less efford.
Anyone can write/modify article or add info to exisiting articles.
It is easier to make hyperlinks [WikiWords] and it is easier to find what you are looking for.

It is not the choice forum or wiki - we can develop content @ forum and THEN post final thougts/results @ wiki. It is the way to separate useful/completed subjects info from discussions/not completed tasks/unrealised, not confirmed ideas/etc. It is also a way to prevent (some) users from asking the same (already answered) questions all over again (because they can't find final answer @ forum).

We put so much efford in posting solutions/ideas/answers - we can easily turn it into useful compendium.
[Of course I'm not saying that SPCR isn't a useful compendium

]

tell me what you think

LINKS:

what is wiki? (short)
===============
http://lifehacker.com/software/producti ... 032546.php

what is wiki?
=========
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

article evolution
===========
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Scien ... _Evolution

How to start a Wiki
==============
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wiki_Scien ... art_a_Wiki

swivelguy2 · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:16 am

This was brought up before, and our lovable admins didn't like the idea. I think this was because they thought it would be harder for joe noob to walk in off the street and get help, and it would be too hard to set up a wiki and migrate all that content.

However, if we do get a wiki, preferably alongside a forum, or with a forum embedded into the wiki, I'd gladly volunteer a few hours a day helping to migrate content (copy and past style) until the wiki is full.

Ralf Hutter · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:27 am

Earlier SPCR Wiki threads:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=13993

Best one:

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 977#109977

VERiON · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:55 am

I'm aware of that threads. I just want to bring it back, because that treads was more about how to prevent forum from flooding with "low quality" post.

Wiki is great way to organize information, but I can understand MikeC - lack of attention/volunteers can be a problem.
But wiki is too great

. We can (at least) give it a try

I'm big fan of wiki - it is a simple idea that seems to be almost unreal in the real world (like open-source).
But it IS working all over the world.

I especially agree with the below posts:

koody wrote:

I agree that the lack of attention is a potential problem, but honestly what's there to lose?
[...]
Wikis are a collaborative effort. The same way we saw a faq generated here. The pain of writing a complete article is way more than just writing to a wiki. In wikis you add to the information, you are not expected to make it complete and to cover all.
[...]
I've used wikis to store some information online so I won't have to re-invent it again. I've also fixed typos, grammatical errors and re-written sentences to make them more understandable.

swivelguy2 wrote:

[...]
The purpose of a wiki, and its main advantage of a forum is that information can be made and kept organized. Everything that can be considered a topic can have its own page - for example, a page called Mobile Bartons, or a page called Sound Dampening, which links to pages called Acoustipak, Melamine, etc. Every page can also have a discussion subpage, or perhaps a link to the relevant forum for less-permanent discussions.

A wiki is not much harder to set up than phpBB, which obviously works. See here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/phpwiki/.

Wikis have every feature that you would ever need, including extensive tools for moderators to control access and regulate content.

A wiki is the simple yet powerful solution for building and maintaining a public collection of knowledge. Editing it is something that anybody can learn and do in 5 minutes.

When Sensei's Library started out, it's goal was to "act as the online repository of all Go knowledge in the world," and the wiki is a perfect format for doing so. SPCR's goal is basically the same, and so should it's methods be.
[...]

jamesm · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 7:42 am

I can host an offsite wiki, and if the admins like it, I'd be more than happy to share the sql dump.

sthayashi · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 12:36 pm

jamesm wrote:

I can host an offsite wiki, and if the admins like it, I'd be more than happy to share the sql dump.

This is the best approach. Start an unofficial SPCR wiki and see how it turns out. This way MikeC has to spend zero time worrying about it. Be sure to put emphasis on UNOFFICIAL. Mike is very hardcore about the quality of the SPCR name (as he rightfully should be after 3 years of hard work).

BTW, for those reading the previous threads on the subject, I'm not really against Wikis. I'm just against the admin staff spending (or as I believe it, wasting) time on it.

VERiON · **Posted:** Tue Jun 14, 2005 1:02 pm

I disagree.

I think "unofficial" SPCR wiki is out of the question. Maybe I'm little overreacting, but for me it is like a stealing intelectual properity from MikeC and all SPCR users. And it is also like stealing FOCUS from SPCR and SPCR forum.

I think the only way is to get MikeC/site admins approval and support and make official SPCR wiki.

If MikeC doesn't want a wiki - there will be no SPCR wiki at all.

Tobias · **Joined:** Sun Aug 24, 2003 9:52 am **Posts:** 530

I read jamesm:s remark as "a not really public Wiki that you will be invited to once and may contribute to if you want, but until the time that MikeC says it is good enough AND that it is a wanted compliment to the community it will not in any way be advertised."

It is simply a work done by the members of the community in dedication to SPCR in an attempt to further enhance the website and community that we all love. Maybe unofficial is the wrong word and fringes the realms of intellectual property theft, but it will be a dedication to SPCR.

That said, I have no experience with Wiki and can not really tell if this is a good idea or not. My understanding of a Wiki is that it is like an encyclopedia which is made and maintained by a large group or people or a community. If that is correct and the Wiki is done right, I think that it might be a tremendous source of information and a big help for all of us, readers as well as those of you that spend hours a day here trying to help people and discussing new ideas. These forums contains so much information that it is horrifying and the community that is gathered here is tremendous. If there is one bad thing that can be said about these forums it is that most of the info is not really easy to get to, unfortunately. That is why I see a Wiki as a potential enhancment. But then again, what doesI know about Wiki:s?

alleycat · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 3:53 am

Well, look what I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPCR

There is no reason why this couldn't be comprehensively expanded.

jamesm · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:14 am

i made that a couple of days ago.

MikeC · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:11 am

Having perused many of the wiki links provided here by previous posters, I've come to appreciate the potential of a wiki. Yes, there is much info in the forums which probably will never make their way into the main site as articles or such simply because of the sheer amount of work the main site already entails. So information that would fall halfway between SPCR articles and ordinary forum threads could benefit from a wiki for article development.

I am going to ask Richard do a bit of research on which wiki software is best for our needs. Anyone else with experience and knowledge-based opinions about this, feel free to suggest here.

Mods & admins for the wiki will be needed for sure. Anyone who feels they have the time, desire and enough knowhow about PC silencing to do this task should contact me.

peteamer · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 11:21 am

Good news indeed and without doubt a very welcome and extremely usefull resource for SPCR and particularly it's new/newer members.

May even cut down on repeat questions...

Steve Rosenthal · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 12:06 pm

I'd like to nominate TWiki as a candidate. I've been administering our internal site for four or so years. It's pretty mature and with a fairly stable and solid group of core contributors.

I'm also happy to do what I can with regard to administration or at least some level of consulting (especially if the above version is the ultimate choice).

MikeC (or any other SPCR admins), please PM me with any questions.

--Steve

swivelguy2 · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:50 pm

I'll volunteer to help build a wiki, although I have no experience in moderating one. As long as I can create and edit wiki pages, I don't think I even need moderator status to work on the SPCR wiki. :shrug:

jamesm · **Posted:** Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:23 pm

i've used mediawiki before and It's very easy to use, install and maintain. It is very powerful and mature. It powers wikipedia, wikibooks, etc, so most contributers would feel at home editing mediawiki pages. As an added bonus, it's open source, like the rest of the software that runs this site (phpBB and postnuke).

VERiON · **Posted:** Fri Jun 17, 2005 1:05 am

MikeC wrote:

I've come to appreciate the potential of a wiki. [...] So information that would fall halfway between SPCR articles and ordinary forum threads could benefit from a wiki for article development.

I'm glad to hear that.

I can prepare (complile from many existing) straight-forward tutorials:

"How to add/edit wiki entries"
"How to format wiki text (wiki markup language)"

when you choose a specific WIKI.

jojo4u · **Posted:** Thu Jun 23, 2005 8:42 am

alleycat wrote:

Well, look what I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPCR

What makes me wonder, why is it categorized as "Categories: Photography stubs" ?

About the wiki: I am very positive about the idea as well. This would be a perfect place to store my stickies and would-be-stickies

jojo4u · **Posted:** Fri Jul 01, 2005 7:30 am

I have no experiences with maintaining wikis, but at least I have contributed to them.
The first decision in choosing a wiki should be, wether you need a database or not. A database speeds up searching significantly.

Regarding searching: The german magazine C't tested 5 Wiki-engines in december 2003.
MoinMoinWiki, UseModWiki, PhpWiki, TWiki, MediaWiki

with database: PhpWiki, MediaWiki

Full text search through 10000 pages/80MB text:
MediaWiki: 1s
PhpWiki: 2,5s
MoinMoinWiki : 20s
UseModWiki: 45s
TWiki: -size too big-

Experiences with non-database wikis:
As a 2nd example, go to linuxwiki.org (MoinMoinWiki) and search full-text. It takes some ages....
http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:experiences:scalability

So I'd vote for a wiki with a database. Not because of the hudge amount of pagen the wiki will include, but because of the probably frequent visitors and the resulting server-load.

There are only a few popular Wiki-engines with database support. That would make is easier.

VERiON · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 1:55 am

MikeC wrote:

Having perused many of the wiki links provided here by previous posters, I've come to appreciate the potential of a wiki. [...] I am going to ask Richard do a bit of research on which wiki software is best for our needs.

Any progress? Any conclusions about wiki engine?

jojo4u · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 2:46 am

VERiON wrote:

Any progress? Any conclusions about wiki engine?

Mike made a comment about the progress here:
http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewto ... 512#196512

MikeC · **Posted:** Fri Jul 22, 2005 7:24 am

We want to make sure it's working right from the start. Much harder to fix after it's up and running than before. Richard is a bit of a perfectionist, too, but I chatted with him earlier this week and I know he's working on it. I believe he's settled on mediawiki, which drives wikipedia.

VERiON · **Posted:** Sat Jul 23, 2005 3:05 am

MikeC wrote:

We want to make sure it's working right from the start. Much harder to fix after it's up and running than before.

I like that approach. It's good to hear that you are working on the subject. Thanks.

jojo4u · **Posted:** Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:48 am

*push*
What what is the status of the wiki project?

jojo4u · **Posted:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:44 am

After one year I feel myself obliged to push the topic again ^^. There is much information for me to gather and catalogize. Perhaps I will start a wiki on my own. E.g. on pbwiki.com?

qviri · **Posted:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 7:43 am

I can start up a mediawiki-powered website in a day.

I was, however, thinking about this. If we make an off-site wiki, it will more than likely contain some kind of compilation of data found on SPCR and its forums. By necessity, said compilation will be taking away some page-views from SPCR's summary pages, forum threads, and what not... directly translating into probably small but nonetheless finite amounts of advertising revenue lost.

I'd love to contribute to an "official" SPCR wiki... with ads if you want. http://wiki.silentpcreview.com is waiting. I'm uneasy with starting an independent wiki and leveraging SPCR content, though.

Devonavar · **Posted:** Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:53 pm

Hmm, I'd forgotten about this. I'll have to make some enquiries...

qviri · **Posted:** Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:27 am

Devonavar wrote:

Hmm, I'd forgotten about this. I'll have to make some enquiries...

If there's anything I can do to help, let me know.

DanW · **Posted:** Sun Feb 25, 2007 3:00 am

I'd be happy to moderate and/or add info to the Wiki if it gets going, as I can never find any information in the forums these days :lol:

lm · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:12 am

Please, what is the status of the official spcr wiki project?

Conroy · **Posted:** Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:32 pm

What's the holdup? Is a server or volunteers needed?

Let's start SPCR wiki

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