a forest wiki, rfc
a forest wiki, rfc
just wondering what peeps thoughts were on the idea of a forest wiki? i'd be very much in favour of using mediawiki, primarily because if users have had any experience of a wiki before, it'll have been with mediawiki through wikipedia (both for general use and and it's formatting syntax), and also due to the number of features and extentions avaliable that other wiki's don't have (templates, embedding flash video in articles, etc).
hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku
There is certainly a lot of information currently stored in the BB which would be a hell of a lot easier to navigate if it was in a wiki. That said the BB does work and people do use it, and trying to get people to use something else as well could be both difficult and counterproductive unless the two are well integrated.
At a bare minimum we'd want to patch up MediaWiki to authenticate users with the same logins they already use on the BB, indeed preferably to recognise the same cookies.
At a bare minimum we'd want to patch up MediaWiki to authenticate users with the same logins they already use on the BB, indeed preferably to recognise the same cookies.
good point. *googles* this extension should do just that.
hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku
I don't think it's a good idea to have a wiki on top of our existing website and bb (and other forest stuff online, like facebook, myspace, the 23hq account, yahoo mailing lists). Both for reading the sites to get info and for posting info to the sites, it is too much different stuff to learn, information is too scatterred.
But, I personally think it might be a good idea to replace the existing site with something simpler like a simple wiki or, I think, go even simpler and use a blog if it can be done.
Incidentally does anyone know of a good not evil public wiki host? I know of https://luminotes.com/ which is awesome but that is for private, personal wikis. By not evil I mean independent, free accounts are available, no adverts, supported by the users e.g. by voluntary contributions or upgrading to paid accounts, runs on free software. Something that hits all or most of those.
But, I personally think it might be a good idea to replace the existing site with something simpler like a simple wiki or, I think, go even simpler and use a blog if it can be done.
Incidentally does anyone know of a good not evil public wiki host? I know of https://luminotes.com/ which is awesome but that is for private, personal wikis. By not evil I mean independent, free accounts are available, no adverts, supported by the users e.g. by voluntary contributions or upgrading to paid accounts, runs on free software. Something that hits all or most of those.
I've had it with you. If I had an image of a laser gun I would absolutely position it right here in my hand...
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
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It makes is quicker and easier for lots of people to add stuff to the site without having to know much technical stuff. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Actually I've changed my mind, I think a wiki would be a bad idea for the forest, as it's not fundamentally any easier to use than the CMS we have. A blog is fundamentally easier, because making a blog post is as simple as making a bb post, for example. You just click the Add Post button, get an empty text box, type away, then press Save and the blog does everything else. So it's very easy for everyone to contribute. A group blog might be a good thing for a forest website. Whereas with our existing CMS, and with a wiki, adding content is more difficult, you have to edit pages created by other people, you have to organise it yourself by linking the pages together, you have to deal with complex-looking wiki markup, etc.
Actually I've changed my mind, I think a wiki would be a bad idea for the forest, as it's not fundamentally any easier to use than the CMS we have. A blog is fundamentally easier, because making a blog post is as simple as making a bb post, for example. You just click the Add Post button, get an empty text box, type away, then press Save and the blog does everything else. So it's very easy for everyone to contribute. A group blog might be a good thing for a forest website. Whereas with our existing CMS, and with a wiki, adding content is more difficult, you have to edit pages created by other people, you have to organise it yourself by linking the pages together, you have to deal with complex-looking wiki markup, etc.
I've had it with you. If I had an image of a laser gun I would absolutely position it right here in my hand...
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
That can happen, it's a major problem for someone like wikipedia say, but you can also set it up so that only people with accounts can edit it and then only give accounts to people we know. It depends what we want to do. It could be public like the bb, where we attempt to let random joe publics get accounts and yet still try to keep the spammers out, or it could be private where we just give accounts to ourselves and our friends and probably don't get spammed.
Also I ran a wiki once which any visitor could edit without needing an account. You needed a password to edit it, and I wrote on the front page of the site 'the password is fairtrade.' Amazingly this completely stopped the spammers.
Also I ran a wiki once which any visitor could edit without needing an account. You needed a password to edit it, and I wrote on the front page of the site 'the password is fairtrade.' Amazingly this completely stopped the spammers.
I've had it with you. If I had an image of a laser gun I would absolutely position it right here in my hand...
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
Ha! I have a real laser absolutely positioned in my hand!
not off hand i'm afraid (i got my personal wiki for doing bugtesting for the author) but this seems an interesting list, plus check the wiki farm list on wikipedia (link at the bottom)Incidentally does anyone know of a good not evil public wiki host?
lets look at it this way - what does the forest need from a web site? is joomla up to the task using it's core+plugins? what better solution or combination of solutions might be available out there to use?But, I personally think it might be a good idea to replace the existing site with something simpler like a simple wiki or, I think, go even simpler and use a blog if it can be done.
what do people find annoying with the site? what would people like to do that they can do on other sites but not on theforest.org.uk?
to start, could we change the 'bb' link to read 'forum' as i've heard of a number of people who have visited the site before and never noticed there's a msg board section?
hey, if you don't like it, post on the BB (so you can ask about participating for better) | MilkMiruku
we need a clearer hierchy of information for the MAJOR and important work of the forest. Events Workshops and Forum Should be really easy to get to from the front page. everything else can stay more hidden and people can find it if they hunt. it would also be great if, for instance, i updated the events or my personal page - it would be great if any updates were reflected on the front page somehow so that a person visiting the site could see the new content immediately.
also - it should be clear that we welcome ANYONE to come and add stuff to our web site - especially if they are doing an activity or project. it is a great shame, for instance, that we do not have a page for forest vinyal... people need to FEEL that the forest site, like the cafe, is part owned by them.
it would be great if pockets uploaded recorded live tunes from the golden hour and if others added videos. like we have the monstor bike video on the facebook but NOT on our own website. (actually, i may try to fix that now....)
r
also - it should be clear that we welcome ANYONE to come and add stuff to our web site - especially if they are doing an activity or project. it is a great shame, for instance, that we do not have a page for forest vinyal... people need to FEEL that the forest site, like the cafe, is part owned by them.
it would be great if pockets uploaded recorded live tunes from the golden hour and if others added videos. like we have the monstor bike video on the facebook but NOT on our own website. (actually, i may try to fix that now....)
r
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www.ryanvanwinkle.com
www.ryanvanwinkle.com