Advice and guidance for new users

[grepper]

I believe, and I could be wrong, but I think they are two different beasts.  Kind of like email and spreadsheets.

[grepper]

Please Ignore...Sorry.  Forum software goofed up and posted duplicate.  I see no way to delete the post.

[Rob]

I think you just choose edit/modify and then manually delete the text?

[Herman Trivilino]

That'll delete the contents of the message (if the software will even let you do that) but it won't remove the message itself.  Only a moderator or admin can do that.

[Rob]

Right

But I spose st least you can correct mistakes even if you just leave the actual message

[Rob]

So.....Herman and Mark

I think youre right, a top level group with sticky links sounds perfect.  What we need is Jeff to review this and comment.  Im with you though, surprised Tormek havent done it before.  My guess is that was part of the original remit of this very forum, after all...the information we're referring to is already here, its just scattered in many many posts.

Im happy to have a role in helping but I feel the real value is in joint collaboration where we assign multiple edit permissions and "evolve" the content jointly

Jeff.....are we just talking rubbish or is this possible?

[Herman Trivilino]

I think a wiki would be a better way to go, but that's just my opinion.

[Rob]

Herman by that are you suggesting we do ths outside this site?

[Rob]

in fact if I get you right do you mean strarting a wiki that resides inside wickipedia?

[Herman Trivilino]

The wiki would be within the forum.  Of course the forum software would have to allow for this option, so we need to find out if it's a possibility.

[grepper]

There would be a link that you click on that would take you to the wiki.  So, it wouldn't really make any difference where the wiki lives, you could get there from a link within the forum.

The issue is that for an actual wiki, you will need a "host", i.e., a computer running the wiki software, with dedicated disk space to hold the thing and it's content including image files, video files, etc., plus Internet connectivity with enough bandwidth to handle the traffic.

I don't know how much of a wiki you can set up inside of Wikipedia.  That would have to be researched.  There are wiki hosting sites, some free, some you have to pay for.

Anyway, a true wiki, as opposed to just using these forums, would require setup, and hosting. 

Not necessarily a show stopper, but much more difficult. 

Now, if Tormek would just host a wiki for us...

[Rob]

so chaps what exactly is the definition of a wiki?  Does it describe the collaborative process of building the knowledge content?  Hosting it is clearly entirely different from that which it is. Sorry to be slow, these explanations are helpful

[Rob]

I understand the hosting issues in terms of bandwidth etc....ie the hoster has to "play server".

For this reason as well as many others, this site is where it should be in my view

[grepper]

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_software

Wiki software (also known as a wiki engine or wiki application[citation needed]) is collaborative software that runs a wiki, i.e., a website that allows users to create and collaboratively edit web pages via a web browser. A wiki system is usually a web application that runs on one or more web servers. The content, including all current and previous revisions, is usually stored in either a file system or a database.

Wiki software was invented and first created by programmer Ward Cunningham in 1995. There are currently dozens of actively maintained wiki engines, in a variety of programming languages, including both open source and proprietary applications.
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So, a true wiki is created by running a specific software program.  Like an email program allows you to read/send email, or a drawing program specializes in letting you draw stuff, like Microsoft Paint, a wiki program makes a wiki, with a wiki look/feel, allows users to edit pages, manages users, permissions, searching, storage of content and all of the other let's make a wiki be a wiki kind of stuff.

So the term wiki is rather specific, and differs from a much simpler, possibly categorized, FAQ page with links.

We users could easily create a thread with links to other threads or "articles".  We do it all of the time.  However, without moderator permission, only the author of individual posts could edit the posts he created.  Therefore collaborative editing of "articles" (posts) would not be possible unless the forum allows for group based or public editing permissions.  Granting of editing permission would up to Jeff.

Does that help?

[Herman Trivilino]

There would be a link that you click on that would take you to the wiki.  So, it wouldn't really make any difference where the wiki lives, you could get there from a link within the forum.

The issue is that for an actual wiki, you will need a "host", i.e., a computer running the wiki software, with dedicated disk space to hold the thing and it's content including image files, video files, etc., plus Internet connectivity with enough bandwidth to handle the traffic.

That's the reason why having the forum software support the wiki is so important.  It solves all the problems you mentioned.