lildogturpy Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I have been thinking of setting up a 'wiki' site for traditional music and dance for some time and finally got around to doing something about it. A wiki site lets anybody edit the content as opposed to submitting content to a moderator who controls what goes on the site. As such it is very easy to keep things current or let things languish depending on the enthusiasm of the site editors. Such a site can be very flexible and over time would develop it's own feel depending again on the contributors to the site. I saw no reason to exclude dance although there is nothing for that on a site like The Session but so far there is only one dance group listed - Stone Monkey, my brothers' rapper team (who won DERT 2007 by the way!). I would be interested in getting feedback on the idea, preferably on the site itself so that anyone interested in the site can see it. As a start I've uploaded the tunes from the O'Regan's Tunebook site and set up a general framework for the site content. You will need to regester an account before you can edit, but anyone can view the site. Feel free to add to the site - the more the merrier. Use the link below to get there. Traditional Music Wiki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Best of luck. A couple of years ago I started a wiki for the concertina which I called Wikitina. It started well with some contributors including an enthusiastic Rich Morse, but interest rapidly faded. When sometime later the version of PHP used on the site was changed and it broke the wiki software and nobody noticed I decided to pull the plug. There were a number of reasons it failed, but I believe the main one was that its focus was too narrow. There may have been scope for a free reed wiki, but I never got round to it. I hope yours works out, and certainly I think your subject focus is wider than mine, but if it fails for the same reason you could try widening the subject to traditional issues in general. Cheers, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lildogturpy Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 If you have content from your Wikitina (I like the name ) feel free to copy/paste it on over. I have a section for Instruments that could be the right place for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fiddlersgreen Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Robin, the site looks good. I can see how it could really get huge. Your timing may be just right. Glad to see your back home. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Kloba Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 A couple of years ago I started a wiki for the concertina which I called Wikitina. There were a number of reasons it failed, but I believe the main one was that its focus was too narrow. There may have been scope for a free reed wiki, but I never got round to it.I started a free-reed wiki, and it's still at squeezebox.wikia.com. Originally, I took the content from my "Squeezebox 101" page, which I no longer wanted to maintain. I thought my wiki failed because its focus was too broad. There have been occasional contributions, but there are currently no registered users besides me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I thought my wiki failed because its focus was too broad. There have been occasional contributions, but there are currently no registered users besides me. In a strange way I find that rather reassuring, I'm not sure why. I'd still like to see the Traditional Music Wiki succeed, though. I wonder why some wikis make it and others don't? Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Reid Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Robin, I'd suggest getting a dedicated domain and giving a title to the main page that is descriptive of the purpose and content. "Welcome to Fischnet Stockings" (huh?) isn't going to get you high scores for relevance when people use search engines to look for traditional music and dance resources. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lildogturpy Posted March 15, 2007 Author Share Posted March 15, 2007 Michael, you're absolutely right. Since I was just toying with the idea I just came up with a joke based on the hosts domain name - music.gordfisch.net. Any suggestions for a name? By the way, thanks to Howard Mitchell for pointing out a HUMONGOUS security hole which has now been passed on to the maintainer of the login/registration code and plugged on my site. At least now all the passwords are not openly visible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 In a strange way I find that rather reassuring, I'm not sure why. I'd still like to see the Traditional Music Wiki succeed, though. I wonder why some wikis make it and others don't? Chris One factor will be time. As a regular reader and sometime contributor to the C.net discussion forums, and with using a computer screen for significant periods of my working day, there are limits to how much I would allocate time to other online outlets. - John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan atlas Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 FOLKS: still another victim of breadth vs. narrow focus: the FREE-REED JOURNAL. . .which, in trying to appeal to everyone, ended up appealing to no one. . . .and that's why it went belly up............Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m3838 Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 The page looks good. Easy to navigate, no silly designs, simple and professional. ( I hold particular view on professional pages. 99% of them are 'not' professional looking, as they have unnecessary designes, that serve the purpose of showing off, but make navigating more cumbersome) But as for editing and spending time in Wiki sandbox - please excuse me. I've got better things to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Reid Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Any suggestions for a name? A whois.com check shows that the following names are all available: tradmusicdance.com tradmusicanddance.com traditionalmusicdance.com tradmusicdancewiki.com tradmusicwiki.com If your're committed to including dance resources, I suggest the first -- shorter is better, and I don't think 'wiki' needs to be in the name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Timson Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 But as for editing and spending time in Wiki sandbox - please excuse me. I've got better things to do. You may not like it, but it's a standard part of every wiki. Just ignore it if it's of no use to you, but you may find it useful in trying out the editing conventions of a particular wiki. They do differ from wiki to wiki and they rarely resemble Word! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wes williams Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I wish you luck, Robin. Personally I find most of the Wikis - especially concertina related entries - contain errors or misrepresentations (eg concertina invented by Wheatstone in 1844 according to Wikipedia, and (sorry Theo!) the first anglos had twenty buttons according to squeezebox.wikia). I could spend a lot of time trying to correct or clarify these things, but I have a life to lead, and I'd much rather spend my limited spare time discussing and answering here. It makes me very distrustful of Wikis, so I tend to avoid them, and use them only as a suggestion for where to look next when I'm finally stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Kloba Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 (sorry Theo!) the first anglos had twenty buttons according to squeezebox.wikia).No need to apologize; I know the information is incomplete and flawed. Maybe you'll see why I took down my old "Squeezebox 101" site and replaced it with the wiki: I started out with The (Chemnitzer) Concertina Novice, whose scope seemed clear, but I was constantly emailed questions that had to do with accordions or other types of concertinas. (Not even Wikipedia existed then; there was no single page where I could send someone to classify the mysterious contraption that their dear uncle had bequeathed them...) I assembled SB101 from bits I had gleaned here, on rec.music.makers.squeezebox, and similar sources. This didn't stop the emails; in fact it caused a new type of email to appear: Corrections. I kept up with these for some time but then I realized it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing. Once I put everything onto wikia, I declared it no longer mine. Although I may spend some time improving information about the things that really matter to me, I take no personal offense at criticisms. I no longer worry that I'm responsible for the inaccuracies that may be there. I also learned to ignore emails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delbert Blackketter Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 I was constantly emailed questions that had to do with accordions or other types of concertinas. So Theo, what is the difference between a Chemnitzer and a Bandoneon? Also, if you play sad music on a Bandonion will it make you cry? Del Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Kloba Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 So Theo, what is the difference between a Chemnitzer and a Bandoneon?I would say that depends on the Chemnitzer and the Bandoneon! At least the keyboard layout... This is as much as I have on ©CN: http://www.geocities.com/heytud/faq.html#faq22Also, if you play sad music on a Bandonion will it make you cry?It will at least make your eyes water. That's why it's called a bandONION. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tootler Posted March 18, 2007 Share Posted March 18, 2007 I went to the site, clicked on the "Sessions" link and selected England to find that I had to login with a userid and password, neither of which I have. Doesn't that seem to be somewhat against the spirit of a Wiki? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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