david fabre Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 I'm continuing here a discussion which started from one of my posts in another thread buit which may be more suited here. Here is my original post : Hi, A few ideas : 1/ important threads can be identified as "sticky" to remain on the top of the list. this feature is not used a lot here compared to other forums (for instance on the chiff and fipple whistle forum there are about 20 sticky threads) 2/ Another problem is that in many threads the important information are burried within lots of side discussion that make the topic hard to follow a long time after. Maybe these important threads could be "cleaned" somehow by retaining only the important infos, or maybe one should start new "synthesis threads" where it will be explicitly stated that one should not digress from the topic. 3/ I'm just reallising that what I propose in point 2 would be much more easy to do in the form of a wiki.... So how about a concertina wiki ? And here are the two reactions to my post : David, I won't comment on the administrative work load (never mind judgment calls, not as obvious to us as to you perhaps) some of these ideas might create except to say we keep hoping for improvements to the Invision search facility. The choatic nature of intereaction on the Web makes controlling thread drift, etc., a pipe dream in my view, so long as we are nearly unmoderated here. My experience with the static articles on C.net, some of which are still useful, is that you can lead a reader to water but you can't make him drink (or read). So much depends on the curiosity of folks seeking things out, like in a library. As for a concertina wiki, I hope Chris Timson is in a calm frame of mind and physiology when he sees your suggestion...I'll let him explain. Nonetheless, thanks for all the interest. Ken QUOTE (david fabre @ Jul 29 2009, 03:39 PM) *3/ I'm just reallising that what I propose in point 2 would be much more easy to do in the form of a wiki.... So how about a concertina wiki ? There was one once ... it was called Wikitina and I set it up and administered it. It got an initial flury of interest and a few people (most notably Rich Morse) made some significant edits. But traffic fairly rapidly dropped off and people seemed to go straight to the forum or the FAQ as before. Eventually, when an upgrade to PHP broke the site and no-one noticed, I decided to pull the plug. No-one noticed that, either. I believe that to work a wiki must have either a very dedicated group of contributors (work and project wikis are a good example) or a suffiently broad subjet area to encompass a large number of possible contributors (the canonical example, of corse is Wikipedia). Nowadays I am the section editor in charge of the concertina section at Folkopedia. If you want to contribute to a wiki may I strongly encourage you to have a look here. Cheers, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david fabre Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 Hello Ken, You are certainly right concerning the administrative load. As for my suggestion of "cleaning up" threads, after thinking twice I'm now convinced it is not feasable, and maybe not even wishable. As for starting "synthesis threads" devoted to gathering information, pointing to former discussions, but stating as a rule that that one should avoid starting new discussions, I beleive it could work ; at least it could be tried. I may start one of this kind if I find a convenient subject. About the static articles on C.net : I know their existence and I agree that many are still of interest. However I beleive that many recent users are not aware of their existence and go directly to the forum. Maybe some advertising could be useful. Also, how is this managed and what is the procedure if one wants to contribute to this ? As for the improvement of the search facility : any reason to hope ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david fabre Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 Hello Chris, I was not aware of the wiki project. It's a pity it did not work. Maybe it was too early and the community was not ready for this ? (maybe it is still the case ?) I've had a look at the one started on folkopedia and may contribute to it when I find a little time for this. Have you been able to save some of the content of the first one (including the contributions from Rich Morse) to put on this newer one ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dunk Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Theo Gibb may have something to add but a very good wiki project over on melodeon.net has recently been closed down, read the details here. A lot of hard work went into the database and it was a shame to see it go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken_Coles Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Hello Ken, You are certainly right concerning the administrative load. As for my suggestion of "cleaning up" threads, after thinking twice I'm now convinced it is not feasable, and maybe not even wishable. As for starting "synthesis threads" devoted to gathering information, pointing to former discussions, but stating as a rule that that one should avoid starting new discussions, I beleive it could work ; at least it could be tried. I may start one of this kind if I find a convenient subject. About the static articles on C.net : I know their existence and I agree that many are still of interest. However I believe that many recent users are not aware of their existence and go directly to the forum. Maybe some advertising could be useful. Also, how is this managed and what is the procedure if one wants to contribute to this ? As for the improvement of the search facility : any reason to hope ? Please do start a synthesis thread if you like. Sometimes these persist and become suitable for pinning, other times they don't. As for static articles, you propose one (or send it already written) to me or Paul, and we edit and post it if it fits on C.net. Some great ones in recent years are on duet systems and some of the history articles. Personally, I prefer that you send plain text and let us add the html tags. The code created by many "automatic" html editors (Front Page is one of the worst) is messy and hard to maintain. For example, every January I revise the North America Summer Schools list, easy to do because it is very basic in format. Invision does make revisions to their software, and we are now paid customers, so we can get the upgrades. I believe you can give them direct feedback that they keep to guide their revisions (though I don't have the details to hand). Paul told me once that search engines are rather difficult to program; look at how many geniuses Google had to hire as they created theirs. Don't forget to _play_ your concertinas once in a while, everyone! Cheers, Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david fabre Posted July 31, 2009 Author Share Posted July 31, 2009 Thanks for replying look at how many geniuses Google had to hire as they created theirs. Maybe on should say "genia" for the plural of genius OK I go back to squeeze ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted July 31, 2009 Share Posted July 31, 2009 Maybe on should say "genia" for the plural of genius Genii ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Chambers Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Maybe on should say "genia" for the plural of genius Genii ? Genii is strictly correct, as the word comes from Latin, but it would be more usual to say geniuses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimLucas Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Maybe on should say "genia" for the plural of genius Genii ? Genii is strictly correct, as the word comes from Latin, but it would be more usual to say geniuses. What does it matter? Have you ever encountered more than one at a time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wild Posted August 1, 2009 Share Posted August 1, 2009 Have you ever encountered more than one at a time? Not real ones - only hopefuls dreamers and deluded folk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 Theo Gibb may have something to add but a very good wiki project over on melodeon.net has recently been closed down, read the details here. A lot of hard work went into the database and it was a shame to see it go. Yes indeed, our wiki was hacked and caused untold chaos to our webhost. Fortunately he is very understanding and helpful, but it brought the whole of melodeon.net down for a few hours. The database started off with great enthusiasm, a lot of hard work from those who volunteered to set up the technical side of things, but after a few months activity had dropped more or less to zero, so it was not a difficult decision to kill it off when it was hacked. Only a handful of people have commented since it went. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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