Wikipedia challange to the moderators and maybe Mike

[H3Jim]

The recent dupicate post about tools (there was an identical question two years ago) brings up a good point. As good as this board is, and the tremendous resource that it is, it still repeats itself, and much of the knowledge and information that is in here, while searchable, is not always immediately and easily available.

This is a link to a site that describes how to get for FREE, the software engine that powers Wikipedia.  It develops a knowledge base from the users thats easy to access and have input to.

Go check it out, wouldn't it be a great addition to an already great resource.

http://lifehacker.com/software/wikipedia/geek-to-live-set-up-your-personal-wikipedia-163707.php

[DrivingMissLazy]

I have been disappointed in our regular search functions. Seems like I can never find what I am looking for.

One of the biggest problems I think is that the subject of the message many times does not really relate to the material being posted or somebody tries to be funny when making the subject line. I do not think any of the moderators have the time to review each subject and change it to something that relates to the subject matter. And of course if a subject was changed the original author would possibly/probably get pi$$ed about the change.

Also there are so many photos that are included in a regular post and for all practical purposes they are lost to the world since there are several thousand posts and most do not indicate that there are photos attached. It would be great if there was someway to keep them all together.

Any ideas?

Richard

[HighTechRedneck]

I agree with everything Jim and Richard said.  And I agree with Jim that a Bus Conversion Wiki Knowledgebase would be a possible solution.  It would take time to populate with useful info, but then so did the forum.  And like the forum, the whole community can contribute to the wiki knowledgebase.  Perhaps a few volunteers could work at their own pace to cull information that is in the forum to get it started.

[H3Jim]

And it would likely be in a better format for Mik'e use in the magazine.

Has anyone used Wikipedia?  It seems like it could be a great addition to this site.

[Dreamscape]

I agree with having a difficult time to search for a certain topic.

In my humble opinion I suggested to Nick that maybe one sticky topic could be made that would include only projects that each of us are doing.

It would make it easier to keep track of who is doing what and when.

Example; Topic could say "Bus Conversion Owners Project Information" or something to that effect.

Each of us doing a project would have one thread that they could post on and replies could be made there.

Example; "Dreamscape 1968 Eagle 01"

It would then be easier for each of us to find what we are interested in on a particular coach and project.

I dunno maybe someone has a better idea. Another one of my hair brained ideas.

FWIW,

Paul

[47FLXclipper]

I think Pauls idea would be more usefull, to have different forum areas for projects or makes beyond this general one ["All Topics" covers the works!] ... the problem with wiki's is it's waaay too easy for folks who have problems beyond turning on computers to mess things up, not to mention other gremlins - Wikipedia has a dedicated large team of volunteers who constantly work on it, and much monitering and discussion goes on behind the curtain to keep it all organized and functioning

and note on the Mediawiki: MediaWiki is advanced wiki software that requires Apache web server, the PHP scripting language and the MySQL database server installed to run, meaning more work for the webmaster setting it all up and keeping it working

Bill

[Jeremy]

I think it's an excellent idea to have an area dedicated to people's projects. One forum which has exactly that feature is this one:

http://build.tremormuv.com/

I often go back to that site to see how individual build-ups are progressing. For those that haven't come across them before, a  TremorMUV is a H1 HumVee replica built from plans - another project I would like to do one day.

Jeremy

[H3Jim]

That's what the topic is, a challange.  

It seems the end result would be a great way to access the data from any angle.  Meaning you could look up a subject by Dreamscape's projects (owner), or by pulling a bathroom (Area of bus), or by any other way you have the same topic indexed.

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Guy's,

I think you are on to something very useful...

We will have to call a meeting on the moderators board and see what we can come up with that will work for everyone's needs.

Keep the ides comming...

Thanks
Nick-

[plyonsMC9]

I have installed wiki before.  Idea looks promising - moderators are studying - thank you for all the excellent input!!

Kind Regards, Phil

[H3Jim]

Thanks for considering it.  If you want to do a beta test I would volunteer.