Ok, look, Philip, your a good guy, and I very much appreciate the stuff you've done and published. But lets just think about this for a second:
- you are "toying" with this and asking people to spend there time donating to it with no real guarrenty that it will stay up. On the other hand,
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm has been UP and been an operational wiki since 1999.
- you haven't solved the spam problem except by restricting access.
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm allows anyone to post (login required only to add new pages, or to rearrange or delete content from the page) and I've learned how to block the spam effectively with little effort. And the effort that is required, I have been supplying since 1999.
- you are starting from scratch, and
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm already has a ton of information on making PCBs.
- The content of
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm is regularly copied out on CD's and mirrored to backup locations so there is NO chance of it being lost. Where is all the data that was entered into the mfgr/dist database you used to have on your site?
- I'm a 46 year old business man married with kids and you are a college student.
So, here is what I want to know:
- Why duplicate the effort when
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm is already in place and growing?
- What are you willing to do to ensure the data people take thier time to contribute is not lost, and will continue to be available?
- Who out there has so little reguard for thier time that they would contribute to someones 'toying' around project?
- What the heck is wrong with
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm that people shouldn't use it? Honestly? Really? Could someone PLEASE tell me why you can't use
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm?- If you can't use
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcbs.htm, for god sake, why would you not use wikipedia? They have the spam thing solved, they aren't going anywhere and they aren't a toy project.
Did that come off as a rant? Well, IT IS! After working all these years to provide a home for this information, to figure out a balance between the cost of hosting it and the time required to keep it up so that I can justify it as a long term project, it just freaking blows me away that anyone could come along and just freaking waste peoples time by 'toying' around with the idea of putting up yet another wiki.
Again, I like you, I like your site, I love your published projects, but you DID ask for criticisms.
--
James.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Philip Pemberton <ygroups@...> wrote:
>
> Hi guys,
> I'm toying with the idea of resurrecting the Homebrew-PCBs Wiki. Well,
> actually, that's a lie -- I've installed TikiWiki on my server and pointed a
> subdomain at it:
> <http://pcbwiki.philpem.me.uk/>
>
> There's not a lot of content there at the moment, but I've set up a basic
> framework, and I'll be putting some of my notes on there over the coming weeks
> (assuming, of course, that I don't end up covering any more shifts at work).
>
> Anyone is welcome to edit the Wiki, but you can't do so anonymously -- this is
> mainly to prevent (or at least try and prevent) spam posts and malicious editing.
>
> Comments and criticisms welcome, as always.
>
> --
> Phil.
> ygroups@...
> http://www.philpem.me.uk/
>