Doing my best to keep this on topic and civil:
1 - I'm on a few lists and it drives me nuts that you need to keep
giving mostly the same answers a few times a year. Before the web, you
could say "see faq 3.7", but since, we have wikis (though someone does
have to maintain them).
2 - Do we have any verified cases of PCB wiki spamming? Unlike yahoo
groups, which all live on one domain name, can be searched and all run
on the same server, the world's many public wikis run on many servers
and systems. Also, all true wiki's have a history capability and can
have editors whitelisted if necessary (and very few do, though most
require registration)
3 - What's at massmind really does not feel like a wiki to me - a
search on "toner transfer" took 11 seconds and turned up what looked
like forum posts. And it's hardly what you'd call readable - it
doesn't even use CSS. I freely admit I didn't spend a lot of time
there, but if there is useful info there, my first instinct would be
to get it ported somewhere else ASAP
At the end of the day, there is no magic AI that converts list posts
into new or ammended wiki pages (which is what I really wish for), so
I doubt I'll personally be involved in any wiki work myself, but if I
was the type of person who did, that's what I'd be doing
PG
On 01/06/2009, at 3:14 AM, James Newton wrote:
>
>
> 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.htmalready
> 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/
> >
>
>
>