WikiPelican, Coming soon...

[Wayne 962]

Scott convinced me that this was probably a very good idea, to compile everyone's technical knowledge into a Wiki format. I just downloaded and installed the Wiki software on this machine. We can setup a Wiki for Porsches & BMWs just like they have done on this site:

http://wiki.howardforums.com/index.php/Main_Page

Any thoughts on how to best implement this? I think we'll need Wiki volunteers too...

-Wayne

[Kroggers]

Cool idea, what would a Wiki volunteer have to do?

[Joeaksa]

Wayne,

I do a bit of work on Wiki and its not difficult.

Click on the "Edit" icon at the top of the page you linked to and it gives you the "raw" view. Like this:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{|style="width:100%;margin-top:+.7em;background-color:#cedff2;border:1px solid #a3b0bf"
|style="text-align:center;width:100%;color:#000"|

Welcome to the '''HowardForums Wiki'''!

The HowardForums Wiki is the sister site to [http://www.howardforums.com HowardForums] and [http://www.howardchui.com HowardChui]

|}

Here is a listing of our Wikis. If you don't see a page for your favorite Manufacturer, Carrier or Smartphone PDA OS feel free to create one and link to it below. Please also check the [[site directory]] to see if the information you're looking for already exists. Thanks!

=='''Phone Manufacturers'''==
''Note: Red links indicate articles without content... if you have some useful information about these manufacturers, please help us out and add it!''
*[[Asus]]
*[[Apple]]
*[[BanQ]]
*[[BenQ-Siemens]]
*[[Bird]]
*[[Danger]]
*[[FIC]]
*[[HTC]]
*[[Kyocera]]
*[[LG]]
*[[Motorola]]
*[[NEC]]
*[[Nokia]]
*[[Panasonic]]
*[[Pantech]]
*[[Samsung]]
*[[Sanyo]]
*[[Siemens]]
*[[SonyEricsson]]
*[[Sharp]]
*[[Toshiba]]
*[[Vertu]]
*[[VK Mobile]]

=='''Carriers'''==
=== Argentina ===
*[http://www.personal.com.ar Personal]

=== USA ===
==== National ====
*[[Alltel]]
*[[AT&T (formerly Cingular)]]
*[[Sprint/Nextel]]
*[[T-Mobile]]
*[[Verizon]]

[Shaun @ Tru6]

just as long as it's got a knowledgeable editor like John Walker. the amount of great information on Technical is awesome.

The amount of misinformation is staggering: "torsion bars are not springs, they just seem to hold up the car." by one long time poster when offering suspension advice.

[MichiganMat]

This is a great idea. The tech articles are good, but this will allow greater collaboration on each topic and will lighten the work load on all involved. Many hands...

[cashflyer]

And may help reduce the number of repetitive subject threads... such as 12 different threads on why 915 transmissions don't shift well, or 7 threads on overfilling your oil tank.

Excellent idea!!

[RallyJon]

Originally posted by Shaun 84 Targa
just as long as it's got a knowledgeable editor like John Walker. the amount of great information on Technical is awesome.

The amount of misinformation is staggering: "torsion bars are not springs, they just seem to hold up the car." by one long time poster when offering suspension advice.

Not sure that matters much in the short run. I'd rather see 1000 words from a good prolific writer with a few errors, than a few scratches from an expert who can't write. With Wiki it's much easier to correct errors and flesh out details later, but getting lots of content up ASAP has to be the first priority.

[azasadny]

Excellent idea!

[RallyJon]

Wayne, you need to have a protocol for posting decent sized images to support the text. Nothing worse than finding an old how-to thread with dead image links.

[Wayne 962]

Originally posted by Shaun 84 Targa
just as long as it's got a knowledgeable editor like John Walker. the amount of great information on Technical is awesome.

The amount of misinformation is staggering: "torsion bars are not springs, they just seem to hold up the car." by one long time poster when offering suspension advice.

This has been my main resistance to this. There's a lot of people who think they know stuff in the forums, but don't really quite know what they don't know...

-Wayne

[ischmitz]

Well, while you can't edit information in the forums you can on Wiki.

On the forums you can post different viewpoints and opinions. I think this is fun, when "watching" heated exchanges on the merrits of performance chips between a certain un-named individual and the rest of the crowd. However, beyond the entertainment value it is difficult for the novice to sift through the BS and the real information.

On Wiki you can better control this. First, wrong information will quickly get corrected. And if one of these arguments sprouts the admin can put a quick end to it "guiding" the process of "reducing the entropy" of the Wiki database...

I like the idea

[RallyJon]

Plus, you can add missing information to abbreviated how-tos like those in 101 Projects.

[Rot 911]

I wonder if this would lead to losing our sense of community here on the Pelican board?

[ischmitz]

as long as the fights and arguments don't go away..... right

I believe Wiki is an awesome way to capture and preserve information so why not giving it a try.

[euro911sc]

Originally posted by Kurt V
I wonder if this would lead to losing our sense of community here on the Pelican board?

I would guess that eventually, as the Wiki got bigger and better that traffic on the board would die down to talking about recent events or some such stuff... New posters looking for technical help would be referred to the Wiki or links to specific info would be posted and that would be that for that post... All the side traffic in tech questions based posts would dwindle.

Eventually, we would have a social club... how fast this transformation takes is not guessable...

Don't get me wrong here, I think a collective Wiki on Porsches would be a huge benefit... I would totally love to be an editor... on what aspect I'm qualified at I have no idea What happens to the community... that's my best guess. Would it end up like the off-topic forum? Hope not

-m

[VaSteve]

Originally posted by Wayne at Pelican Parts
This has been my main resistance to this. There's a lot of people who think they know stuff in the forums, but don't really quite know what they don't know...

-Wayne

Interesting observation...this thought kind of invalidates the whole purpose of the board in one fell swoop.

There's a lot of good information out there from less than "experts" and some bad information rammed down our throat by the experts.

Unless the Pelican Parts seal of approval is on it (or needs to be on it), the wiki would be no different than the board itself. The nice thing is for the old timers (or medium timers) we don't need to soft through the 50,000th "why wheels look good on my car" post in order to find that 3 year old nugget of knowledge essential to whatever has finally broken.

[M.D. Holloway]

I will be glade to add my meager knowledge base on lubrication (automotive and industrial only!). It comes with a money back guarantee.

[BlackTalon]

Originally posted by VaSteve
Interesting observation...kind of invalidates the whole purpose of the board in one fell swoop.

There's a lot of good information out there from less than "experts" and some bad information rammed down our throat by the experts.

Unless the Pelican Parts seal of approval is on it (or needs to be on it), the wiki would be no different than the board itself. The nice thing is for the old timers (or medium timers) we don't need to soft through the 50,000th "why wheels look good on my car" post in order to find that 3 year old nugget of knowledge essential to whatever has finally broken.

I don't know that a wiki would invalidate the board, but it probably would lead to a lot of replies to tech questions that look like this:

"Read the Wiki, Newbie!"

Instead of this:

"Use the Search Button, Newbie!"

[VaSteve]

Sorry, BT, I was referring to Wayne's comment. But yeah, that will happen. The board will transform some, but probably for the better.

No: "What broke?" or "Arg...help me out" headers on posts. Who has time to read that?

[svandamme]

i kind of suggested something like this some years ago

althoug not wiki, but more in a controlled form to avoid misinformation...

use a fixed template, to make the information uniform
and have a couple of editor's per subject, that review articles sent in... perhaps one or 2 to screen the articles and then send them on to the relevant editors per subject

problem with pure wiki is that anyone can crap up any existing article, or just produce new articles that make no sense, or duplicate articles...