[Grady Clay]

Wayne,

I have been following this with interest.

Good for you! I think this is a valuable addition. I see this as allowing edited use of the Forum to make the Tech Articles more responsive.

The Forum contains an incredible resource of technical information and mostly very accurate. Having a system to coalesce that resource into a Tech Article format will allow a transition from someone searching the forums to having a single resource (with links).

One of the most important Wiki features are links. While a Wiki-Pelican article can have one or a few author/editors, every detail should be linked to an authorative source. At least that should be Pelican threads and more. Factory references (corrected) are best.

One of the best features of the Forum is it is “self correcting”. If I post something in error, my compatriots post a correction. I’m never offended. I don’t know everything. I can use the 'EDIT' function to correct my mistake. This is the ‘beauty’ of the Forum.

The goal is to find a way to continue this wonderful ‘edit’ function between the Forum and a possibly revised Tech- or Wiki- situation.

Wayne, I recommend we all carefully think this through before implementing anything. There are lots of possibilities. Just like the transition from internet “lists” to “forums”, some made the transition better (and more successfully) than others. Our efforts can set the standards.

I would suggest a gradual introduction from significant Forum threads to some sort of limited Wiki-based edited Tech Articles. If you were to pick ten subjects, you could find ten experts for each and 100 that can offer good input. Add that to what is already archived on the Forum and there is an incredible start.

How to do this?

Let’s start with one relatively simple subject. I’ll propose 911 axle CV joints. There is a significant resource on the Forum if you are expert at Search. As an experiment, why not use that to build an Wiki-Article edited by some flexible group?

I recommend every Wiki-Pelican Tech Article have a linked Forum Thread for public discussion, input and critique. This is the ‘feedback’ technique so necessary for ‘peer-review’.

If you look at Wikipedia, one of the most significant aspects are references and links. When writing or editing a Wiki-Pelican article, aside from factual correctness, the links to Pelican Forum (and other) sources are most important.

If we do a Wiki-Pelican with the same rigor of peer review that professional journals use (or used to), we can produce the definitive on-line Porsche source (as if Pelican isn’t already). The only question is to how to do it properly for the long-term.

Let’s talk this through in all the detail rather than starting an experiment that might not be ideal.

Best,
Grady