I just wandered over to the Wiki-formosa deal. A mild suggestion, if you want people to contribute to that knowledge base you need to do two things:
First, make it easy to do. I am not wiki-literate so I had zero clue as to how to do any of it. It looks like you have to know how to “wiki-program”. (looks vaguely like html programing, which I know nothing about either). Now I realize that the wiki-software package may simply be as it is but if it can be tinkered with to simplify it, then that would be helpful.
Second, and I know this is wikipedia heresy, but I (for one) will not contribute pieces if any and all dingbats in cyberspace can blow in and change the piece around at their whim. Put simply you should have a lock feature where the submitted article is taken as an all or nothing proposition and kept intact until a decision is reached to delete it.
It is a bit tricky when you want to put links and formatting, I don’t think there’s much to do about that. I’m sure some nice wiki-literate person can take your raw text and put it on.
Individual pages can be locked (the front page and a few others are locked to prevent spamming), again, I’m sure someone would consider that for a finished article that can’t really be added to.
[quote=“brianlkennedy”]I just wandered over to the Wiki-formosa deal. A mild suggestion, if you want people to contribute to that knowledge base you need to do two things:
First, make it easy to do. I am not wiki-literate so I had zero clue as to how to do any of it. It looks like you have to know how to “wiki-program”. (looks vaguely like html programing, which I know nothing about either). Now I realize that the wiki-software package may simply be as it is but if it can be tinkered with to simplify it, then that would be helpful.
[/quote]
You need to learn the wiki tags. They are on the help page.
Basically, just go ahead and enter your article. Just remember that empty lines separate paragraphs. If you need help formatting the headings and any lists, post back here and I’ll do it for you. Don’t have the page locked first though lol.
This is heresy. You are missing out on the power of wikis to create documents collaboratively if you lock pages. Look at Wikipedia for an example of how powerful this is. In general, no one will want to change an article on your topic since it is non-controversial. If they do, we can lock it. The whole point is to leave it open so that it can be changed not by dingbats, but by other folks who have something to contribute or know how to format your content.
Your concerns are usually shared by most people who have not yet contributed to a wiki. Try it and see…
Hi Feiren, thanks much for the run down and the offer to help with it. I think I will go ahead and do a short (1,000 or so words) piece. It will be down the road a week or two as I got two projects that I got to get finished first.
Brian, thank you for posting your concerns about the wiki-format. I completely agree with you, and believe what you posted are key reasons behind why Forumosa has not had much success with its wiki efforts.
I am relieved that I can say we are getting very close to some long planned improvements here.
First, yes, we are planning a more user-friendly design
Next, your “heresy” is quite understandable, but we may have an answer: a Forumosan with a lot experience writing and using Wikipedia has stepped forward and offered to administer our new wiki. There is a lot that goes into nurturing a wiki, and our friend seems to have a solid vision and understanding of how to handle disputes, vandalism and general upkeep. Let me save the surprise for the moment, but we are planning to launch the new wiki very soon (within weeks)
Please do post your article. I hope to move the content we currently have. Plus, we plan to have some “seeded” articles and sections in place when we make the new wiki publicly accessible.