good idea eh, which reminds me, is vex ever gonna have a wiki? there’s going to be something similar in TRU
What would it take to make one? Wouldn’t someone just have to join Wikipedia and set one up?
im making an article submission type thing on my site which uses PHP and MySQL, requires novice to advanced web programming
but for Vex to have a wiki on their site they can use an open source wiki software (Actaully i bet there’s an extension to vBulletin)
I looked up what it takes to make a wiki (on wikipedia nonetheless) and it appears that it would take:
A-Server. Hopefully the Vex server, there are other free and payed hosts available.
B-Wiki Software
C-Serverside scripting software for some wiki engines, possibly database such as MySQL as well
D-People to fill the wiki with all things Vex.
There are companies that host wikis for free or money which cut out dealing with complex programs as well.
barely related fact that popped into my strange mind: a couple of my friends managed to hack into Wikipedia and rewrite one of their articles to make fun of the philosopher on which our school bases some of it’s teaching methods (Mortimer Adler) during freshman year Geometry.
It would be best if IFI ran a wiki themselves, but if they do not plan to do that, I could host a Vex-related wiki on my site (www.vexplosion.com). I’m a bit concerned about running a wide-open wiki, so what kind of criteria should be use for “writers” status?. I was thinking of allowing writes only by VEX Forum members with some number of posts under their belt (50?) to avoid spammers and total noobs from taking over.
Thoughts?
- Dean
Noobs, not a word I ever expected to hear on this forum. However I think that would be a good idea quazar, but I would have the minimum post count and an application to write? Just something so that whoever manages it knows who is doing what.
Didn’t mean to be harsh - just seems like we’d want some demonstration of commitment (like 50 posts and a month or two on the forum) before allowing writes to the wiki.
Perhaps I can find a wiki that allows writes by new members to require moderator approval before being committed. Then, I’d just need to line up a few volunteers to serve as moderators.
All the wiki’s I’ve used are entirely server-side, so you don’t need anything special on your client system other than a web browser (perhaps a browser plugin at most).
And any minimum criteria that wouldn’t allow corpralchee to write to the wiki is clearly broken 
As for managing it, clearly I can’t have the wiki interface with the VexForum user accounts directly. My thought is that membership is managed thusly:
If you want to become a contributor, you have to meet the minimum criteria, then you send an email to the wiki admin/moderator list. If they agree that you meet the criteria, they set up your account on the wiki and PM you a temporary password on the Vex Forum.
Oh, and of course anybody with a browser can read the wiki - no login or permissions needed.
Cheers,
- Dean
Doesn’t that kind of sign-up defeat the purpose of a wiki? Maybe you are looking more for a shared document space with ACLs than a wiki.
Note to mods: perhaps this line of discussion should be split into a new thread.
That’s what I meant by an application, I should have been more clear.
Most of the wiki’s I’m used to are run inside a corporate network behind a firewall, and even then they require individual authentication just to read a page. This is just a configuration option for a wiki, not a whole new animal.
The only thing I’m suggesting is that we have some barrier to entry to prevent spammers and such. I’m willing to try running with it totally open and then clamp it down if there seems to be a problem - what is the group consensus on this?
Thanks for that - I was going to suggest the same.
Oh right - application like a form to fill out, rather than like a program that you install. Seems perfectly clear in hindsight…
Cheers,
- Dean
Eh, just have a moderation queue, simple to make. PHP and MySQL, article submission, use the upload thingy with some filters, add in some Web 2.0 stuff, tagging, comments, you’re good to go
That is what I was talking about back in post #7. The problem is that I really don’t want everything to go through moderators, because (1) that requires moderators, and (2) it would annoy everybody so much they’d never use the wiki.
Besides, a moderator queue for a wiki is not trivial to implement because the submissions are edits to pages. If two people have changes to the same page in the queue, then the moderator has to merge the pages. (I had to deal with this in a corporate usemod wiki variant.) Best to avoid delaying the edits.
I just want some minimal assurance that folks making changes are really there to talk about VEX and not trying to sell shoes, or uploading project files with viruses, etc. I’m willing to try whatever folks think is a good idea, and obviously it can be tweaked over time.
In the mean time, I’m looking at the myriad options available for a wiki. I want to make sure that it handles uploading pictures and project files. Any other specific needs?
Cheers,
- Dean
havent been here in a while lots of summer online gaming on psn
why not just make one on wikipedia and have the mods have a direct link from here on the main page
it might make it hard to edit but its easier to setup
barely related fact that popped into my strange mind: a couple of my friends managed to hack into Wikipedia and rewrite one of their articles to make fun of the philosopher on which our school bases some of it’s teaching methods (Mortimer Adler) during freshman year Geometry.
just passed by wikipedia and checked for vex
for some weird reason the vex page had this weird audio frequency on the page if you went to top of page-high freq. bottom of page-low freq
did you tell friends to hack them again lol 