Quote:
Originally Posted by mfunnell
That makes sense - or, at the very least, its better than the software default page.
What I'd like to see (perhaps here, but longer term somewhere like the community portal page) is an outline of what this wiki is for, how it differs from (or is related to) other wikis like wikipedia or camerapedia etc. and what the ground-rules for articles might be.
For example, an encyclopedia-style article on the M3 might belong on wikipedia (aside from illustrating it with a photo of an M2  - something I corrected). But a how-to article on, say, repairing it or even just using it might belong "here". I don't know. And that's the problem.
Perhaps those who set up the "Leicapedia" might want to set some of that out, somewhere...
...Mike |
All good points I think. I'm a big fan of wikipedia. But I think the level of detail that forum members might be interested in may well be outside that generally found at wikipedia. I'm thinking of, for example, the
Color Management Wiki which itself is quite robust. One might not want such a long article in the wikipedia to cover all the info in the subtopics at the colormanagement wiki. There's also the recent issue of manufacturers or their employees fiddling with info in their own or competitiors products. It's great that there's software that may catch these creeps but frustrating that some people stoop that low. Could it happen here too? Maybe, but not perhaps if each wiki post here had to be done as a member of the forum. Then the tracking ability of the wiki could help us find misusers who could loose their forum reg and thus wiki posting ability.
The other references you cite are pretty basic or cover broader topics. Leicapedia is nothing but a joomla shell at the moment. I would think a wiki here would be logically more useful than a free floating one if they're both just starting.
Camerapedia is nice, hadn't seen that before. On the one hand its really nice that it exists but again I find its initial set-up conditions to make it less than user friendly for leica specific information. I had no trouble (clicking on the L in the alpha listing) in finding information on an M4 but I couldn't figure out how to find info on a M mount 35 1.4 asph summilux without just searching for it. It's not under Leica, not under lenses and not under summilux alphabetical listings.
One of the issues which your question brings up is how good information from the forum would find its way into the wiki. I suspect that most people are willing to toss some info into the forum but won't take the time to re-post in the wiki making it less than useful. A tool for signaling someone (perhaps a volunteer team?) that a thread has useful info for the wiki and then that someone or team puts the info into the wiki? Don't know, but I do think the power and uniqueness of a wiki here at L-camera Forum is that essentially the info is being generated here ad hoc by people who generally know what they're talking about.
Unfortunately good info in forums gets lost pretty quickly as threads fall into the great thread heaven. Then searching threads means getting large amounts of posts on the keyword searched for but many of the posts are pretty useless. It's not at all efficient for factual info. If this could be solved, the L-camera Forum could have the best Leica wiki going.
But your fundamental point is a good one. The admin has to sort out what they want and how they see it working. If they don't know then its an exercise in futility. Too bad if that turns out to be true because this could be a great resource.