Wiki

[Jarret]

Just wondering if anybody has looked into adding one of these to the forums.

I'm sure somebody has created a wiki for use with VBulletin.

I think it would be a great idea since we could use it to refer people to if they have a commonly asked question.

Plus, we could add all the different types of information for each type of reptile(housing, temps, humidity, background).

I know that most of the forums have a Care Sheet, but it seems that a wiki would be far more organized and people might be more willing to add what they know since a wiki is run off of user based content.

[danthony428]

i agree, that is kind of a good idea, as long as nobody gets on there just messing around posting the wrong info

[The Snake Guru]

Hmmmm, not really sure what that is.

Do you have a link or something that I can take a look at it?

~B~

[danthony428]

umm..im not sure, just search on google or something what is a wiki, have you ever been to wikipedia??? its like a website where users can add or change information live, its pretty cool

[NorthernRegius.com]

There's already a herp wiki out-

here's the link: http://www.herpsonline.net/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[The Snake Guru]

Interesting..........

And this something you would like to see incorperated into this forum?
Anyone else have thoughts on it?

~B~

[NorthernRegius.com]

Interesting..........

And this something you would like to see incorperated into this forum?
Anyone else have thoughts on it?

~B~
Honestly it took allot of folks some serious time to come up with the one that's already out there & is free to use & update so...
:confused:

Don't see any reason to recreate the wheel, why not build off of what's there? Use the link and those with info- contribute away!

[The Snake Guru]

That's an idea.
I saw that quite a few of the catagories seemed to be unfinished?

~B~

[danthony428]

ya i guess what deb said would work, itd just cool to have our own

[Jarret]

I see your point Deb, however, that wiki is old and there hasnt been one change to the site in the past 30 days. The results for anything older then 30 days are spam.

The last update to the site was January 2nd and that was just spam. I could only search up to the last 50 updates to the site and every single update was spam as well.

I know that alot of people put time and effort into that site, but there isn't even a page for burmese pythons.

I agree with Anthony, I would prefer to have our own wiki as most likely it would be far more up to date and I'm sure we could have far more information.

If the admins are still interested, you can review more about the wiki and download it for free, here (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki).

[ffollett]

The only bad thing I can see is we already have care sheet sections in each reptile forum. Which we, the admins, decided to keep locked from general posting to keep bad information off the site. We are more than happy to allow others to post their care sheets but they have to be sent to an admin first for approval.
From what I understand with a wiki style site anyone would be able to post information to it. Which would need to be more closely monitored for content.

[NorthernRegius.com]

That's an idea.
I saw that quite a few of the catagories seemed to be unfinished?

~B~

The present one need(s)/(ed) exactly the same thing a new one would- active participation. IMO easier to build off an existing foundation that from ground zero. Whatever you decide the challenge is the same- to keep folks contributing good info.

All the Best- Deb

[Jarret]

Yes anyone that has an account can edit the wiki, I am trying to find out if you can require authorization before allowing a post to go through. If I had some time, I could probably look at the code, and write a script requiring authorization from an admin account, before the information would be posted onto the page.

Its basically the same as a forum. Somebody could create an account here and post up spam.

Edit:

I would be more then willing to volunteer my time to keep track of posts and edit out the spam and block ip's and all that fun stuff. Sure I can't be on every single second of the day since I do work, but usually after work I am on the net until I go to bed.

[danthony428]

i think it could be far more up to date on here also, with all the people that are very knowledgable about herps here on our board, i mean, its not up to me, but i think the mods should look into this

[Lorelei]

I think it might possibly be a good idea if the other one is not used much - I do believe the members here would be able to contribute some essential information. However, this would be a HUGE undertaking for the site, and would have to be seriously considered by all the admins collectively. Not only could this be enormously time consuming for the admin team, but also could potentially cost a lot of money to upkeep.

Jarret - thanks for the offer of upkeep, but we like to keep all admin responsibilities within the founding partners.

[NorthernRegius.com]

... this would be a HUGE undertaking for the site, and would have to be seriously considered by all the admins collectively. Not only could this be enormously time consuming for the admin team, but also could potentially cost a lot of money to upkeep.

...
You can say that again!

Ian (the guy behind the old site) and many folks (myself included) put hours & hours of work into that site- Nick, you worked on it too right? You would not believe how long just listing the species pages & stuff took... and that was just to give a person somewhere to put the info. I spent weeks on the glossary, and that's on top of everybody else. It doesn't take long before it takes on a life of it's own.

That's why I suggest to those who like to tinker & have info to add- add it to the existing site.

All the Best- Deb

[danthony428]

maybe someone could get ahold of the owner of the other wiki and maybe link the 2 together?? im not sure, it would be cool to have a my reptile wiki, but it would also be cool to have an already set foundation

[nickthegreek]

You can say that again!

Ian (the guy behind the old site) and many folks (myself included) put hours & hours of work into that site- Nick, you worked on it too right? You would not believe how long just listing the species pages & stuff took... and that was just to give a person somewhere to put the info. I spent weeks on the glossary, and that's on top of everybody else. It doesn't take long before it takes on a life of it's own.

That's why I suggest to those who like to tinker & have info to add- add it to the existing site.

All the Best- Deb

Deb, I don't know about you, but I probably have close to a thousand hours into that wiki, so I don't honestly think it would be a good idea to just let a forum loose on there, But I would be willing to get in touch with Ian if you would like me too?:D

[NorthernRegius.com]

Deb, I don't know about you, but I probably have close to a thousand hours into that wiki, so I don't honestly think it would be a good idea to just let a forum loose on there, But I would be willing to get in touch with Ian if you would like me too?:D

Nick, it's my understanding that one need only create a username/password to work the site... then the mods would review the data for accuracy? :noidea:

[The Snake Guru]

Just an update on this.

After talking about it, I think we've decided to stick with our original Care Sheet sections. However in order to get more information and sheets coming in, I'm cooking up a little deal......so stay tuned for that.

Also I would like to point out that there is a "search" engine already plugged into this forum at the top menu bar, clicking on it will pull down a couple of choices that you can search out topics by, you can search out entire threads, or break it down into individual posts. Hope this helps.

And start thinking about putting some caresheets/articals together for your herps.

~B~

[Jarret]

Good plan Brad. Basically the whole reason I suggested the wiki was because after reviewing some of the care sheets, they seemed kind of sparse.

My main interests is to have a section explaining all the diseases/infections and list some fixes that can be done. I realize that each situation can be unique, but having a general idea of when something happens could be nice.

I do appreciate the time those who did write up care sheets took in writing down the information.

If I had more to say or better knowledge of anything I would already be adding care sheets and other information to the forums. But since I am still learning and have not been at this very long, I'll just read others posts from now on and learn from that.

Maybe this weekend if I'm not too busy, I will go through, and look up some of the questions people ask frequently and write up a FAQ. That is something else I was interested in creating for the forums or at least having since some of the questions asked can be answered through a search, but some people either don't know about the search or are just too lazy to do a search.

[The Snake Guru]

Yeah I have been meaning to put up a general health/sick care guide up, just haven't gotten around to it.

But I'm glad that this will help with the issue.

~B~