New experimental So Cal Diving Wiki

I have set up an experimental Wiki. (URL is below) A Wiki is
a web site that anyone can edit, modify or add informmatin
to. It looks just like any other web site except there is an
"edit" button on each page. So for example if you go to the
wiki and look up your favorite dive site and find the
informaton to be sparce you can add some text, photos and
maybe a map. The next person might edit your work for style
and add links to reports of past dive trips to that site. It
sounds as if it could result in a real mess but no, most
people really are reasonable and make positive
contributios.

Wiki's tend to take on a life of thier own. Once they
contain some good content they will attract readers. Some of
these readers contribute more content or make improments to
existing content and this attracts more readers and so on.
Eventually a critical mass is reached.

This wiki is an experiment to see if a wiki can be usful to
the So Cal diving comunity. Wiki is not Forum. For example
you would not write on a wiki "Who makes the best dive
knife?" but you might post a list of knives you know about
and write reviews of a few of them, then come back in a few
days and find that your list has been expanded and the number
of reviews has also. And then weeks later someone writes a
page about how they had to use thier knife once and someone
else writes a rather technical article about the various type
of metals used in making knives.

I have atempted to start the ball rolling by putting the wiki
on-line and starting an outline that can be filled in by
others. As I said, It's an experiment. If this takes off
I'll invest in a larger and more stable server. This is
purly a hobby I have absolutly no intent to make money off
this. You should be able to figure out how to use this wiki
by reading the help pages and experimenting. If it is not
clear what to do, you can fix it by editing the instructions
of the front page.

For starts you can scroll to the bottom of the "Front Page"
and find the "sandbox". There you can type stuff in like
"Look Ma, No hands" or try and figure out how to post a video
clip to the Wiki without posability of mess up a "real" page.
You can start small, correct a spelling error. See that it
works then maybe write an article on how to select a spear
gun or whatever....

I don't want to fill up this forum with messages about this.
You may contact me directly if you have questions.

Look here:
http://albertson.dyndns.org/socalwiki/FrontPage


=====
Chris Albertson
Home: 310-376-1029 chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com
Cell: 310-990-7550
Office: 310-336-5189 Christopher.J.Albertson@aero.org

Interesting, I just logged in and made some changes.........Who is going to moderate it? What prevents someone from deleting the posted info? I can see it now, someone spending time to contribute great info, and someone overwritting it.
It will be interesting to watch.

whalerkyle:

Interesting, I just logged in and made some changes.........Who is going to moderate it? What prevents someone from deleting the posted info? I can see it now, someone spending time to contribute great info, and someone overwritting it.
It will be interesting to watch.

Click to expand...

First off in real world Wikis this is not the problem you might think it would be. Most people who write a lenghty article will write it locally and then cut and past it into the wiki keeping a local backup.

There are also cntrols built into the Wiki software: ALL the edits are tracked and logged. For example try and click the "Recent Changes" button and you can see who changed which page when and you can get a list of the added and deleted text. with timestamps and so on. All changes can be backed out with a simple command. In addition the system "remembers" the IP address of the computer that made the edits. There are at least two levels of log files kept and redunent backups.

If that is not enough pages can be locked down such that only those people with the passwaord can make edits. Right now the whole Wiki is wide open. My hope is that it will improve as more and more people discover it and contribute. Later I may lock down the top level pages and pass out passwords only to those who ask me for them.
I'd prefer not to have to do that. Most Wikis "just work"

If there is some ideot who continues to screw things up I can lock out his account or lock out his computer or even anyone using hs ISP.
There are may levels of control but I hope it can remain wide open,

I also will copy the who;le thing off to a CDROM every week or so just in case the hard drive(s) smoke.

Who moderates this? Everyone does. If you see something there that can be done beter fix it.

This is an experiment, so we will all learn what will happen.

Interesting experiment. It will be fascinating to see what happens.

Christian