Wiki Concept Proposal for the SVR

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Wiki Concept Proposal for the SVR

Postby Publius Nonius Severus on Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:39 pm

Salve Omnes!

As mentioned in the "Relocating to a new home" thread, Marius and I have been working on an experimental model wiki for the SVR. I have created a wiki called "Ancient Ways" <wink, wink, nod, nod> on a free wiki hosting site called editthis.info (link below).

Ancient Ways

A couple of points before I begin. Although this wiki is structured to resemble the format of our beloved societas, there is no/no SVR content in it. It is a model, nothing more. I also call it "experimental" because it is in no way meant to be a replacement for the website (in part or whole). Again it is merely a model of how we could convert portions or the whole site to a wiki.

So, to demonstrate how SVR content could be used in a wiki, I created this little site with pages that mimic current or potential future pages for our site: Intro & Faq, Groups(Colleges), Rules(Regulae), etc. There is no real content on the pages. It is mostly "Lorem ipsum...".

In the "Groups" page for example, it lists a little about each group and then a link to each group. Within that group's page there are links to essay's, articles, and other links and the like.

So..take a look, browse around, let me know what you think! You do not have to create an account to view the pages. If you would like an account (for Ancient Ways only, not for editthis) in order to experiment with editing or creating pages, send me a PM and I will create an account for you and give you instructions (very easy). No personal information is required.

So, what could a wiki mean to our society?

Well, a largen burden for keeping the site up to date "could" be eliminated by having the content as wiki pages instead of web pages that any sodalis could contribute to or edit. You could submit an essay or article yourself, you could create a page outlining a rogatio for ease of viewing. Annales and regulae could be easily updated (by those authorized to do so). You could create a page for a topic or a project you had in mind to solicit input. The possibilities are almost limitless.

All of this is not to say that Marius and the other site administrators aren't doing their job, they are!. Our site is very professional, well-structured, and well run. But, a wiki could free them of some of the routine responsbillities and allow them to concentrate on mission critical tasks as needed (and thereby giving them more opportunity to participate as well). Plus, a wiki can't do everything!

What are things it cannot do: It does not replace the forums...you cannot run a forum (as far as I know) inside a wiki. There are "talk" pages to discuss a page, but nothing as comprehensive as a phpBB or other type for forum. It cannot replace the chat room, again, you cannot run a chat room within a wiki. (You can easily link to a forum or chatroom from a wiki though, see the examples on Ancient Ways). It cannot handle the application process (as it is now). But...as I have said. The wiki doesn't have to replace the website. These other vital functions can still be performed on our web server.

For those who would like more technical info please read below. For those looking for more info on wiki's in general go here: What is a wiki. Otherwise please check it out and let me know what you think!

Salvete,

-Severus

Technical Info:
=========


editthis is a wiki farm that offers free hosting of single page or multiple page independent wikis. It is free and offers up to 25MB of material per wiki. It does display Google Sense ads at the bottom of every page. it uses MediaWiki as its engine (the same as Wikipedia) and offers a good deal of user's rights management and most of the other features found on Wikipedia, Wikia, etc. I am not suggesting using editthis if we were to establish a wiki (since MediaWiki is open source and could easily be run on our own server me thinks) but it made an ideal platform for me to set up this model site. There are various options for hosting wikis out there. The pages within the site took me about 75 minutes to create (and I am not very good at wikitext and markup). This was the first wiki site I ever created (I had only edited pages before now). if you would like to discuss further details please do!)
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Notes from the Sandbox

Postby Aldus Marius on Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:17 pm

Salvete omnes,

Just a note: I do have my own "sandbox" on Octavius' (our) server. He's got everything I need on there, including a Beginner's Guide which I've downloaded and am now perusing. I haven't done anything on it yet; I'm a little afraid of the thing... But I think I can put some solid stuff on Severus' pages, since they're already broken-in; I have enough stray bits of brain-fluff on my Hard Drive, and they need to be organized anyway, so I can play/experiment and learn at the same time.

"Lorem ipsum", indeed. I won't settle for anything less than "Nolite illegitimi..."! >({|;-)

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Postby Tiberius Dionysius Draco on Thu Jan 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Salvete,

I like it. I think it would be a step in the right direction to improve our essays in the future.

I can't remember the times someone said that they wanted to change something small in their essay but never had time to mail the changes. This method is loads faster. And it's easy to get into as well.

Nice to see the idea is alive and kicking.

Valete,
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Caution: Men at Play

Postby Aldus Marius on Thu Jan 11, 2007 9:16 pm

** MariPere' is having WAYY too much fun with this thing...!..!.! **

(ping!)
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Postby Publius Nonius Severus on Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:12 pm

Salvete Iterum Omnes!

I wanted to see if there was further interest in a wiki for the SVR. Other than noster Marius, no one else has requested access to experiment with Ancient Ways. Is anyone else interested in getting access to try it out? if so, send me a PM.

Do you have further input on the viability of a wiki for the SVR? If we had a wiki, what would you like to it use for: annals, articles, regulae?

-Severus
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Member Pages

Postby Aldus Marius on Thu Feb 15, 2007 8:54 pm

Salvete Romani!

Some of you have stated an interest in reviving the SVR Member Pages we used to have before we moved to societasviaromana.org . (We started out on Bravenet.) These pages had Sodales' bios, fields of interest, and optonal photos. Such pages are ridiculously easy to set up on a Wiki! Mine's at

http://editthis.info/Ancient_ways/User:Marius

You don't have to be logged in to see it. And the Discussion tab of that page has what I've got so far of my Nova Roma bio...with links! >({|:-D

I've begun taking little nibbles out of the NR Wiki too. Nothing real "impactful" so far. It is vast, and has taken some getting used to!

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