RE: [ST] New Server

[Paul English <tallpaul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005, Andrew F. Kay, Jr.  wrote:

> Uh, could someone put that in a form that mortals can understand?
> Meantime, great job, guys.  Wish I knew what the hell you were talking
> about, but it's still a great job.

Certainly! I don't know what your level of geekiness is, but I'll try to 
be general..

A wiki is a collaborative website. By default any page on the website can 
be edited by anyone in their web browser. The formatting is extremely 
simple (ie: you don't have to use HTML) and you can also upload files of 
any type and link them into your document.

So for any page on the site at the bottom of the page you click "edit this 
page" and it brings you into a very basic editor. You can also click 
"upload file" and it prompts you for a file to upload. 

All of this is done with a few simple cgi scripts running on the web 
server. (if this last one was gibberish, let me know)

It is all done in one directory/folder on the web server, so the whole 
thing can easily be upgraded to a new version of the Wiki software, or 
zipped up and sent to someone else. 

It is *extremely* useful for live documents. In the Sprint ST case it 
would be FAQ's, lists of accessories & mods, installation & maintenance 
instructions. Just think about it - the site maintenance is no longer 
limited to one or two overworked admins, but literally anyone in the world 
can update it. 

The wiki also supports versioning to handle multiple people updating it. 
For example if JimListmember updates a page and JoeAdmin doesn't care for 
it, or it has inaccurate information, JoeAdmin just clicks "Roll back to 
previous version" and *poof* it is done. 

They work amazingly well. An entire encyclopedia has been developed using 
this technique called Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

and it is growing quickly to rival Encylopedia Britannica:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1335892,00.html.

As I said in my first mail, the whole thing could easily be added as an 
additional and separately handled part to the original "relatively static" 
website. It could even be hosted on an entirely separate server somewhere 
else and just linked to from the original site. But I think if we have a 
stable server/domain name somewhere it would be best hosted along with the 
main site. 

Rupert was right to put it off until later - getting the main site stable 
is by far the first priority. Adding features can come with time.

Paul

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-st@xxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Rupert Galea
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:03 AM
> To: ST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ST] New Server
> 
> 
> > I would *love* to see a Wiki on the site. 
> 
> 
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