Wiki to complement the forum?

jsowoc · #1 14th September 2005, 02:25 AM

Hi,

I have been using Linux for quite a while, but for some reason forums don't seem to appeal to me as a valuable resource. I am not a newbie, so when I have a problem, I usually know where to start looking.

I have a suggestion, even if it is turned down immediately due to some problem in my logic:
could we have a wiki site parallel to the forum?

I will use my thread with the problem with the X server not starting correctly. It was solved in a few days, and am very thankful for it. If someone else had a similar problem, rather than reading through 20 posts, they could read about it in a wiki. I would be more than willing to type up my problem and solution path on a wiki site to give back to the community.

As a suggested start, topics like the forum ones could be created, and then suggest that each time a problem is solved (provided it was not some trivial oversight) that a wiki be created. I wish to stress that the wiki run parallel to the forum, and not as a replacement - a forum is perfect for asking questions not present in documentation.

Is there anyone else who feels this way (or feels strongly against it)?

Spoon! · #2 14th September 2005, 03:21 AM

I know that LinuxQuestions.org has a wiki (which is about Linux in general, not only Fedora Core); but I've noticed that the articles on it are generally very poorly updated (including many Fedora-related articles) and articles often don't follow any standard format and linking between articles is very disorganized and random. I don't know; maybe we can do better?

RahulSundaram · #3 14th September 2005, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsowoc

Hi,

I have been using Linux for quite a while, but for some reason forums don't seem to appeal to me as a valuable resource. I am not a newbie, so when I have a problem, I usually know where to start looking.

I have a suggestion, even if it is turned down immediately due to some problem in my logic:
could we have a wiki site parallel to the forum?

I will use my thread with the problem with the X server not starting correctly. It was solved in a few days, and am very thankful for it. If someone else had a similar problem, rather than reading through 20 posts, they could read about it in a wiki. I would be more than willing to type up my problem and solution path on a wiki site to give back to the community.

As a suggested start, topics like the forum ones could be created, and then suggest that each time a problem is solved (provided it was not some trivial oversight) that a wiki be created. I wish to stress that the wiki run parallel to the forum, and not as a replacement - a forum is perfect for asking questions not present in documentation.

Is there anyone else who feels this way (or feels strongly against it)?

Fedora already has a very active wiki. One could register and ask anyone within the edit group to add them and then create seperate sections on it for user help. See the following link.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki.

Rahul
Red Hat

bitrain · #4 14th September 2005, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RahulSundaram

Fedora already has a very active wiki. One could register and ask anyone within the edit group to add them and then create seperate sections on it for user help. See the following link.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki.

Rahul
Red Hat

The problem with that website, is that it is outside of the forum, just like fedorafaq.org. I have the feeling people don't want to click the link on the top of this page, the fedoraproject is even less promoted here.
Maybe a wiki on the site itself, integrated into the main page will change that... (can be the fedoraproject wiki too)

sayeeth · #5 14th September 2005, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitrain

The problem with that website, is that it is outside of the forum, just like fedorafaq.org. I have the feeling people don't want to click the link on the top of this page, the fedoraproject is even less promoted here.
Maybe a wiki on the site itself, integrated into the main page will change that... (can be the fedoraproject wiki too)

Yes, that is true. A Wiki would be an excellent idea. Anyone should feel free to edit the content. Of course to monitor vandalism and all that other anti-wiki stuff.

Jman · #6 14th September 2005, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sayeeth

Anyone should feel free to edit the content. Of course to monitor vandalism and all that other anti-wiki stuff.

The problem is, who would monitor it? Especially one with little to no security?

I really like what's going on at fedoraproject.org/wiki/ and would hate to duplicate that.

In short, wikis are nice, but I don't want to maintain one.

tejas · #7 15th September 2005, 03:42 PM

I have a feeling

www.fedorasolved.org is what yo uare looking for

steve1961 · #8 15th September 2005, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tejas

I have a feeling

www.fedorasolved.org is what yo uare looking for

This link seems to be broken

tejas · #9 15th September 2005, 04:58 PM

apparently it is www.fedorasolved.com, not .org

sorry

steve1961 · #10 15th September 2005, 05:08 PM

Looks like a useful forum, but needs lots more contributions.

jsowoc · #11 16th September 2005, 08:18 PM

Ok, so www.fedorasolved.com was kind of what I had in mind, except implemented as a forum instead of a wiki. Although a wiki would be better in theory, I don't know which one would work better in practice.

Could we add a "solutions" part to this existing forum? This would be kind of like the existing how-to forum, except we would have a "solutions" section to each of the questions sections. The threads which have been solved (marked some way by one of the thread's contributers) would be moved to the "solved" section. One of the gratutious users would then (hopefully) summarize the problem, its symptoms, and the simplest way to solve it.

Do any of the admins know how large of an overhead this could potentially produce, and if we could give it a try? Not the wiki, but a parallel forum.

bitrain · #12 16th September 2005, 08:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsowoc

Ok, so www.fedorasolved.com was kind of what I had in mind, except implemented as a forum instead of a wiki. Although a wiki would be better in theory, I don't know which one would work better in practice.

Could we add a "solutions" part to this existing forum? This would be kind of like the existing how-to forum, except we would have a "solutions" section to each of the questions sections. The threads which have been solved (marked some way by one of the thread's contributers) would be moved to the "solved" section. One of the gratutious users would then (hopefully) summarize the problem, its symptoms, and the simplest way to solve it.

Do any of the admins know how large of an overhead this could potentially produce, and if we could give it a try? Not the wiki, but a parallel forum.

There is already the howto section, it's almost similar.
I'm still in favor of a wiki but it must be integrated into the main page, or else (I think) it will be useless.