OcUK Hardware/ Software Wiki?

eLbot

eLbot

eLbot

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This has probably been discussed before, but a search turned up many results, cluttered with wiki page links but nothing specific to an OcUK wiki.

So why haven’t we got one? There are some benefits as far as the forum is concerned, it may take away a chunk of bandwidth requirements from external traffic and reduce the load and therefore cost on servers (although perhaps it would take a separate server? I’m not well versed on the actual setup of community wikis). It would also offer a more functional and continually up to date knowledge-base than the stickies can provide.

The only problems I can see is the possibility of sabotage (easily rectified by having a closed submission structure, whereby only forum members can create an account and submit/edit articles, but the vetting of account creation would have to be manual? [Also note that the entire wiki structure is built upon the fact you can go back to previous revisions and see what any user has edited]) and the added man-hours used to moderate? Wiki pages, from large communities are normally very good at self-moderation as the majority of the user base wants to keep it as accurate and succinct as possible. So I can only see one or two moderators having to be appointed to deal with it as at most moderation will probably only be 4-5 man-hours worth a day on a very very large wiki community?

This might be an awful idea for a reason I’m not seeing but I thought it was worth a mention.
 
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Would be an okay idea...

Can be hard to manage, become out-dated and I like the forums anyway.

You only have to look at the stickies from yesteryear in some forums to realize that even managing those isn't priority.
 
Slogan said:
Would be an okay idea...

Can be hard to manage, become out-dated and I like the forums anyway.

You only have to look at the stickies from yesteryear in some forums to realize that even managing those isn't priority.
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I agree, it would take a lot of community input but the benefit over the stickies is usability and the fact it will be up to date as many people can edit it. Also, the other added benefit is that it would cut down massively on the number of questions that are re-asked.

Content wouldn’t be a massive problem in the early stages as the content can be taken directly from the forum and edited as suitable, forums should never be a first port of call for closed-ended questions, they should almost be a last resort and I feel a OcUK wiki could massively cut down on the “dead traffic” on the forums whilst also (possibly) cutting down on bandwidth requirements and saving Spie some money and keeping our forums cleaner because, if a lot of community effort is put into the Wiki’s, only new issues are discussed on the forums that people haven’t seen 10 times and whilst knowing the answer are too apathetic to respond and it will also open the OcUK knowledge to a wider web.
 
Problem is, you're still going to have people asking answered questions on the forum. If the Wiki covers a lot of stuff then the forum traffic dies down. For bandwidth this is good, but it's not good for business and forum quality, if most answers are saying 'look in the Wiki', is obviously going to decrease.

A Wiki is a good idea and I imagine it would be put to good use by the majority - I just don't see it being of benefit to the forums or forum activity. It'll lessen forum quality also, because the questions that will be asked will be answered in the Wiki - people just don't want to search.

Add onto the fact that it'll be hard to manage and everyone has the rights to edit it etc - puts control out of people's hands. Which may not be favoured either.
 
Slogan said:
Problem is, you're still going to have people asking answered questions on the forum. If the Wiki covers a lot of stuff then the forum traffic dies down. For bandwidth this is good, but it's not good for business and forum quality, if most answers are saying 'look in the Wiki', is obviously going to decrease.

A Wiki is a good idea and I imagine it would be put to good use by the majority - I just don't see it being of benefit to the forums or forum activity. It'll lessen forum quality also, because the questions that will be asked will be answered in the Wiki - people just don't want to search.

Add onto the fact that it'll be hard to manage and everyone has the rights to edit it etc - puts control out of people's hands. Which may not be favoured either.
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Very true, it may be commercially detrimental if traffic was taken away from the hardware forums which is an aspect I had not thought of. But adverts can be placed on the wiki and in banners and side banners, links to products from OcUK shop in hardware solutions where appropriate could be embedded.

But equally, associating the shops heavily with the wiki may be a massive headache as obviously the shops don’t want to be put in a bad light and if people start giving misinformation in the wiki.

Look at it on a smaller scale then, what if the moderators were the only ones able to add to the wiki and instead of using a sticky function, could add a much more powerful knowledge-base to the forums whilst still maintaining control and contributions could be suggested by users, here on the forum?
 
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There aren't that many stickies and i imagine the moderators have other stuff to do other than wiki'ing so wouldn't the wiki be a bit bare? Perhaps a better one would be to allow a certain number of people to wiki on it (maybe using post count, such as 200+ for example)
 
I don't think a Wiki would be any real use.

What I do think would be useful would be updating that "What to buy" sticky. It's so out-of-date it's not even funny. Doesn't even mention C2D last time I looked. My vote is that it should either be rewritten or dumped completely.

Also might be a good idea to make up some sample specs for different price brackets - e.g. Under £500, Under £750 and Under £1000, monitor included or not. REvise them when things like new processors or chipsets are released.
 
supernova9 said:
I don't think a Wiki would be any real use.

What I do think would be useful would be updating that "What to buy" sticky. It's so out-of-date it's not even funny. Doesn't even mention C2D last time I looked. My vote is that it should either be rewritten or dumped completely.

Also might be a good idea to make up some sample specs for different price brackets - e.g. Under £500, Under £750 and Under £1000, monitor included or not. REvise them when things like new processors or chipsets are released.
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Good Idea, whos willing to do it then? lol
 
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