On 15 Jul 2008, at 18:27, Curtis Vaughan wrote: > Since Ken really liked OpenWRT's Wiki, I looked at it and see they use > MoinMoin. So, I am willing to set up MoinMoin on a server to be > used as > an FR community wiki.
I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is with the INFORMATION, not the platform it's contained on. Ken mentions that the OpenWRT Wiki (which I too have found useful) is maintained by the developers. And I think there's a lot of truth in the statement that people are reluctant to edit the Openmoko wiki at present. Do Openmoko's developers spend any time editing the wiki? I know they've got loads of other things to do, but maybe just a few minutes dedicated each day would provide some direction. One great thing about wikis is that you can make a quick edit to them "this doesn't work for me, I had to do X" and then someone else can clean up later on, "there are two methods of undertaking this task, depending upon your hardware version; GTA02 requires X but earlier models require Y". Someone else suggested that "clean up" tags might be added to articles. I think "citation needed", "is this true?" and "GTA01 / GTA02 differences?" tags might be useful, too. As I understand it if tags or templates or whatever are used for these then they can be summarised by looking at a single "pages which use this template" page. This allows contributors to easily see what is in need of editing or correction. Right now I'm happy to edit Wikipedia or OpenStreetMaps, but not the Openmoko wiki and I'm not sure why that is. I've seen something similar with the Gentoo Wiki, where people seem generally reluctant to edit stuff they don't "own". Articles are great and comprehensive when someone takes the initiative to start them, but over time they become outdated and - after the original author has lost interest - no-one takes the time to put much effort into them. I thought today about starting a "Freerunner usability" page on the wiki, as it seems a very common FAQ on IRC. New users are not satisfied with "the software's not stable yet" but instead want to know "how 'alpha' is it? can I make calls and send texts? how about calendaring?" Many Linux enthusiasts LOVE the idea of a completely open phone and they're willing to sacrifice features for that right now, because they know (and love!) the fact that Open-Source Software will fix that for them in the future. As long as they can make calls, send texts then they're happy with a alpha software, but one user worries about email or battery life, another needs a browser. It would be great to have a single page one could point them to (perhaps telling them which image to use if they need a specific feature, best call stability or audio quality) - right now I can't find a page that answers their questions, but I don't want to start a new one because *surely* there must already be one?? Stroller. _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community
