Thread: Split from Finishing to Wiki discussion

Sorry but I really don't like the a couple of things about thw wiki.

One: When I put the thought in to write a helpful a post or more importantly an entire article on a subject I get seriously p'oed when some dumb a$$ comes along and interjects his opinion into my carefully crafted thoughts.

In other words if I place an article up and it is edited I will be PI$$ED and probably retaliate by deleting the whole thing.

Two: in light of the "WIKI Contest" I just tried to learn how to put an article in the WIKI and well.... I just can't figure it out. Apparently its a tad over my head. In fact I look at what I would have to do to put an article in there ( which would probably be edited anyway) and just say "skip it".

Sorry guys, perhaps you can enlighten me but......so far thats what I see. With the above objections you can see why I haven't "embraced" the Wiki.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Sorry but I really don't like the a couple of things about thw wiki.

One: When I put the thought in to write a helpful a post or more importantly an entire article on a subject I get seriously p'oed when some dumb a$$ comes along and interjects his opinion into my carefully crafted thoughts.

In other words if I place an article up and it is edited I will be PI$$ED and probably retaliate by deleting the whole thing.

Then the Wiki simply is not for you. Which, of course, is perfectly fine.

What differentiates our Wiki from, say, wikipedia.org is the fact that straight razor shaving is not exactly an exact science. Therefore, opinions will play a role in our Wiki articles, and if your disagreement with that opinion is too strong for your liking, you should obviously not contribute.

However, while the forum will protect your carefully crafted article from editing, it will not protect it from comments. Obviously, this is the core feature of a forum. But what does that mean for your article? In essence, it means that your opinion (to stick with your example) will be presented, commented on, maybe refuted - and in the end, there is no resolution other than the thread slowly fading into oblivion.

If you put your article on the Wiki, and linked it to the forum, you could gather relevant articles, incorporate them into your Wiki article, thus enhancing your article. Should anyone make changes you disagree with, you could always revert those changes, and present them for discussion, either on the article's discussion page, or in the forum thread.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Two: in light of the "WIKI Contest" I just tried to learn how to put an article in the WIKI and well.... I just can't figure it out. Apparently its a tad over my head. In fact I look at what I would have to do to put an article in there ( which would probably be edited anyway) and just say "skip it".

There is only one relevant difference between the forum and the Wiki (which I think we should remedy quickly to lower the entry barrier): There is no "New Article" button. The easiest way to create a new article is to do this:

Code:

Go to the Wiki main page:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Main_Page

Then replace "Main_Page" with the title of your article, e.g. "Test":
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php/Test

The resulting page will have a link to create that article:
http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php?title=Test&action=edit

Admittedly, this is counter intuitive. The text editor itself, however, is easier to use than that of the forum. If you want a fancier editing environment, you can find the relevant information on my user page: User:BeBerlin - Straight Razor Place Wiki

You can play with the Wiki syntax on this page: Sandbox - Straight Razor Place Wiki. It was specifically put in place to allow users to test their editing skills.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

Sorry guys, perhaps you can enlighten me but......so far thats what I see. With the above objections you can see why I haven't "embraced" the Wiki.

To sum this up:

1. If you do not want to give others the ability to enhance your contributions, while publishing in a medium that is ill equipped for creating information that is easily accessible, you should not use the Wiki.
2. The Wiki needs to become more easily accessible, and more help for beginners should be provided.

If this is going to be an issue (no button to create a new page), surely we can do that easily enough. Create a page with a text entry box for users to type the name of their page, and add a little bit of Java code that pastes that name to the end of

Code:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/srpwiki/index.php?action=edit

??

Or is that not advisable?

James.

There,

I submitted something, and now I can't get it to appear at the right place.

A simple honing method with DMT-E , Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by Bart

There,

I submitted something, and now I can't get it to appear at the right place.

A simple honing method with DMT-E , Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Bart,

Add some category statements to the end of the code. The Wiki will put it in the right place depending on what you say. For example, in the one I did I placed this code at the end:

Code:

[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:Restoration]]
[[Category:Scales]]

For yours, you might just want to use:

Code:

[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:Honing]]
[[Category:Maintenance_and_honing]]

Finding a page in the same area as where you want yours to go, and then clicking on the "View Source" tab for that page can show you some useful coding tid-bits.

James.

Originally Posted by Bart

I hope the wiki and the forums will never become competitors. Both have their weaknesses and their advantages. So has the chatroom. I don't visit it very often, because English not being my native language, I'm out of my confort zone when I have to engage in instant conversation and make good sense at the same time. That's my problem of course, and I 'm sure many others find the chatroom very valuable. I happen to be good at learning a skill by digesting written information. Most technical things I know, I thought myself by reading. Other people need more interaction in their learning process, so they'll be better off with a forum format, or even with a personal tutor, as already pointed out in a previous post.

The Wiki's new. It is not very initiutive to contribute and edit over there, in comparison with how easy it to post on a thread. Learning the do's and dont's of a wiki is a challenge on it's own.

Maybe we should loose that meaningless (imho) reputation button and replace it with a "I wish to encourage the poster to add this to the wiki" button. Wiki's inherently have an encyclopedic kind of credibility. I think that asks for at least some responability to keep "barberstore" talk at a distance. Y'all know that I like to formulate hyphotesis and come up with experiments to check my theories. I would never add conclusions build on such a small empirical base to the wiki. In fact, one of my controversial ideas was included, and I'm not sure I'm happy about that. (although I felt honored, of course).

PS. If a forum moderator is reading along, could this thread be split into separate threads?

Bart.

Exactly. I'm so concerned that I'll screw it up if I try to add or change anything.

But I certainly can understand BeBerlin's frustration; he's been doing the lion's share of work on the wiki, without alot of support of us regular (can I consider myself a "regular" now? ) SRP'ers. Time to change that.

Originally Posted by Jimbo

Bart,

Add some category statements to the end of the code. The Wiki will put it in the right place depending on what you say. For example, in the one I did I placed this code at the end:

Code:

[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:Restoration]]
[[Category:Scales]]

For yours, you might just want to use:

Code:

[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:Honing]]
[[Category:Maintenance_and_honing]]

Finding a page in the same area as where you want yours to go, and then clicking on the "View Source" tab for that page can show you some useful coding tid-bits.

James.

James, that's just the kinda info we need. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Bart

There,

I submitted something, and now I can't get it to appear at the right place.

A simple honing method with DMT-E , Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Bart, that was a fantastic contribution! I just read through it.. twice. Well written, easily understood.. just good stuff.

Now I'm thinking about getting a BBW and a Coticule instead of a shapton 16k on glass.

I made another contribution.
Advanced shaving techniques for the straight razor - Straight Razor Place Wiki

I tried putting it into the "Shaving techniques" category, but the only thing showing up there is the knifecenters' Dovo article. I think something might be wrong with the "Shaving techniques" category.
I also added my article to the "tutorials" category, although I don't think it is the best place.

Can someone of the Wiki crew look into this?
Thanks.

Floorpizza, thanks for the positive feedback, my friend. Glad you liked the article.

Best regards,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Bart

Almost a year ago I introduced the idea for creating a Wiki, but it was dismissed at that time.

It has been dismissed by others long before that as well. But we have it now Thanks to DA BOMB! Now, let's keep adding to it in a clear, concise, organized way and we will have something we can confidently point a beginner to instead of a smattering of forum posts in various threads and stickies scattered about

Thanks for this discussion too, and Bart, nice additions to the wiki. I can't wait to plow through those articles as I am still trying to get my coticule to sharpen anything