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Does this site need a Wiki?


CADTutor

Does CADTutor need a Wiki?  

55 members have voted

  1. 1. Does CADTutor need a Wiki?

    • Yes, it would be very useful
      37
    • Maybe, I probably wouldn't use it
      10
    • No, let's just stick with the forum
      8


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It would greatly reduce the other chatter that goes on in a thread and remove the "oh no you didn't"s and the "oh yes I did"s. Some of these threads require people to read through a few pages of replies and that wouldn't happen with a wiki.

 

That happens quite a lot. Someone will post "why can't I ...." and then there are a dozen more posts as to exactly what and why the person is trying to do that in the first place. Many times we discover that what the person really wanted to do is something entirely different than what they thought they wanted. Couple months go by, and someone new posts the same question worded a different way. It take time to read through all the diagnostic posts to find the answer, or worse yet read through it all and discover that you're on the wrong track. If you are doing this at work, most employers will take the explanation of "I was not surfing, I was trying to find out how to...." but if you boss comes back by 3 hours later and you're still trying to find out how to whatever, it's not always well received. If they browse the wiki, and then post a question it might save everyone concerned some time. Even if they don't, posting a link to the wiki might answer the question without the diagnostics.

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  • Lee Mac

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  • eldon

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  • Tiger

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Downside of Wiki: everyone can edit anything.

Upside of Wiki: everyone can edit anything.

 

I am all for the idea of a wiki. Its a format that many people are familiar with and it (somewhat surprising in my opinion) has turned out to work good, at least as far as I know.

 

The question of why there is a need for a wiki when this forum works in a similar fashion has been answered and I agree with that. And to have a wiki to "lift" the questions and answers to would mean personally less want to de-off-topic some threads.

 

The main advantage of a wiki that I see is what David brought up first, the members of the FAQ team, as well as their time, come and go and when a driving force (good or bad) leaves, that disrupted the work to the degree that a full halt happened. With a Wiki I believe it is much easier to devote the time you have when you have it (and not feel bad when you don't have time for a while or anymore) to the project.

 

....just read through the paragraph and somewhere there is a tempus-flaw but I haven't had my morning coffee yet so please forgive me:ouch:

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I think a Wiki Page would be realy useful, Especially with the AutoCAD basics, I know that this was mentioned in previous posts. I myself, find the FAQ useful and have dabbled in it from time to time. I also have to agree with others who Pointed out Wikis are a great source of information, but are subject to fradulent or false info. I do find Wikis to be quite useful, but even here at work i Use a forum over a wiki. Granted, my work is a much, much smaller community.

 

Also I know alot of the times reading through a post is tedious, but i do not find it over cumbersome.

 

I guess the Wiki site could possibly clean up and store some of the basics. I mean having an entire page dedicated to lets say "viewports"; what they do, how they work, and how to maniuplate them would be more than useful to many people in the CADtutor Community.

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I just voted and noticed I was the 6th person to vote. Maybe this threat is somewhat hidden for a poll?

Anyway, wiki would be good.

 

The poll was only added a few posts ago :wink:

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Yeah, but I meant to say that this thread it is not noticed very often by others I believe.

 

Of topic: using this occasion to mention you have a nice website Lee, you do put a lot of effort in things.

Not only in programming lisp but also in other stuff like your site. Thanks for adding so much to the community.

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Yeah, but I meant to say that this thread it is not noticed very often by others I believe.

 

True :)

 

Of topic: using this occasion to mention you have a nice website Lee, you do put a lot of effort in things.

Not only in programming lisp but also in other stuff like your site. Thanks for adding so much to the community.

 

Thanks Marco - I really appreciate it :)

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I sometimes mutter about creating a wiki here at my work. A wiki for our CAD standards and/or a wiki to keep track of all our software and licenses. I've played with wiki using Google sites a bit. I think a CADtutor wiki could be great. I could post links to work FAQs I get for AutoCAD questions right to here instead of making my own.

Edited by Blam
adding thoughts.
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That sounds exactly like CADTutor. Is there any need to set up another system?

 

Exactly what I was thinking, CADTutor is already much better than a Wiki.

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I think a Wiki would be very helpful and if by some chance a joker posts something that is wrong or malicious it will be easily discovered and amended by someone else here.

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David, just curious, in what timescale were you thinking of implementing such a feature - it doesn't look like we have a conclusive vote, I think very few people have seen the thread. :(

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Actually, I haven't voted yet as I wanted to see how the disucssion progressed.

 

My personal feeling is why don't we try a "test" wiki? Pick a subject and let's have at it. That should tell us in short order if it is a good idea or not. We'll call it a work-in-progress.

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Actually, I haven't voted yet as I wanted to see how the disucssion progressed.

 

Ah.. I see we have ourselves a fence-sitter :P

 

My personal feeling is why don't we try a "test" wiki? Pick a subject and let's have at it. That should tell us in short order if it is a good idea or not. We'll call it a work-in-progress.

 

Good plan - test a pilot for a duration, then evaluate again.

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I don't have a fixed timescale but I was thinking some time during 2011.

 

I understand the point people are making about this forum BEING a wiki of sorts but the FAQ/Wiki could improve on what we have. The original concept for the FAQ section was that we discovered that the same questions were being asked many times on the forum and we thought it would be a good idea to compile some model answers to the most common questions so that when those questions were asked again, the response to the OP would be "see the model answer here..." rather than answering the same question each time.

 

Unfortunately, it has become clear that a managed FAQ is not really sustainable and my feeling is that since we have a vibrant community around the forum, we could probably create and maintain a useful wiki. Over the years, people have published lots of really useful stuff here and it seems sensible top collate it in a structure that is easily searchable and navigable.

 

A test may be a good idea but my fear would be that if it were considered only a test, people may be reluctant to commit their time to a project that may be terminated. I would prefer a consesnus one way or the other and then just go for it (or not).

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I think a wiki would be a good idea and would complement the CADTutor forum. Its not a case of having one or the other, its more a case of having an added feature. There are enough people here with an outstanding amount of knowledge, who dedicate an enormous amount of time just trying to help other people out, and they get nothing for their efforts (other than the occasional clout behind the ear from the boss for spending so much time "surfing" the net). It can only be a good thing. A pilot, rather than a test, would help find out if it would work and also indicate the amount of interest there is for one. Would it be editable just from forum members or would everyone out ther be able to edit.

 

From within the wiki could there not be internal links to the FAQ and the various forums? And similarly from the FAQ/forums to the wiki?

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A wiki would take a little work and a little thought to set up, but I believe it would be worth the effort. We'd have to set up categories, such as drawing objects and commands, with templates for each type of page. We'd need a style (standards) page. We'd need to disambiguate some terms, such as profile, that have multiple meanings.

 

Some topics to consider. How do we cover the changes in a command from one version to the next? Do we put all the options on one page and break them out chronologically, functionally, alphabetically--or have a separate page for each option? Would we include AutoLISP or VBA, and again, how would we handle versioning? Would we include examples for each command, include tutorials incorporating several commands, refer the user elsewhere, or do all three?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just bumping this thread as it seems to have been forgotten over Christmas

 

I think cyberangel makes some good points. A Wikki is not a quick fix, and will not only require effort, but structure and standards (one of the reasons the FAQ was deliberately convoluted in the writing and approval process). We discovered during the early stages of FAQ writing that enthusiasm didn't make for great material for the resource, partly due to competition in becoming the author of as many contributions as possible. Is the wiki likely to suffer the same issue, along with bruised egos having contributions edited?

 

What are the safeguards against disgruntled forum members/banned spammers wreaking havoc in the Wiki?

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