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Wanted for wikia! | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Collaborative writing |  | |
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5747 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 48 28 June 2013 at 4:20am | IP Logged |
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I've just created an account to work on the wiki!
Many, many thanks are due to to all who all who have initiated and contributed to the project. I hope that I can be of use, too. I think that, as the wiki grows and expands, it will become extremely useful for old and new members alike, and fulfill a need that our forum, as invaluable as it is, has not been able to meet. As far as making a sticky note about the Wikia site or announcing it in a prominent place on the forum, I believe that we should first obtain permission from our administrator. Remember the disclaimer at the bottom of forum pages. It asks that nothing on the forum is be reproduced without specific permission. The wiki will, of course, not be a word-for-word copy of what has been written here over the years, but rather an easy-to-reference condensation and clarification of it. Still, the wiki is so closely connected to this site that it will inevitably be very similar. In addition, it might send prospective members away from the forum. I think that if we do have a message directing users to our Wikia, we certainly should link back to the original forum if possible. There's a lot of potential in this project and it is long overdue! And it helps to solve a legitimate but frustrating aspect of the forum: easily finding the information that a member wants to learn I see this as not a copy of our forum, but instead an enhancement: not a reproduction of the original, but a rewording, or a rewrite, of popular topics that are frequently searched for I am happy to be able to work on it, and I hope my future contributions are of use to all. I have time to do this now, and I have done similar work professionally, and I loved it! I worked with a Confluence wiki, an enterprise wiki for a software company, and I learned a lot; also, I did extensive research into how a wiki works and what to do with one. First, though I have to learn my way around at the new site! Unfortunately, I have forgotten much of what I learned on the job. Again, I'm sending along congratulations and kudos for those already involved. I admire your work! Edited by meramarina on 28 June 2013 at 4:26am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4789 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 26 of 48 28 June 2013 at 5:39am | IP Logged |
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I don't think it will lure away prospective members as one of the most important aspects of the wiki is being a crossroads with links to relevant forum discussions. On the wiki, we cannot put all the views on the matter (and there are usually many when it comes to quite everything) so the pages tend to be introductions to factual things and the most common views with the links. Like an FAQ and working search function in one neither of which we can hope for on the forum itself.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4789 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 27 of 48 28 June 2013 at 5:42am | IP Logged |
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Ah, again I wrote just half of what I wanted. (And I seem to remember the second half of thoughts easier lately. Am I getting old or something?)
Welcome on board, Meramarina! I don't know who was the first to create the wiki and the first crew but they would deserve a statue somewhere. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6483 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 28 of 48 28 June 2013 at 11:38am | IP Logged |
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I remember that I wrote several articles for a Wiki long ago, but it was my impression that nobody read the stuff - and then I made my Guide to Learning Languages here at HTLAL, based on copies and rewrites of things I had written here over the years. According to the rules of the forum I can't just copy this guide verbatim to a Wiki, and I simply can't see myself rewriting the whole thing once again - so right now I'll stay on the sideline. Maybe later.. Edited by Iversen on 28 June 2013 at 3:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6377 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 30 of 48 28 June 2013 at 8:21pm | IP Logged |
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Iversen, are you sure? The rules say you give the forum a nonexclusive right to use your posts - they are first of all YOURS, so you should be free to use them in any way you want.
As for the wiki rules, it says "we don't want", not that it's forbidden. I think this is mostly to ensure you don't copy other people's posts without a permission. I mean, if you had a blog and this was originally written for your blog, this would've obviously been okay to copy. So where's the difference? :) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4789 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 31 of 48 28 June 2013 at 8:22pm | IP Logged |
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Dear Iversen, (no irony here, I mean it),
your Guide is a popular and awesome referrence no matter the fact that we cannot copy it there directly. There are so many pages wherefrom we can link to it that I am not worried anyone in need would miss it. After all, noone copies prof. Arguelles or Khatzumoto as well. (only an occassional quote appears when appropriate). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5747 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 32 of 48 28 June 2013 at 8:55pm | IP Logged |
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I think that a wiki is by definition collaborative, and so is best written as the summary of the general knowledge of many. It's essentially a reference work, although you can link to articles that are more specific. An active and well developed wiki will do a lot for our forum, but individuality of contributors will probably lost, or at least diminished.
Iversen's Guide deserves a place of its own! Although I am not sure that you would want that, Iversen. But I would love to see it in a more prominent, easy-to-find, and searchable format. Other forum software offers individual contributor spaces instead of only a forum log thread. It's too bad this forum doesn't have that capability. The Language logs are the most evolving and vibrant part of the forum now, I think - but that's another topic entirely. I've spend most of today working on an article for the wiki. It's really time-consuming and I can understand why we don't have many contributors at this point. So many members don't have full search abilities, or don't know how to work around the restrictions (I didn't either, at first). Even with Pro/Moderator search, often the threads that display aren't necessarily the most relevant. Information is findable, but it takes time. Then the forum slows down, and forget it, you just have to try again later. Still, I love doing this kind of stuff: reading, writing, rewriting, organizing, summarizing, editing - that's what I do best! And I have the time to work on our project right now. I hope, though, not to cause offense to the original writers of wiki articles. Anything that I change is done for clarity, consistency, and readability, and I'll be happy to explain the reason for an edit if asked. Now, to work . . . Edited by meramarina on 28 June 2013 at 9:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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