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gregor

I realized I think what the main problem that's causing the mess in the wiki. It's so damn SLOW to re-organize things using the normal interface. I am trying to get the main solar to electric conversion project worked out, and I can't believe how much time I spent on it already.

I started a wiki once using the wikimedia software, and I remember there were a number of convenient tools built in that made all this stuff so much easier, renaming and reorganizing the wiki. IIRC the wikipdedians use these all the time to keep wikipedia organized - and it is pretty well organized.

They also have an array of bots that do chores which I noticed are being done manually on the OSE wiki right now, like wikification of links.

I noticed there is a team for the wiki curators already (I previously suggested a "wikian team") on http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Development_Team#Wiki_Curators (should be teams, can't fix it myself though).

I started a page at http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Wiki_Curation to help fix this problem, but I think I need higher user privileges to do anything involving the tools or bots.

Also I added myself to the wiki Curation team, and I hope other people will do likewise, because does the wiki ever need it.

Oh I see now, there is another thing that tripped me up here, which is the modularity of everything. I was thinking the steam engine should be a subcategory under the solar turbine but actually it has multiple uses. Hm. But apparently although the steam engine is under the energy> and solar turbine category is under energy>solar power I can make steam engine a subcategory of solar turbine, too.

mjn

I sympathize with how much time wiki gardening takes up. I've spent quite a bit of time getting the steam engine pages organized. However, now that it IS organized, I can find things, navigate around, and generally keep track of stuff, which can be a tall order when you're talking 50+ pages. It's called "wiki gardening" for a reason - planting, weeding, and cleaning are a constant effort. Some of this can be automated, such as the wiki-ized links you mentioned, but much of it has to be manual. For example, I excerpted your discussion on electric valves into the steam engine pages, see [[Steam Engine Design/Rotating Valve]].

gregor

Yes I agree that it may not be automatable, but when I made a wiki on the wikidot (I think) platform on tiny houses (probably still up) there was, just as one example of the tools was a user control panel where you could see ALL the categories on the wiki, and rearrange them with a few clicks. None of this going through a hundred each pages or whatever and editing each one each time you want to change something. Similarly there was a panel where bots could be managed and there are many open source bots free for the taking.

IMHO to extend the gardening analogy we are using toothpicks instead of a lifetrac.

Wikidot is based on the same wikimedia software so presumably that stuff is available for us too? I do not have the user priviledges to get it working anyway, or I would look into/do it myself.

Secondly, while yes if there was no alternative we would just have to slog through it, let's face it, this wiki disorganization problem has not gone away, despite the recent pushes. I don't see the slog it approach working over the long run very well. As you say it is an ongoing effort, and the forces of chaos are I think currently a little to dominant right now. The equilibrium stat needs changing, not just the current state, I think.

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