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Wiki Reorganization 2011
  • Let's focus this discussion on the Wiki Reorganization:



    Here is what we have until now: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Wiki_Reorganization_2011.



     
  • 30 Comments sorted by
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    Conor
     
    February 2011
    Trenton mentioned templates for machine specifications, bills of materials etc. I think drafting these should be top of our to-do list.
     
  • in the following list of categories: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Template:Listofcategories

    shouldn't lines like the following: "Digital Fabrication > RepLab Tools > CAD"
    simply be condensed to their last element?: "CAD"

    the hierarchy is already visible in the tree structure so we don't need this part --> "Digital Fabrication > RepLab Tools >"
    as i see it, it's unnecessary redundancy.

    is it alright that i go ahead with changing this or is there some underlying point i'm missing? :)
     
  • but you can click on the links, and not on the structure?
     
  • what do you mean? yes, you can click on all the links. the "structure" i'm talking about is just the way/layout of presenting them as a tree of categories.
     
  • okay, I see what you mean. If would be more readable that way you are proposing and we still have clickable structure :)
     
  • alright, i'll go ahead now and change it. you can check it out in a few minutes :)
     
  • it's done, although i'd like to move it to "Template:List_of_categories" to make it more readable. unfortunately, i didn't know you couldn't move a page onto an existing page and ended up stuck after making the replacement. could an admin delete it and do the move for me? sorry about that XD
     
  • I am not sure it is to be deleted, I don't the consequences. Elifarley, can you help?
     
  • Instead of deleting, the best is to make a redirect:

    #REDIRECT [[Template:List of categories]]


    Thanks for your help!
     
  • Vote Up0Vote Down
    mjnmjn
     
    April 2011
    Since I've been adding material and correcting pages as I read them, I'm willing to help with this re-organization effort, as time allows.

    - Mark Norton
     
  • alright, thanks for the tip eli :)
     
  • http://openfarmtech.org/w/index.php?title=Special:UncategorizedPages&limit=500&offset=0

    i noticed that a lot of the pages in the list above are either better linked to wikipedia, too trivial, or have questionable relevance with regard to the project. should i compile a list of proposed pages for deletion? if so, do i give it to you (eli) or someone else who has privileges?

    also, i would recommend that we migrate discussions out of the wiki content area. i think they are best kept in the forum. as for discussions regarding changes in the content, the wiki has built-in discussion areas that i find underutilized. we should make people aware of the proper channels for different types of communication so that we can coordinate more efficiently. :)
     
  • disregard my first few questions since i discovered {{delete}}. so should i just use that to tag pages for speedy deletion? i'm also curious as to who's the admin that checks these tagged pages :)
     
  • please see this template i made: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Template:Category=LifeTrac

    note how i used another template (its parent) inside it.

    this nested format will let us make sweeping changes a lot more easily in the future. is it okay to have this as the standard for categorization?

    (note, however, that for this to work, we'll have to remove the horizontal rules (---) in all the other category templates so that we can nest cleanly. they will then have to be moved to the articles themselves. i'm willing to spend time working on this.)
     
  • http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Liberator

    I think, as OSE's completed project, this page deserves much, much more work than anything else right now. Somebody interested in constructing a Liberator with zero knowledge should be able to go to this page and get all the information necessary to construct one of these fabulous machines. If I don't have a component, I should be able to click on a link to that component, and get information about how to build that component myself, where to purchase it, a picture of it, a description of what it does. If I don't know how to perform a process. I should be able to click a link to that process and get a list of all the equipment necessary (with links to a page describing each tool, with a similar level of detail), and a basic tutorial on how to perform that process (with pictures!).

    The wiki performs two functions, disseminating information, and enabling collaboration. OSE could do a much better job of disseminating the information necessary to sustainable living. If we leave out the people who lack the expertise to collaborate in a meaningful way, we are doing the project a disservice, as those people are the ones who are going to tell their friends and associates about where they got the information on "how to build the brick machine."

    Thoughts?

    edit: I understand this may be slightly off-topic, but if we start at the "Liberator" entry and do work in a top-down manner, I believe the necessary organizational system will "evolve naturally," so to speak.
    edit: The page at "CEB Press Intro" is much closer to what I am thinking of, but feels very much like it was developed bottom-up. We could rewrite it in a top-down methodology.
     
  • thanks for the heads up on that. i made the stub redirect here: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/CEB_press
     
  • also, i moved the notice about content (previously on the top of the page) to the discussion area so first-time readers are not discouraged from reading on. as much as possible, let's keep discussions in the discussion areas :)
     
  • "redlinking," a la wikipedia, is a great way to identify work that remains to be done. I'm also wondering if we should have a separate namespace for the collaboration efforts of OSE, to separate it out from the final encyclopedia that we would like to deliver to the people who will ultimately make use of our efforts.
     
  • Jfrench - you're absolutely right that the CEB press needs clear info and build instructions. A bunch of us have been working on this for a while now. We've made good progress, but there is much more to do. http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/CEB_Press should ultimately be made to look like http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Product_Template

    If you want to help with this effort, just dive in and start editing. Many hands make light work!
     
  • i've been categorizing/tagging uncategorized pages and have been using two informal categories in the meantime: "Notes" and "Links"

    "Notes" is for scribbles, conversations, minutes, assorted videos, and miscellaneous information. hopefully, everything in this category can either be tagged for removal or integrated into the knowledgebase in a more coherent manner.

    "Links" is for just that, collections of external links that might come in useful in the future. like the category above, these should be sifted through and either tagged for deletion or moved to a better context in the wiki. :)
     
  • i've run into something of a big migration that i'm hesitant to touch.
    please see the following discussion page for more info:
    http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Talk:OSE_FAQ
     
  • i think one of the machines is missing on the link or maybe i'm just tired. a little help? :)
    http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Category_talk:GVCS_50
     
  • Just as an FYI, I've started to re-organize the Steam Engine pages since I got involved with updating the design with Marcin. Early attempts were a bit ill-defined, but I've since shifted organization towards using the Tool Template.

    This is a topic with both a lot of background information and a previous design attempt (back in 2009). I've started making use of sub-pages to shift older, history, and support data to, keeping the main tool pages (Intro, Development, etc) focused on the current design, plans, and progress.

    Per elifarley and syk0saje suggestions, I'm not deleting old pages but using the REDIRECT macro instead. Other suggestions for improvements to the organization, especially w.r.t standard structures across the GVCS tools are welcome.
     
  • I have organized several pages related to steam generation under the new category of "Steam Generator". There is also a page of the same title that contains links to design efforts, etc.
    See http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Category:Steam_Generator.
     
  • I have organized several pages related to steam generation under the new category of "Steam Generator". There is also a page of the same title that contains links to design efforts, etc.
    See http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Category:Steam_Generator.
     
  • I have created a new wiki page at http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Steam_Engine/Index. You might find it to be an interesting organization technique because it is an index to the Steam Engine pages by topic, ie, Project, Applications, Steam Generators, Theory & History, Other Steam Engines, and Organizations. I largely did this for myself to see how the existing SE pages fit together. I have notes (offline) on what pages might be merged, linked, created, etc.
     
  • That's a great looking index in my opinion.
     
  • excellent work, mark! regarding your notes about merging, you might wanna add them to the wiki using the mergeto and mergefrom templates:

    http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Template:Mergeto
    http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Template:Mergefrom

    this way, we can all see your suggestions and help you reorganize content :)
     
  • Thanks for the very appropriate tip :)
     

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