WIKI – ‘How To’ / FAQ

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

lol - everyone is going wiki

Do you have a ssh access to the server? If you do then drop a .htaccess file into the directory and use the easy easy to install php wiki...

It does work... however, it is important to remember it's only as good as the time people spend making it better... in some ways keeping it all in the forum makes sense.

What we would be better off doing in some regards is flagging topics that are really good - and using those as the content of the wiki.

The wiki would just be a dynamic table of contents into the forum then...

Some one could make a section on engine problems - then put any link they know of to the forum with the content on solutions.

my .2 in a rambling kind of way

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

lets worry about getting my smileys working first....plz. then the trip to haaawwwwaaaii. i'm so computer ill it's not funny. what the heck is an wiki? and why do i care?as far as everyone being able to change it i might not like that,but if they could add to it or comment on it that would be cool.

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

I was just coming to this section to suggest this very idea and lo and behold - someone thought of it first.

I'm new to carbs and have been all over this forum and other sites about carb stuff so I can appreciate how having all the information presented concisely and IN ONE LOCATION! would be fantastic.

Topics we see alot of:
Fork seals
Carb Synch - already mentioned
Carb Jetting
Brakes - bleeding, replacing
Oil - changing, types, fuel in it
Upgrading fuse block
the list goes on and on...

Any ideas on an ETA?

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

WIKI's are good... the problem is a good wiki takes alot of work. I'm currently watching the ninja250 wiki grow and it's now a sizeable work. It has many many good posters working on it, and many many posters who aren't on the wiki team using it as a resource.

This is a fairly large group, but I'm not sure we have a large enough section of really motivated individuals to make this work... nor am I sure that there is a body of people really able to act as our team leaders... it can't all lie on sno - but on the other hand it is a lot of responsibility to hand off to members from sno's perspective. I know our wiki crew was hand picked by our admin group... we've had the unique ability for all of our admin group to meet in person for beer - something in the xj world sadly we've not been able to do... we're a smaller group and we do alot - this is the best web resource out there for the xj...

I guess I've rambled a bit but - the key points are imho:

- to make a wiki worth using it needs alot of work put into it.
- to make a wiki worth using alot of team decisions need to be made early, otherwise it's a big mess that's hard to navigate and content is prepared in completely different ways
- it has to be a colaborative effort by a group of knowledgable people
- it has to be used, or the effort was wasted

The last point might seem silly - however - one of the biggest frustrations with our wiki is that we have many many hundreds of one time posters, come in and ask a question that is thoroughly answered in the wiki. They don't look in the wiki. They get either a snarky look in the wiki, a short answer or a wrong answer only to be followed by a link to the wiki when someone comes along and spots it. It's a wonderful resource, but it has to be used to be worth anything.

The XJ world is blessed with the XJ cd... and some ways a wiki could be seen as recreating the wheel. Certainly great care must be taken to ensure none of the XJ cd showed up in the wiki (which would be unethical to say the least).

I feel perhaps we'd be best suited to highlight or archive threads... perhaps simply a post or two that can act a bit like a table of contents refering to particularily good discussions on various aspects of the xj. At the same time maintain our focus on discussion and conversation. If not for the comradory many of us would instead turn to our haynes manuals and not worry about the web

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

Miss hearing from you Woot. Glad your able to drop by with wisdom yet again. Keep in touch.

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

the work involved makin a wiki might be better put into sorting and catgorizing the post already there?...

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

LOL - HooNz you cleared up what I was trying to say in one sentance... damn you

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

Gotta hand it to him Woot, he has a way with words (some of which I'm still trying to understand, I must be very dense). I would love to put together a wiki, but as you point out, I can't give it a whole lot of time and I'm fairly certain that most are in the same boat with me. I hope we can put together a page or two of important topics and processes for folks to zero in on. Of course the current arrangement requires the arrivee to be somewhat familiar with the terms used on the machine and an understanding of how to use the search function (which I confess I'm still having issue understanding, lack of effort for sure).

 

Re: WIKI – ‘How To’ documentation

Robert , you don't speak AwwrstAlien , Woot , speakin AwwrstAlien makes one very lazy as it shows on da keyboard !....

 

Implement a "Wiki" Interface for FAQ

Maybe someone has already made this suggestion. And maybe it isn't technically possible... I wouldn't know. Would it be possible to establish a Wikipedia style page with articles about repairing XJs?

I have some experience making contributions to Wikipedia and find it very easy to use. It has the benifit over a Forum in that all relevant information is available in one article that is edited by anyone with the knowledge. People can improve... and sub links for pictures and smaller more specific articles... etc.

I love this forum because of all the experience and information. But I find I have to do a lot of reading to find what I'm looking for. Of course, I can always ask a new question, but it has probably been answered a hundred times already... If I could just find those answers! For instance, why should I post another question about how do build a YICS tool? There are probably a thousand questions and answers to this already...

Just an idea.

One thing I know for sure is that you guys have the answers to my questions! Thanks for the sharing you knowledge base! This site is great!

 

Re: Implement a "Wiki" Interface for FAQ

if that is possible i'm totally down for it, i've had a hard time finding things too and i feel like a jerk posting a new thread for a question that has probably been answered.... now if only i knew how to do these things...

 

I like to use Wikis. Never posted to one.

One concern I have is that from time to time we have some really bad info get posted in the forums. Sure hate to see something wrong or even dangerous inserted into an otherwise good article.

Any way to have an "editorial board"?

 

The "Big Hammer and a Old Screwdriver" method of removing a stuck Oil Drain Plug comes to mind.

 

i say we use the included FAQ topics instead of trying to add something.


There's a "Final FAQ' topic that has ZERO posts, yet ALOT of howto's and FAQ's are located on these forums.

they should be moved in there.

if that topic needs a more 'formal' thread layout, then i'm sure we writers of HOW-TO's could re-write them to make em fit.

 

I love the idea of collecting some basic answers that many of us, old and new, could use... then improving them with the input of our many sharp members. Could be wiki based, could be moderator updated FAQ, could be a dedicated sticky thread area... whatever tool our leaders think best.

Because it embarrasses me to ask a question I know must have been raised before; I feel like I'm imposing. But the info is important to me and I really value the advice available here.

IMHO, the main thing is being able to find answers on common issues (brake upgrade, fuel valve woes, engine/carb cleanout, whatever) that have been gradually 'perfected' by successive comments from several gurus.

as always, thanks for the help.

 

I know this is kind of a dead thread, but I'm reviving it because I had an idea based on the way chacal has been using his ongoing thread to sell stuff. If one person is willing (and I am), then one single thread can be used as a HOW TO kind of thing, because the person organizing it can just keep going back and updating links and all.

I think this would work well, because as noted above, a lot of the information is already available in threads and stuff, it's just not linked to in any convenient way.

This would give people the opportunity to suggest which threads should be included or which ones might still need to be written. What I am currently imagining is a troubleshooting tree that would make it easy to point people with similar problems in the right direction. The dead ends of this tree would be links to threads that people agree are the right solution (like carb cleaning, battery charging, what type of oil to use [jk on that one], etc.). As it grows it will become more useful, and responses to the same questions won't be typed over and over again. This could be moved into the Final FAQ section, if it gets good enough.

Like I said, I would be willing to spearhead this, as long as people are willing to submit suggestions for what belongs inside.