Forum > Documentation (Maintaining -)
Wiki Strategy
af0815:
I think, as long as a ticket for a extension of the wiki is ignored for 8 years !!! a disussion about changes is meanigless. The first attemp was refused, because the version of the wiki was to old, the second attemp (after the version of the wiki is ok) was ignored. No comment - nothing - and this for years.
A dicussion without a maintainer of the wiki is like crying in the wind.
dbannon:
OK, lets be clear here, the wiki is a bit like democracy - really pretty terrible but, honestly, heaps better than anything else we can imagine !
Replacing the wiki with a heavily structured, peer reviewed 'something' would be quite impossible given the available volunteers. The biggest problem, common to all wikis is that its easier to create new content than correct old content. And there sure is some old content in our wiki. People are reluctant to remove or edit old content in case its still valuable to someone.
My solution to that is, and I have done it on several pages, put the new content on the same page, leave the existing content lower down under a "Legacy" heading. As per my first paragraph, its terrible to leave it there but "someone might want it" ! Maybe we need to start marking whole pages as "Legacy" or something similar, its better that having a new user browse to a page that shocks them at how out of date it is.
I agree that having multiple languages makes searching hard, you search for a keyword and and are offered all the 'other' translated pages before you find the language you want. But, again, its the best we can do, its quite unreasonable to say that 'other' languages are not welcome, we can get by.
Trying to superimpose a structure onto a large wiki site is, from personal experience, impossible unless the person who wants the structure, and clearly understands the structure he wants, is willing to do all the work. Again, thats just not going to happen.
I consciously maintain a few pages and hack away at other as I come across a need. I personally think its a great way to record what I have learnt and do it, to some degree for my own benefit. Every now and again, I see edits that that I disagree with, sometimes to the extent I will contact the editor, in all cases a reasonable outcome ensured. Again, I say it, its not great but its OK !
And example might be the Installing Lazarus on Linux page, I have tried quite hard to make that one page. Having a separate page for every linux distribution is just plain silly. But we had/have pages dedicated to just one release of a particular distribution ! Maybe I need to get braver and start removing such distractions ?
But for all of that, my real position is that the Wiki is a valuable resource, its sometimes out of date, sometimes wrong, sometimes disorganized. But it is still valuable, rather than trying to design the next generation, fix whats there. Each small fix helps. A new, structured, controlled, peer reviewed system will not work !
David
Martin_fr:
--- Quote from: dbannon on July 04, 2023, 03:17:06 pm ---People are reluctant to remove or edit old content in case its still valuable to someone.
My solution to that is, and I have done it on several pages, put the new content on the same page, leave the existing content lower down under a "Legacy" heading. As per my first paragraph, its terrible to leave it there but "someone might want it" ! Maybe we need to start marking whole pages as "Legacy" or something similar, its better that having a new user browse to a page that shocks them at how out of date it is.
--- End quote ---
Another way is to link to the history version of the page.
That is, if you believe to have covered all the old content, only changed all references to how it is in the latest version. Yet, there is a chance someone may need to lookup how it worked with the old version.
https://wiki.freepascal.org/GDB_Debugger_Tips#Introduction
--- Code: Text [+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 = document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x = document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) { x[i].style.maxHeight='none'; x[i].style.height = Math.min(x[i].clientHeight+15,306)+'px'; x[i].style.resize = "vertical";}};} ---* This page is for Lazarus 1.0 and newer. For older versions see [{{fullurl:GDB_Debugger_Tips|oldid=62127}} previous version of this page]
--- Quote ---And example might be the Installing Lazarus on Linux page, I have tried quite hard to make that one page. Having a separate page for every linux distribution is just plain silly. But we had/have pages dedicated to just one release of a particular distribution ! Maybe I need to get braver and start removing such distractions ?
--- End quote ---
https://wiki.freepascal.org/Install_on_Fedora
https://wiki.freepascal.org/Install_on_Ubuntu
Indeed, they have so little content, they can be merged to another page.
Or at least be merged together into a page "Installation tips for specific Linux distributions"
It is a matter of placing the correct redirects on the old pages. Not sure if a link to an anchor inside another page is possible. Also such an anchor can be renamed/removed (not the worst, would still link to the page)
Unless one inserts
--- Code: Text [+][-]window.onload = function(){var x1 = document.getElementById("main_content_section"); if (x1) { var x = document.getElementsByClassName("geshi");for (var i = 0; i < x.length; i++) { x[i].style.maxHeight='none'; x[i].style.height = Math.min(x[i].clientHeight+15,306)+'px'; x[i].style.resize = "vertical";}};} ---<div id="redirect_target_foo_bar"><!-- Do not remove, used by old page foobar --></div>
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page