Just want to say that I was looking up midnight commander and mplayer on Linux wiki, when the insidious side of me thought, I wonder if"ever-so-hot-right-now" Wikipedia has something on this?

Cough! it *does*. With images. That project is starting to get frightening.

Well, since LQ Wiki is new we haven't got much yet. We need more contributing members to help us with "most wanted".

LQ Wiki also has support for images, so maybe we can add a screenshot on the mplayer page.

There can be no comparison between wikipedia and the LQ wiki.

Wikipedia is an absolutely *huge* project with probably tens of thousands of contributors (if not more) all over the world in different language.

LQ Wiki is a small wiki dedicated to Linux and is probably maintained by a hundred or less people. LQ Wiki is also not a public wiki, in the sense that only registered members can edit content.

Yep, I know the projects aren't comparable, but if it gets to the point that a certain linux app is better covered in wikipedia, well, readers will go there.

Of course, wikipedia will only say what the app *is*, it probably won't go into how to use it, and certainly tips and tricks will probably be out-of-scope.

Another thing is that wikipedia doesn't have a forum as vibrant as LQ, but the cross-over benefit to Linux wiki is low, correct me if I'm wrong there ...

What would be cool would be to be able to scrape the forum for base insights and insert them under the wiki categories. Probably this idea has been thrown up before, I have no doubt. It would occur to any perl munger that that possibility exists.

Yeah, you're right. But come on! We're new kids on the block. We will kick Wikipedia's ass later on when it comes to Linux and Open Source related articles. For sure!

The LQ Wiki is really something I'd like to see promoted more. I have a couple ideas on how to do that, but I'm open to additional suggestions. As for the anon editing, at this point I think the benefits will be outweighed by the cons. What do others think about this topic?

http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/

--jeremy

What are your ideas?

I think that as it grows, more people will know about it, and the fast it will grow. Then some more attention at the LQ site will just speed everything up.

It is not only the wiki that needs more attention. I think that the first page (linuxquestions.org) should be devided into parts representing: wiki, forums, iso and radio since IMHO those are the biggest ones. We can also add bookmarks, reviews and hcl and give them a slightly smaller part.

I do not say how this should be done, but I think that the first page should be redesigned so a visitor can see all the parts more, the current layout where the parts only have a line is not enough exposure.

This is just an idea, do what you want with it.

I guess the question "which wiki" is meant to ask "which wiki should I spend my time putting Linux-related info into?" And it's a good question, given that Midnight Commander has an article with pics, as you noted.

Well, consider this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikiped...kipedia_is_not

Wikipedia expressly is not what LQ Wiki needs to be. Wikipedia is not "a publisher of original thought", or "a cookbook". But a cookbook (or more precisely, an instruction manual, is exactly what LQ Wiki. I have been putting specific instructions on getting various devices to work in a tc1100 tablet PC at http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Tc1100 and there are many other hardware devices and programs that could use similar treatment.

That sort of content is specifically not allowed in Wikipedia, but it's just what a reader of a Linux wiki needs and wants.

As of present, the wiki is not a really "selling point" of LQ.org. The forum is. Unfortunately, in a site like this, the forum eats up all the attention and the wiki is really a minor part.

One idea I have is that you can open to wiki to public editing (this might have both good and bad effects) but at least more people may start writing content. The flip side is that it may also open to spamming. Unfortunately it's a catch-22. Unless you allow the general public to access the wiki (as far as contributing goes), you might not get more content as such.

Another idea is to make the wiki stand out. Change the colour scheme from the LQ.org default theme. At present it blends far too much with the forum and doesn't really have any appealing points about it as far as aesthetics are concerned. I think a white background may be more suitable for the wiki. Maybe a more stand-out theme...

Anyway, let's hope more knowledgeable people use the wiki. I'm not really good at writing howtos or tutorials. I've tried a lot, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

maybe more things about "Search the Wiki" and "Contribute to the Wiki" stuff needs to be throughout the forums more, like when you create new threads.

I think that we should try to make people to see LQ more as a collection of different parts, now it is just a forum with some extra projects. That's why I think that a new first page is in need. I think that we should get people the feeling that LQ is something that has the forum, wiki, radio etc parallel, today it feels like the other parts are children under the forum.

LQ is the parent under which a number of parallel threads are running. But now it feels like LQ = LQ Forum which forked the other parts.

A new homepage is coming with the forum redesign. As far as anon edits go, I think the amount that would change participation is a bit overestimated. As it stands now, signing up couldn't be easier - you don't even need to provide an email address. I think what it really needs is more exposure, which I am working on now.

--jeremy

umm... yeah, the forum is the biggest part of the site, but wiki is, I think, on a similar level of helpful-ness, to the HCL. my thought of the "pyramid of importanceness"
------------forum-----------------------------------
-------wiki----------hcl-----------------------------
-----radio------bookmarks------tutorials-------------
---jeremy's blog-----podcasts-----reviews--
--------iso's--------bookreviews-----quizes------

the "pyramid" is based on percieved amount of people involved and informativness.

yikes! a consultant in our midst!

expect a bill for that one, LQ!

:-D

actually I'm half a consultant myself, and it's good t_g. However, it - like many corporates - is top-heavy. Volume of forum posts outweigh everything else. The problem is how to get the forum to feed the wiki.##I'm off to perlmonks to find out!

hey I'm no consultant- me just humble uni student. (not quite- gap 6 months)

yeah- the structure is top heavy. we need to encourage user participation in the wiki- you don't have to be an expert. Even those who feel they can't write content can start stubs, spell check and proof read. The HCL is also important- especially for new converts. Bookmarks are also a useful resource. Please contribute!

titanium_geek

titanium_geek