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So, I know a fair number of folks have created accounts on thegunwiki.com over the almost-year I've had it up, and I thought I'd toss out some info on what's been going on there. I'm posting this because the site is gun related and hopefully some folks will be more inclined to add articles to the knowledge base now that it's easier to get articles INTO the knowledge base.
BTW, for anyone unfamiliar with it: thegunwiki doesn't provide discussion boards or whatnot, and is not meant to. It's a forum-neutral place to store informational articles and reference material so that it doesn't get buried in post history or have a forum's worth of sticky notes.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a Google-bot started spamming thegunwiki with links to mortgage places, etc. I upgraded the wiki software to the latest version (TWiki 4 instead of 3), which stopped that. But, a side benefit is that the wiki also became a lot more user-friendly. From what I understand, the learning curve used to be the main barrier keeping some folks from contributing reference articles.
Under the new software:
1. The registration system includes a "captcha", which is that letter-jumble that lots of sites require you read in order to sign up. This is to prevent automatic bots from crap-flooding your site in order to boost their Google pagerank.
2. The login system is now easier for the end users. I know that no one liked the old popup setup, but until the current version of TWiki, there wasn't much of a way around it. Now, it's easy.
3. There's a new way to compose articles, using a fairly "MS Word" like editor. So for anyone who was put off by the editting system before, that's a non issue now. Just click "Edit++" instead of "Edit" in the top-right menu if you wish to edit a wiki article.
Have fun, and if you have feedback on the new interface (other than the stock logo - yes, it's horrible), feel free to post here or PM/email/IM me, your call.
BTW, for anyone unfamiliar with it: thegunwiki doesn't provide discussion boards or whatnot, and is not meant to. It's a forum-neutral place to store informational articles and reference material so that it doesn't get buried in post history or have a forum's worth of sticky notes.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, a Google-bot started spamming thegunwiki with links to mortgage places, etc. I upgraded the wiki software to the latest version (TWiki 4 instead of 3), which stopped that. But, a side benefit is that the wiki also became a lot more user-friendly. From what I understand, the learning curve used to be the main barrier keeping some folks from contributing reference articles.
Under the new software:
1. The registration system includes a "captcha", which is that letter-jumble that lots of sites require you read in order to sign up. This is to prevent automatic bots from crap-flooding your site in order to boost their Google pagerank.
2. The login system is now easier for the end users. I know that no one liked the old popup setup, but until the current version of TWiki, there wasn't much of a way around it. Now, it's easy.
3. There's a new way to compose articles, using a fairly "MS Word" like editor. So for anyone who was put off by the editting system before, that's a non issue now. Just click "Edit++" instead of "Edit" in the top-right menu if you wish to edit a wiki article.
Have fun, and if you have feedback on the new interface (other than the stock logo - yes, it's horrible), feel free to post here or PM/email/IM me, your call.
