Improving the wiki? - General Chat - CHDK Forum
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Improving the wiki?

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Offline mattkime

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Improving the wiki?
« on: 29 / November / 2009, 08:39:10 »
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I'm interested in improving the wiki starting with the home page. Is anyone in charge of it? I don't want to step on anyone's toes.
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Offline Microfunguy

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #1 on: 29 / November / 2009, 08:56:15 »
Quote from: mattkime on 29 / November / 2009, 08:39:10
I'm interested in improving the wiki starting with the home page. Is anyone in charge of it?

No, and in my opinion that is why it is such a confusing mess.

The unacceptable face of democracy.

You need a 'benevolent dictator' who is willing to listen to suggestions but who, at the end of the day, will decide what form the WIKI will take.

A lot of work  ....
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Offline fudgey

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #2 on: 29 / November / 2009, 10:08:39 »
Agreed, nobody's in charge which is its main problem. You're most welcome to work on it! If you feel uneasy doing huge changes by yourself (I suppose just a small face lift isn't going to cut it), feel welcome to ask around for comments.
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Offline mattkime

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #3 on: 29 / November / 2009, 11:27:11 »
>>If you feel uneasy doing huge changes by yourself (I suppose just a small face lift isn't going to cut it), feel welcome to ask around for comments.

Heh, no problems there. I'm a "do it and apologize later" type.

The goal would be to greatly simplify the home page, efficiently guiding people to install/download, the forums, scripting, etc.
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Offline whim

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #4 on: 29 / November / 2009, 11:48:50 »
Each pages' History should also be useful to see if someone is already maintaining it - that might help to
prevent 'Undo' wars  :D

wim
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Offline Microfunguy

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #5 on: 29 / November / 2009, 13:04:20 »
Is it possible to give Matt absolute power and block everyone else ?

That should stop any changes   :)
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Offline mattkime

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #6 on: 29 / November / 2009, 13:34:00 »
who runs the auto build server? I'd like to simplify the content of that page. I think we might be able to get all the links on the page without scrolling.

and here's a sample of the kind of editing i'd like to do, from the downloads page  http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Downloads -

CHDK currently is not issued in "releases." Rather, it is available from a special server that generates nightly "builds" of the source code, customized for various camera models and firmware versions:

becomes

CHDK is generated nightly, customized for various camera models and firmware versions:

and this is removed

These autobuilds can be compared to the nightly builds of projects such as Firefox: Developers make changes in the source code, which is then automatically compiled into a working build you can download.

These autobuilds are largely considered safe. We don't include highly experimental code in the mainline CHDK.

---

The average person visiting the site wants to find out what CHDK is and how to install it, preferably simultaneously. (who wants to read any docs??) So I don't think we need to explain our autobuild process and touch on the nerdy debates behind them. Once they play, have fun, and come back to contribute, then we can explain that bs!

while many individuals have made heroic contributions to the project, we need to attract more people to the project to achieve our goals. Simple, concise docs help draw people in.

(speak up or else you'll witness a heck of a lot more edits as seen above!)
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Offline mattkime

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #7 on: 29 / November / 2009, 13:35:49 »
I think I'll take on a page or a portion of a page each day to make steady progress. It would be great if someone could join me.
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Offline whim

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #8 on: 29 / November / 2009, 14:48:07 »
Quote
who runs the auto build server?

PM Hacki, he should know

wim
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Offline reyalp

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Re: Improving the wiki?
« Reply #9 on: 29 / November / 2009, 17:24:11 »
Quote from: mattkime on 29 / November / 2009, 13:34:00
These autobuilds are largely considered safe. We don't include highly experimental code in the mainline CHDK.
As the only person checking stuff in on a regular basis, I do not agree with this statement. I would prefer to at least see a caution that it may be broken at any time, and check the forum for more info. But go ahead and change it as you see fit, and I'll add whatever caveats I think are needed ;)

I would like to see us go back to a stable and dev builds, but that's another story.

The biggest problem on the wiki IMO is the manual. The CHDK/allbest/morebest need to merged, with all the obsolete content and "it used to be this way and now it's that way" and chatty examples removed. Because of the size, they also need to be broken up into multiple pages. There is simply too much information to present clearly on a single page.

 I would also suggest dividing things into reference and more tutorial content. CHDK reference should assume you have basic digital photgraphy knowledge, know how to navigate the menus etc, and just tell you what each command does.

The main problem with fixing the manuals is that the behavior of many features is not well documented anywhere, or even well specified in the code. There is also a lot of variation between different cameras. That means that to accurately document things, you have to spend time digging through the source. That isn't to say it can't be improved without doing this, almost anything would be an improvement.
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