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CHDK Wikia Discussion - what improvements are needed ?

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Offline waterwingz

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CHDK Wikia Discussion - what improvements are needed ?
« on: 08 / March / 2013, 20:00:56 »
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Its probably time we tackled the current state of our Wiki?

Its no secret that while the huge wealth of information stored on the CHDK Wiki has grown,  it has basically become unmanageable!  Searching is difficult as even the simplest search turns up pages of mostly useless information.  The search engine is weak.  For example, its case sensitive ( e.g. search "prepare your sd card" vs "prepare your SD card) and does not handle partial word searches ( e.g. search "motion detect" vs "motion detection").

To that end,  I have a personal text file of links I use to to cut and paste answers to frequent question from new CHDK users.   When I need to find a useful page on the wiki,  searching for it is time consuming.  I can only begin to image how frustrating it must be to someone who does not know what is where.

So,  I started a "hot links" page that looks like this :

link> Top CHDK Wikia Pages

What I'd like to do, after discussion here and considerable format & content clean-up,  is move it from my personal space and link to it from the top of the main wiki page ( where the FAQ, IRC, Download and Forum links are).

Probably need some ground rules of what goes on that page to keep it small enough to be useful.   Subjects with lots of content - like lists of scripts - should have their own page and simply link from here.  But I'm thinking good links to non-wiki sites or a forum threads would be okay. 

Not a perfect solution and I'm really open to improvements, suggestions and better ideas.   Anything is almost certain to be better than what we have now.





 
« Last Edit: 09 / March / 2013, 16:45:19 by waterwingz »
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Offline reyalp

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #1 on: 08 / March / 2013, 22:38:16 »
I like it.

Previous discussions of the general state of the wiki
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=7603.msg81297#msg81297
http://chdk.setepontos.com/index.php?topic=4554.0

I keep a personal list of useful forum threads (mostly) at http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/User:ReyalP Most of these are more technical but there's few that address commonly asked questions.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #2 on: 08 / March / 2013, 23:18:13 »
So I've learned over the years that an email to a group address asking for specific action usually means that most people will assume the others on the "To:" or "Cc:" list will respond and so the don't have to.

At the risk of being a PITA, it would be good to hear explicit feedback from  srsa_4c, nafraf,  msl, outlsider, lapser, zeno, Stick, and philmoz too.  Sorry .. I'm sure I missed someone.

I was going to ask RockyBot too .. but .. well .. you know ... 

And to be a bigger PITA,  I'd really like to see each of your top 10 links.

« Last Edit: 09 / March / 2013, 00:22:16 by waterwingz »
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Offline zeno

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #3 on: 09 / March / 2013, 04:22:58 »
You're right Waterwingz - I do assume that others will reply! But I have looked at your suggested page and think it's excellent. I'm continually surprised at the number of people who post here having tried and failed to install CHDK but turn out to have used the most error-prone, tricky and oldest methods.

While your suggested page won't help those who get there CHDK information from elsewhere on the web (YouTube videos etc), it should make it easier for beginners to get started without stumbling at the first hurdle.

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Offline msl

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #4 on: 09 / March / 2013, 05:05:55 »
« Last Edit: 09 / March / 2013, 05:12:38 by msl »
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Offline thepanoguy

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #5 on: 09 / March / 2013, 07:13:02 »
Everyone possesses a degree of expertise and proficiency and uses a language syntax to express themselves within their field of expertise. Expose that person to a new skill base, usually that person is overwhelmed by the new knowledge base that the first impression is "too hard, I give up". 

As a technical person with no programming aptitude, who gets bamboozled by the CHDK WIKI, can I make a suggestion.

On the Forum page, in the Using CHDK section, above the CHDK Releases, insert a new section CHDK WIKI - READ FIRST.

Move this thread into that section, because in a month from now, this thread will get lost and noobs will not find it.

I also think that the section should be divided in two.

One section exclusively locked for the administrators, gurus, developers, etc, to add links and updates.

The other section for general member queries and suggestions. That way the main thread does not divert from the prime objective and get cluttered.
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Offline nafraf

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #6 on: 09 / March / 2013, 07:26:56 »
I think that ACID can be removed from link list, because STICK can do what ACID does, and more.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #7 on: 09 / March / 2013, 08:24:06 »
Quote from: msl on 09 / March / 2013, 05:05:55
Here are some of my favorite links:
thank you msl - exactly what we need - I'll go through and merge as much of it in as possible

Quote from: thepanoguy on 09 / March / 2013, 07:13:02
On the Forum page, in the Using CHDK section, above the CHDK Releases, insert a new section CHDK WIKI - READ FIRST.  Move this thread into that section, because in a month from now, this thread will get lost and noobs will not find it. I also think that the section should be divided in two. One section exclusively locked for the administrators, gurus, developers, etc, to add links and updates.  The other section for general member queries and suggestions. That way the main thread does not divert from the prime objective and get cluttered.
I'm not sure I follow here.  This forum and the CHDK wiki are different web sites on different servers hosted in different countries.  Are you proposing adding a "hot links" thread to the forum?  That could be good but would basically duplicate what I'm proposing for the wiki.  And editing forum posts can only be done by the original person who posted.   So it might be easier to just link to the wiki page from here?

Quote from: nafraf on 09 / March / 2013, 07:26:56
I think that ACID can be removed from link list, because STICK can do what ACID does, and more.
Good thought.  However there have been reported cases where STICK has difficulty with the SD card reader on some computers.  And some people insist on doing things there way.  So making ACID easy to find still has some value I think?
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #8 on: 09 / March / 2013, 13:34:03 »
First release done & posted :  http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK_Links

I was thinking it might be nice to link some youtube videos - but its so painful watching the mistakes in so many of them even though the authors had the best of intentions.


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Offline srsa_4c

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Re: CHDK Wikia Index Page ( hot links? )
« Reply #9 on: 09 / March / 2013, 16:21:39 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 08 / March / 2013, 23:18:13
... it would be good to hear explicit feedback ...
Well, thanks for the work you're doing. I can't show my "favorite links" collection, since I don't have such a list.

Some thoughts.
Can the wikia page header be changed?

Some pages (such as yours) with relevant information could be listed there, so that one doesn't necessarily have to go to the index page when trying to find something.

Do we have a forum topic about discussing wikia improvements? I don't want to be off-topic with the ideas I may have.
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