PSA: itT, maemo.org and their wikis

[GeneralAntilles]

Just a heads up for everybody. The itT wiki (http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) is going to be closed down in favor of the maemo.org wiki (http://wiki.maemo.org/) with the Talk transition (http://www.internettablettalk.com/2008/12/02/internet-tablet-talk-to-become-talkmaemoorg/). A few months ago, andrewfblack put in a lot of effort to move the useful pages from the itT wiki over to maemo.org. Unfortunately it seem a lot of you are still investing a lot of time (http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges) into updating the itT wiki.

As such, I'll recommend to everybody doing so (again) that they find all of their favorite pages and move them over to maemo.org ASAP.

[iamthewalrus]

I must admit that I haven't been paying attention to maemo.org and the work being done there. I just pop into ITT once in a while for news and with the ITT wiki just one click away I kept going there. But now we have a situation where there are two versions of articles. How do you suggest we merge them? No matter which way you do it someones edit work will be for naught. Also wouldn't it be an idea to make the ITT wiki read-only for a month or two with a warning above all articles pointing to the Maemo one?

[GeneralAntilles]

But now we have a situation where there are two versions of articles. How do you suggest we merge them?


If one is clearly better than the other, then pick the better one and delete the worse one. If they're similar, merge what seems appropriate and see if you can't make a better article in the process.

There's no one-size-fits-all answer. ;)


No matter which way you do it someones edit work will be for naught.


Something everybody who goes to edit a wiki should make peace with. :)


Also wouldn't it be an idea to make the ITT wiki read-only for a month or two with a warning above all articles pointing to the Maemo one?

Probably, though Reggie will need to be the one to do it.

[qole]

At least three of the edits in your "still investing a lot of time" link are just me putting a bunch of ITt posts from daperl into a single place. No disaster if it all disappears.

GA: can you give us a timeline for the shutdown? Are we talking days, weeks, or months?

[GeneralAntilles]

At least three of the edits in your "still investing a lot of time" link are just me putting a bunch of ITt posts from daperl into a single place. No disaster if it all disappears.


Well, let's go back (http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges&days=60) to the date of the announcement (http://www.internettablettalk.com/2008/12/02/internet-tablet-talk-to-become-talkmaemoorg/) then. Whatever value you want to put on those edits, they're still taking place in a wiki that will soon cease to exist. I'm sure the people making them would just as soon like to know that.


GA: can you give us a timeline for the shutdown? Are we talking days, weeks, or months?

It should coincide with the Talk transition: weeks to month.

[GeraldKo]

Any chance the old wiki could be put back up?

I suggest it be restored, but with two changes:
(!) Put a notice on each page that it's been deprecated and is no longer updated, and put a link to the new wiki in the notice
(2) Make it non-editable

I'd like the old wiki back because it seems the new wiki sometimes lacks things the old wiki had, and my iTT Google Search finds things in the old wiki, that are inaccessible since it is shut down.

For example, if I put nuvoclear theme into the Google iTT search (http://www.google.com/cse?cx=005981223421171304650%3Awt9tjwf2kd4), and I refine the results for wiki-entries, I get pointed to an old wiki entry entitled "Theme List" -- OTOH, when I go to the new wiki (http://wiki.maemo.org/Category:Users), it appears there are no entries listing already-created Themes, and I don't have a good way to search for it.

Similarly, IIRC, there used to be a more extensive SSH tutorial in the old wiki.

Another, related example: I just put winscp hostname into Google iTT search, and the first hit is from the old wiki:

"Networking:Public key logins for putty, pscp and winscp - Internet ...
For winscp create a new session filling in the host name (n810), user name (user), and private key file (the ppk file you saved). ..."

The above, of course, are just examples.

Finally, I'm all for the new wiki: Shouldn't it have a top-level link all its own, along with

* Intro
* Downloads
* Community
* Development
* News
* TALK
?

[GeneralAntilles]

Similarly, IIRC, there used to be a more extensive SSH tutorial in the old wiki.

The opportunity was there to move stuff over (the planned changeover was announced in the middle of last year and has since been re-announced on several occasions), AndrewFBlack moved a lot of articles over, but not everything was of good enough quality to be worth saving.

I'm planning on doing a more extensive SSH article soon.


Finally, I'm all for the new wiki: Shouldn't it have a top-level link all its own, along with


I fought for this, personally, but the consensus went to burying it in under Community instead.

[jolouis]

I'm kind of hoping the old Wiki just got shut off, not permanently deleted... but don't know for sure. If it is just shut down and not fully removed any chance that we can get it at least put up and just tucked away somewhere as I noticed there are a few articles that never made it over (the whole huge article we had about wired USB networking for example is now completely gone, and it was very relevant information for current generation tablet owners...)

[qgil]

Is this too bad?

http://wiki.maemo.org/SSH
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB_networking
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB_host_mode
http://wiki.maemo.org/Category:Connectivity

Maybe you can find more at archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/20080108082245rn_1/internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

[GeraldKo]

Is this too bad?

http://wiki.maemo.org/SSH
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB_networking
http://wiki.maemo.org/USB_host_mode
http://wiki.maemo.org/Category:Connectivity

Maybe you can find more at archive.org (http://web.archive.org/web/20080108082245rn_1/internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page)

Quim, yes, this is too bad.

I'm looking at it from the point of view of someone who has virtually no familiarity with SSH. I could make no use of the above SSH-related link. Either it was lacking information or assumed knowledge above my level.

OTOH, I found the source of what I previously found on the wiki. It came from a bunanson post (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=23932&highlight=winscp+step). (Shout out to bunanson: Thank you for these step-by-step instructions you post in the forum!)

With the help of bunanson's instructions -- which used to be in the wiki -- I was able to get winscp and ssh working.

So I ask, What's wrong with putting the old wiki back online? (That is, putting it back online with my aforementioned changes:
(!) Put a notice on each page that it's been deprecated and is no longer updated, and put a link to the new wiki in the notice
(2) Make it non-editable)

Not only is this good because it provides information that was in the old wiki but didn't get transferred, but it also would inform people about the new wiki who are directed to old-wiki links when they do a Google search.

[timsamoff]

Or, improve the maemo.org Wiki...?

Tim

[GeraldKo]

Or, improve the maemo.org Wiki...?



Tim, that's great if people improve the maemo.org wiki. But that's not the question. The question is

What's wrong with putting the old wiki back online?*

Putting up the old one doesn't hurt the new one!! And if the old one is not editable, no energy will be lost that would have gone to editing the new one. In fact, it would help the new one. For example, if the old one were still up, I could come across bunanson's old wiki entry and, I assume, just move it over.


*(That is, putting it back online with my aforementioned changes:
(!) Put a notice on each page that it's been deprecated and is no longer updated, and put a link to the new wiki in the notice
(2) Make it non-editable)

[timsamoff]

It was just a question.

Tim

[GeneralAntilles]

The itT wiki is dead. The past 6 months have been "have the old wiki online", we killed the Midgard wiki, now the itT wiki has been killed.

Like I said, I'm planning on updating the SSH article sometime soon. If you have more articles that you'd like to see expanded, just mention them.

[GeraldKo]

I'm planning on updating the SSH article sometime soon. If you have more articles that you'd like to see expanded, just mention them.

Thanks, and I appreciate your efforts. That's the main message, but I want to add that it's hard to know what you want until you want it. :)

(Also, wouldn't it be easier for you if you had the old wiki to crib from?)

[GeneralAntilles]

(Also, wouldn't it be easier for you if you had the old wiki to crib from?)

I went through that article, it was in need of a lot of work to make it both usable and somewhat platform agnostic. It was going to be easier for me to start over than to fix it.

[GeneralAntilles]

*(That is, putting it back online with my aforementioned changes:
(!) Put a notice on each page that it's been deprecated and is no longer updated, and put a link to the new wiki in the notice
(2) Make it non-editable)

This is actually what we did with the Midgard wiki for a while, but there are two big problems. First, the old wiki will clutter up Google searches (this was a bigger problem with the Midgard wiki which had a high page rank, but still) with old pages filled with old information. Second, an uneditable wiki is a really unproductive oxy***** because people frequently don't see the notice, want to update these old pages, and don't understand that there are newer, more up-to-date and editable pages available.

It really didn't work very well. Better to salvage what's usable and kill the rest. The salvage part has been done (AndrewFBlack moved the pages, and I did some merging, cleanup and deletion). You could certainly argue that the threshold for quality was set too high or that the article selection was too . . . selective, but it's done with now.

In summary, if you run into something that's missing or needs expansion, mention it and somebody will get around to putting their knowledge down in the wiki soon enough.

[GeraldKo]

Here, apparently, is another one for the list, kindly provided by Texrat:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=285219#post285219

The current wiki (http://wiki.maemo.org/USB_networking)seems to have much of what one needs regarding USB-to-ethernet, but I do remember something about which adapters worked and which didn't, by brand name. That may be what Texrat means by info on "device testing."

Along the same lines, an entry on travel routers for accessing hotel wifi would be useful.

And a review of the different GPS receivers, like the Holux versus the G-Sat versus your i-Blue. Granted, this is the sort of topic that becomes less important as the GPS-lacking N770 and N800 get more out-of-date, but there are Tablet users still using those older models.

[GeraldKo]

GA: Another article that should be in the wiki:

How to program MicroB to use the D-pad up/down as page up/page down.

Info is here:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=100884&postcount=11