This seems to be a good idea that nobody has really tried to start yet.
Imagine...
That PortableApps.com had a wiki, that was informative, useful, and maybe even fun.
Now imagine...
That we could refer to the wiki in forum postings, instead of having to post an age-old topic.
Now...
Let's make that a reality!
But what about spam?
Only mods can give write access to the wiki, and to make the access fair, you need to post at least 4 useful posts to show that you know your stuff and that you can help... the wiki.
Anyone else in? 
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As a CMS, Wikimedia (Wikipedia, wikiHow, others) does pwn Drupal, but like with any wiki, it takes a little control away from the owners and gives a heck of a lot more to the users.
A wiki is a good tool for a lot of things, but I'm not so sure it would work so well here. Most of the content pages (app pages, I mean) are pretty informative. The Firefox page is a little out-of-date, but the wikiHow article I wrote solves that problem. I mean, if that ever goes out of date, anybody can fix it.
Wikia is a good place to start if you want an average Wiki; they're like the Geocities or Angelfire of Wiki. Far as I know, they'll let anyone set one up. Problem then becomes how to stay up to date. If you're just a day or two late with your updates, your site loses value. And most of us will still come here first. You can follow @PortableApps on Twitter, and get cell phone updates as soon as they're posted, if you like, but then you still gotta update that wiki.
Now, if you had a Wiki that covered the entire world of application portability, not just the small percentage of that that PortableApps.com represents... now then you might be onto something.
I think ANYTHING like this should be directly posted on portableapps.com. The problem then becomes bandwith for John, getting people to READ the stupid thing, etc etc etc.
And SPAM, yum spam.
I think Drupal allows for wikifying things.
A wiki is a good idea, but it will take a heck of a lot of time to effectively implement it. My best suggestion is at this point to make as many informative posts placed in the correct forums. At some point, John may make a wiki, and then we have a batch of content.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
I said on the top posts that only the people who make at least 4 useful and informative posts would be allowed in there.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
(Dryly) And see why it's such a bad idea... that article has been hijacked by someone who was just able to edit it... see those links to that bad site? Spammed by someone who didn't even have to create an account or log in to mess it up. That IP address has spammed three other such pages, removing useful information and warnings of the not-always-infallibility of "portable" software, and changing links from our site to a couple of other illegal sites.
(I can't really see the point of it anyway, [practically?] all the information is in the main Firefox Portable page and its support page.)
For a Wikipedia-type wiki, MediaWiki will naturally do better, but for one where you don't want it quite so open - or more open - Drupal fits the bill. You've probably just never seen it implemented as a real wiki.
I don't think that a Wiki would help here; I think it would be a liability, adding very little value and causing much probable trouble. We're aiming to make the site simpler and easier to use and maintain (a lot of the details require Drupal, CCK and Views savvy) yet likely to have more useful content (for example, doesn't it strike you that the main application pages are all rather consistent? All that information can be simplified with CCK and Contemplate, and even then add a view for the PortableApps.com updater to use - that's the plan).
I think that a wiki would just complicate matters further rather than simplifying them.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Thanks for pointing that out to me. Now we know the IP address of the guy running "that site" -- that's something, isn't it? At the very least, someone could do a WHOIS on it, find the abuse email address for his ISP, and complain he's sharing warez. Or... something, I don't know. You could paste it at your illegal software defense force group, maybe someone there can do something with it.
Anyway, I cleaned up my article, and two others. The other one seemed like it was always about that other suite, and all I've ever heard them being guilty of is redistributing Firefox. Might be a big deal to some, but it wasn't a warez site (per se), so I left it alone. Besides, if I'd hijacked an article about a competing product to spam for PA.c, how would that be any better than them hijacking an article about Portable Firefox? Sure, we're the good guys, JTH got Mozilla's permission, but the average user doesn't care about that. (Maybe they should -- and I agree with that.)
No, you're right -- a wiki is a liability. It's great for Wikipedia, and I've seen other good uses of it, like UESP.net if you play Elder Scrolls games, but it would be a mess if that Josh kid and all his little high school buddies started an edit war with us up here. Sorry if I sound bitter, but damn, I can see downloading some warez, you want something for nothing, whatever... but what drives someone to aggressively spam it?
wikiHow is MediaWiki, it's just another skin/theme or something. I've never heard of them changing the software. Wikipedia lets unregistered users edit, too. Only Wikipedia uses a lot more of MediaWiki's functions, like locking pages from new and unregistered users, e.g. Kanye West after the VMAs.
If Drupal has a wiki module, yeah, that would be the least amount of work. I've seen forums with wiki plugins, but I've never seen the point. This site would be an exception. Like if each app had a support wiki. And I don't know what CCK, Views, and Contemplate are, but I think I get what you're saying. Another user and I were cooking up a pretty nice set of ideas for the updater, and someone on the team came by and said "that's pretty much what we're going for". So I'm pretty excited to see that.
That's how my school's IP got blacklisted for editing the wikipedia page of it...
“There is a computer disease that anybody who works with computers knows about. It's a very serious disease and it interferes completely with the work. The trouble with computers is that you 'play' with them!”Richard Feynman
Shared IP addresses can be a real problem. Our school's IP address had a few bans on Wikipedia, then I picked it up one time so I helped the school IT administrator track down the two people who had done it (logs are great
) and then we requested to have editing blocked completely for the IP address, so now if anyone tries to edit it they'll get a nice message saying that the school IT administrator requested that editing be blocked.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I wish I had a school IT admin to talk to...
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Isn't this a bit off-topic?
:
That's his signature, a signature appears in all your posts. I have one too.
The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
I like Wiki's as much as the next person. I've been trying to get my co-workers to utilize a wiki for months but I don't think it's the solution to every knowledge/information-sharing scenario. It seems with this site that forums are more appropriate since with most posts, people are looking for quick, concise answers.
It doesn't really seem like PA.c is a place to disseminate detailed knowledge. Most of the "articles" are self contained and won't change much. i.e. each application has its own page, there's a page about what "portable" means and a page about how to make a portable app. There isn't really the potential (as far as I see) for an ever expanding knowledge-base, just several fairly static pages. That's it. End of story.
If people ignore previous forum posts that answer their questions now, what is there to suggest that they won't ignore wiki pages that answer their questions?
So my humble opinion is that it's a good idea but not really an appropriate solution in this instance.
On the contrary, a wiki CAN be constantly updating, especially if people actually put in time to make it happen (that probably won't be a problem if we do a kind of useful-post analysis thing). Wikis are to be referred to, so say, a question that somebody finds is asked a lot can be put in the wiki. And then we'd phase that in place of the support pages. The main reason that the support pages are quite barren is that only one or two people can edit them, and they don't exactly have the kind of time to keep updating them as more questions get asked. It would also not be too hard to set up a kind of searching system in the forum posting area.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
A wiki can be constantly updating, only if people actually put in time to make it happen. I think that the answer is not a wiki, but instead just a more complete support section (it'd be good if developers could edit the support pages). I think that a wiki would not improve matters at all; the people best qualified to create the support pages are the developers, if they could edit them that'd be good, but no more, I reckon, without special cause.
Bear in mind though that few people ever look at the support section or would look at a wiki, or search.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
In my mind, wiki is equivalent to searching AND finding information.
Yeah, we have search here, but the finding part can be an issue.
I recently spent a bunch of time finding links (in the forums and elsewhere) for all of the applications I have in my PortableApps directory. I can tell you that it was a difficult process, even though I had the exact names of the programs I was looking for.
Maybe the desire of the original poster for a wiki is really a request for a better search?
neutron1132 (at) usa (dot) com
Well, I did it.
I searched for and tried a variety of wiki sites. wikia is the champ. I've used it before. It is just fine. And I believe anonymous users can be blocked from posting.
At any rate. Let's see what we can see. Lemme know if the name bothers anyone.
The purpose is to promote this site, actually.
And to support its precepts, such as GPL, pure portability, etc. (what else?)
;>jamvaru
We'll be doing one here soon. It will be wiki-ish, but only site members will be allowed to post (no anonymous postings since they seem to be lots of warez anyway within our topic).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
What about registered spammers?Better yet, what are you referring to? The wiki? or the Support pages?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
I guess that is the only way to really do it right, do it yourself.
portableapps.wikia.com will continue to point here
until further notice, anyway
thakns
;>jamvaru