warnicka

summary:

how do you get started? dumb question [ huh ]

warnicka

warnicka 1199031473|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

help

Re: warnicka

gerdami 1199032380|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

http://handbook.wikidot.com/en:wikidot-for-beginners

Re: warnicka

Helmuti_pdorf 1199092888|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi gerdami!

Should the "philosophical" text of my answer not be included in the Hndbook- section header of the - "first site creation"?

I think the question of non technical issues is not really answered in the handbook or documentations.

What is your oppinion?

last edited on 1199111120|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Helmuti_pdorf + show more

Re: warnicka

Helmuti_pdorf 1199090548|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi !

You need:

1. an "Idea" what kind of "wiki" you would like to iinstall..
have a look on the featured sites or the new wiki directory: http://dir.wikidot.com/start

2. an "Idea" which kind of people would visit your site and contribute some "CONTENT" (the target group). Some sites start as a collections of links only - this is not realy bad but not the idea of a colaboration tool.

3. an "idea" of the layout of your site: questions about
-menus on top?,
- side bar ?
- a forum ? ,
- a guestbook alone ?
- a blog ?
- a read only part for informations ?
- a membership area for editing ?
- an "open" Site for everyone ?
- a public site with different rights?
- a private site only for your ( logged in) friends ?

4. A clear understanding of your responsibility as admin / Owner of an open or public site - fighting agains spam, abusive text and such unwished issues.

5. the legal issues about copyright ( images of your friends - text of other writers . Not always is a license of wikidot clear enough to visitors for this legal requironments..

6. A decision if you want to earn money later if your visitor group is big enough for adsense.. or not. A decision if your wiki is adsense-free for ever or not…but this decisin can be done later.

7. Question which language will be used ? Or should it be a multi lingual site like the handbook ?

8. at LAST:
the technical know how you need to implement yor ideas.
( could be a lot to read later, if you managed the first realy easy steps! )
http://handbook.wikidot.com
http://community.wikidot.com/howto:howto-list
especially http://community.wikidot.com/howto:interface-design !
and of course again and again:
http://www.wikidot.com/doc:wiki-syntax

Wish you good luck and thanks for your interest!
Helmut

last edited on 1199093178|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Helmuti_pdorf + show more

Re: warnicka

Phil Chett 1199119011|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

When i was a little boy, my daddy obtained one of the very first tape domestic Tape recorders.
The only trouble was, it was faulty. So he spent hours mending it.
Me, being full of curiosity kept annoying daddy saying "can i have a go, can i have a go"
After a while in desperate frustration, Daddy said yes "yes you can, you flick this little switch on the microphone, and talk"

So i got the microphone in my hand (oh goody goody, I'm all excited )
Flicked the switch on the microphone.
And said…

"I don't know what to say, What shall i say daddy".

I suspect their are a number of People, who have come here, pressed the "create your own wiki" button, without any idea of "what to say" .

I also suspect that there are a number of them, who think they have an idea, present that idea here in the community forums, and expect it to become the second largest wiki in the world within a few days.

I'm sure they are sorely disappointed.
Welcome to the real world chaps.

(gosh, did i really just write this drivel :-) ?)

Re: warnicka

Helmuti_pdorf 1199120085|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

:) You did it :) !

There are a lot of very useful contents possible for little communities.
Have a thought about schools - classes - families far away from ech other —. and so on.

The taste comes with the eating ( correct so ? ) ..
I think, as older the visitors are as more they have to say than the youngsters.

Otherwise : the youngsters have no problems to key in anything,,,

Helmut

Re: warnicka

Oli 1199136323|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I find that there a three major steps in making a successful wiki:

1. Find a subject to create a wiki on - Most of the general purpose wikis have already been tried and have succeeded. We have Wikipedia (and now Citizendium) for encyclopediae (why do I study Latin ;-) ), Wiktionary for a multilingual dictionary and thesaurus and Wikia for most major topics. You need to find a unique idea. There might already be a small wiki or a website based on your topic, so you need to be able to find a way how your wiki can be an improvement over other sources on the internet. A wiki I run is a wiki on the video game "Shenmue". The game has faded into obscurity, and so there aren't many references available for the game, so Wikipedia can't create complete articles due to their "Verifibility is more important than the truth" policy. This means that my wiki could potentially become the best Shenmue-related source available.
2. Create an infrastructure for the site - There's no point having hundreds of users if the site becomes an unorganized mess. Try doing sthings like having an index page, so new users can click links to create pages. You could try running something like Wikipedia's Article Collaboration and Improvement Drive, where each week, you vote an article for the community to work on together. Try starting a few articles yourself, so new users can see the structure and layout of your articles. Remember to include lots of [[[links]]] so that other people can click on them and create the articles themselves.
3. Build a community - The final step is to get more users onto your site. This is harder than it sounds, because as your site is new, it won't appear very high in search results. And remember that the work "wiki" is likely to cause Wikipedia articles to appear above your site in search engine rankings. Try explaining what your site is about on forums that are related to your subject. Don't go around the internet posting links wherever your can. Go onto a relevant forum, and explain what your site is, how it works and where to join. On your site, you can allow users to invite other users. Encourage people to do this, and this will hopefully help your community enlarge. Your site may seem slow at first, but as more people join, others will start joining more quickly. Create a forum on your site, and include off-topic forums, so that people can come to just chat. This should help keep more people on the site, and strengthen the community aspect of the site.

(gosh, did i really just write this drivel :-) ?)

I'll quote you instead of saying it about myself :P .

Oliver

Re: warnicka

gerdami 1199273944|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

What long replies for such a short primary post !

Re: warnicka

Phil Chett 1199329987|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

We all thought that if we drivelled enough, we might get a two word retort.

Re: warnicka

gerdami 1199476449|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi Oli,
I copied and pasted your post as a new blog entry .