Tech Write Ups

Post by **Amskeptic** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:00 am

hambone wrote:I'll trow in a handful of clams, you're doin great work here. Mebee you could start a thread, $10 "deluxe status" or something like that?

Personally? I'd prefer to avoid any stratification of status based on shaking you down. Status based on participation talents skills involvement will develop naturally I reckon. Werewithal is not a criterium.

Do you think we should maintain a transparent expense record here? Then everybody will know what we need to keep this thing alive.
Colin

hambone · Post by **hambone** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:37 am

It would be interesting, but maybe not appropriate to post such financial info? Or maybe so.
I wasn't thinking about it as a status thing, just more of a way to show your support for the site etc. Shirts/books/pies would be a good way to raise funds as well. Someone's gotta pay the bills!

Post by **Amskeptic** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:27 pm

hambone wrote:It would be interesting, but maybe not appropriate to post such financial info? Or maybe so.
I wasn't thinking about it as a status thing, just more of a way to show your support for the site etc. Shirts/books/pies would be a good way to raise funds as well. Someone's gotta pay the bills!

Any opinions, chime in. Best "show" of support will be participation. Those who help support the site can have that warm feeling of intrinsic satisfaction. . . . and perhaps a site donor list?
Colin

MidWesty · Post by **MidWesty** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 10:50 pm

I've got some "hardly" earned cash I'd throw down. I think in the long term though, people will like to get something for giving something. You know like the little red flowers or Jerry's kids stickers you get when you put money in the fireman's boot. I guess they do that everywhere. Otherwise that probably sounded pretty odd.
Stickers are cheap and easy, especially in bulk. T-shirts are another good seller but they might be pricey up front though.
I think as long as people see the site improving and growing in a positive manner, they'll be happy to help out. There seem to be a lot of good folks here and a decent feel of community already. I'd say set up some type of accepted pay method and see what happens. As money comes in pay what needs paid and then start a cache for shirts or whatever.

tristessa · Post by **tristessa** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:16 am

Is a wiki-style section really necessary for the tech articles section, and would it really be *that* good an idea?

For one thing, well-written tech articles that are decently focused on a particular topic shouldn't need to be edited or revised all that often, which would negate much of the percieved need for a wiki. Static HTML isn't difficult to update when the need arises, and well-written HTML (as opposed to machine-generated spaghetti from FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc.) can be updated with a simple text-editor.

Secondly, I've visited a few sites that have wiki sections in addition to regular forums, and on most of them the forums have been neglected by the users -- discussion taking place inside the wiki, with the usual edit-wars and other crap that tend to happen. I'm a-feared that adding a wiki to this site may lead to the same thing.

Thirdly. One of the beautiful aspects of a wiki is that just about anyone can edit pages and add new information. One of the downsides of a wiki is that just about anyone can edit pages and add new information. Even if it were set (here) to only accept edits from registered users, there would still need to be a mechanism in place to keep Joe Blowhard Arsehole from making an account and defacing things anyway. Yeah, a page could easily be reverted to the previous version when that sort of thing happens, but it's still a hassle.

Bottom line -- I don't honestly see how a wiki for the tech articles is really needed, at least at this point in time. IMO, the amount of work needed to get the PHP upgraded, get the wiki set up, get the wiki populated with info, and (collectively) babysit the wiki is far greater than whatever benefit a wiki would have.

My $0.02 .. and with as much as I wrote, think what you could get for a dollar!

Post by **Amskeptic** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:30 pm

tristessa wrote:Is a wiki-style section really necessary for the tech articles section, and would it really be *that* good an idea?
My $0.02 .. and with as much as I wrote, think what you could get for a dollar!

Your points were well-argued and compelling.
I vote No Wiki.
I will happily accept contributions and edit them and will attribute them to the original authors.
Tech write-ups are too important for open editing.
Colin

Post by **Sluggo** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:09 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
tristessa wrote:Is a wiki-style section really necessary for the tech articles section, and would it really be *that* good an idea?
My $0.02 .. and with as much as I wrote, think what you could get for a dollar!
Your points were well-argued and compelling.
I vote No Wiki.
I will happily accept contributions and edit them and will attribute them to the original authors.
Tech write-ups are too important for open editing.
Colin

I agree. I downloaded the program and have been reading up on it. It seems like it would be a never ending process of deleting false info and flame posts. Member submitted, Colin approved articles with periodic updates would be the way to go. I can write the html from scratch and update it so that (for example) the word "distributor" would be a link to a definition of distributors and so on. That kind of stuff is easy. It would also make it easier to incorporate Colin's art into the page.

I was thinking there should be a section for quick, side of the road with a Coke can so you can make it home kinda fixes. It would probably help a lot of people.

Something like the AIRS list but more up to date would also be an excellent feature.

spiffy · Post by **spiffy** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 7:18 am

"Something like the AIRS list but more up to date would also be an excellent feature."

This is a brilliant idea...the AIRS list left us high and dry last month.

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:23 am

More work for Colin, ehh.

My thought of making if more dynamic had less to do with a need to revise what had already been written (not much is changing on these vehicles) and more along the lines of,"But on a '74, it's a bit different". I think of Ratwell's engine extraction piece, when I went to pull my 73 engine, it was really of limited use, I'd then document what I did, not the differences in the first article, and so on...

If Colin and Sluggo, don't have any problem with it, I guess I don't have a problem with sending my updates in, I just feel guilty dreaming of all these great things, and then asking them to do all the work...

Post by **Amskeptic** » Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:37 pm

chitwnvw wrote: I just feel guilty dreaming of all these great things,
and then asking them to do all the work...

No problem. We'll keep a Guilt Ledger for those times we need to cash in some guilt points

Colin

spiffy · Post by **spiffy** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:43 pm

Amskeptic wrote:
chitwnvw wrote: I just feel guilty dreaming of all these great things,
and then asking them to do all the work...
No problem. We'll keep a Guilt Ledger for those times we need to cash in some guilt points
Colin

You must know my Mom's Jedi-guilt trick

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:12 pm

I'm not Catholic, so I'm not sure the guilt thing is going to work.

LiveonJG · Post by **LiveonJG** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:16 pm

MidWesty wrote: Jerry's kids stickers

Something like this?
-John

chitwnvw · Post by **chitwnvw** » Sat Sep 16, 2006 10:18 pm

I think we're getting off topic...

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Itinerant Air-Cooled

Tech Write Ups