Wiki editors. Citation needed?

John Reese jreese at leetcode.net
Thu Jul 17 22:15:21 CEST 2008


Stroller wrote:
> On 17 Jul 2008, at 08:24, BrendaWang wrote:
>> ...
>> 3. I would like to put the Youtube extension , then we can see the  
>> video
>> on wiki. I would like to know if this useful ? Personal opinion , I  
>> like
>> to have this.
> 
> I'm unclear why an extension is needed - can't YouTube videos simply  
> be embedded using HTML? - and don't see *massive* benefits to YouTube  
> videos on the wiki.
> 
> But I don't see any disadvantages to having YouTube videos on the  
> wiki, either. Go for it.
> 
>> I plan to put the rating function on wiki. Perhape it can help many
>> people who visit wiki , know how other people think this page is  
>> useful
>> or not.
>> http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:JSKitRating
> 
> This is a great idea!
> 
> 
> Also:
> 
> Does the current wiki software allow for templates, like Wikipedia?  
> Sorry if this is obvious - perhaps the Openmoko wiki uses exactly the  
> same software as Wikipedia?

The Openmoko wiki uses MediaWiki, which is largely the basis of what 
Wikipedia is driven by (it was created for Wikipedia, but by default 
lacks some of the special features, which are available as addons).

> 
> For instance, sentences in many Wikipedia articles are marked with  
> the words "citation needed" - I see from a little searching that this  
> superscript is added when someone edits the page to include the tag  
> {{cn}} or {{fact}}. Presumably there is a page automatically  
> generated somewhere (I can't immediately find this) which shows all  
> pages using that tag and this one can easily see all pages requiring  
> fact-checking.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Fact
 >
> I feel that a similar feature would be useful for the Openmoko wiki -  
> it should probably display "fact check?" rather than "citation  
> needed" and new users should be encouraged to mark any sections they  
> are unsure of or any steps in the HOWTOs that don't work when they  
> follow them.
> 
> Likewise I think there should be a template for software entries  
> which indicates which firmware images - ASU, 2007.2 &c - the page  
> applies to. Just as the Wikipedia entry for the Lotus Elise has an  
> inset which states it to mid-engined and rear-wheel drive, each  
> software page should say whether the article is *about* one of the  
> core firmwares, whether it is steps that can be applied to firmwares  
> FSO & ASU (but not to 2007.2, because that one is incompatible with,  
> say, gpsd) or whether it's software that can be *installed* on the  
> FSO & ASU images (but is preinstalled on 2007.2).
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Elise

Templates are a core feature of MediaWiki, so it should just be a matter 
of creating appropriate templates, and then going through the massive 
effort of adding them wherever needed.  This was something I was 
planning to address as part of the wiki@ mailing list when it comes online.

> Perhaps I'm horribly confused, but if my horrible confusion over the  
> different images at least has the correct basis then this would be  
> very beneficial to users.

One major thing I noticed is missing is the ability to automatically 
generate footnotes like you can on Wikipedia.  That would certainly be a 
good addon to have Brenda install whenever she gets the chance.

-- 
John Reese
LeetCode.net




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