You know, I've always thought it'd be cool if the createBlog community could have something like Wikipedia, but exclusively for the createBlog community. For example, YTMND's Wiki. I was browsing through their Wiki one day and I thought it was pretty cool, so I was like, "hey, createBlog should have one of these."

The YTMND Wiki and Wikipedia both are run by MediaWiki, and after looking at it a bit, I figured maybe this could actually work out.

I'd love to get this up and running for createBlog, though of course I'm going to need some opinions first and help later.

I've set up the Mediawiki software before, so I can attest that it's easy to get up and running.

Couple big questions arise though:

1. For what does CreateBlog need a wiki? Web design tips, that sort of thing?
2. How do you propose that CB deal with vandalism? Judging by the forums, the wiki would inevitably see a lot of spam, greatly reducing its utilitarian value. Wikipedia has mechanisms in place to deal with this, but Wikipedia also has more manpower than CB. How could CB deal with it?

That'd be great if you could help out, Michael.

As for the purpose of the wiki, I had in mind reference as well as for amusement (much like the YTMND Wiki). Rather notable events in the past of createBlog (such as Hilary's "death," this years April Fools prank, Xangans, and etc.) could be made as articles here for informational and amusement purposes.

As for vandalism, we could deal with it just as we've always dealt with it (or spam if you want to get specific). Limit their access, ban them, etc. And if we need more manpower besides the staff we already have, I suppose a seperate Wiki staff could be established.

Also, I had in mind of doing this rather than whatever cB News is doing, because we all know that never worked out regardless of our attempts of bringing it back again.

That actually sounds like i would be pretty fun to do, but it WOULD be subject to a LOT of spam... it would take major modding.

I like it, though.

*raises hand*

KAYCEE THINKS IT'S AN AWESOME IDEA!

Hopefully the current staff can handle it, but if not, like AC suggested, another staff can be made like was for the By-Laws.

Would we be allowing encyclopedia pages to made for individual people? They have it on wiki, but I doubt that such pages could be very neutral. However, I can't really think of many events that can be done for the CreateWiki so....does that mean that we'd allow it?

I think I'm geting a ahead of myself.

Yes and yes, Kaycee.

For individual people, I was thinking following suit of YTMND Wiki and including Ju-Sun, all moderators, and notable people. I'm hoping we can handle not member bashing on these.

As for events, I'm can't recall too many for myself, but that's because I'm relatively new to createBlog (2006). I'm sure something happened since 2003.

Superlatives, Trish vs. Heather+cousin, cB revolutions v. 1.0 & 2.0, bylaws, the short-lived cB paper, JAK (in no order)? There's definitely more than that.. I'm just out of it.

But I'm for this idea; it sounds interesting.

Anna's got the idea.
I'm also talking all the inside jokes and fads of createBlog, so that outside people know where they originated and such, such as NPS (new page syndrome).

Spin-Offs, like Dynasty and GenF...

Cb's rivalry with Blogring...

Oh, this WOULD be fun

I would be delighted to help out, if the staff and Ju-Sun are interested. I've installed the Mediawiki software a few times at a previous (real-life) job. It literally can be download, unpacked, and installed in less than an hour.


Oh, okay. I thought maybe you were going to allow it to be edited by anyone, but allowing only registered users to create and modify pages will be easier to control.

Sounds good, I guess we just have to wait for the approval of Ju-Sun and other staff members.Yeah, createBlog users only. Everyone can view it, but only cB users can add or remove anything.

There's probably a way to tie existing counts into a Mediawiki system, but that might take a bit of work to get up and running.

Well, I guess we better get approval soon so we can start working on this. I don't want this to be another dragged project.

Ooooh, that sounds like a really good idea.

Maybe to limit the spam that would come with this, maybe require a user to have a certain amount of posts / contributions to make an article?

That's not a bad idea, though, right now I'm not particularly worried about vandals at the moment. We'll probably add limitations and what not as we go.

I don't know if you can program the forum posts and Wiki accounts to go together, or how we would be able to work out something like that. I guess Michael would know more about it than myself.

To be honest, plenty of the people who spam regularly here have pretty high post counts ANYWAY, so I'm not really sure how useful that would be.

Well, it would prevent random people from creating random accounts just to vandalize.

I generally like the idea, it would be fun, besides having a place to have notable events/people for prosperity's sake, but who would really be interested in it other than the dedicated members? And how many people from the "old days" are left that can explain all the legendary incidents (i.e. Trish vs. a lot of people)? Also, on a more pragmatic level, how much space would something like this take up? I can't imagine running/owning a site like cB is inexpensive.

Well, I had this Wiki in mind specifically for the members. As for the really old stuff, well, if we really looked for it, I'm sure we could find it.

As for the more technical stuff like costs, I can't really say too much about. Michael might know more about it than myself; all I know is that the MediaWiki software itself is supposed to be free.

Not out of the box, but I imagine it could be done. Mediawiki is open source/free software (released under the GPL), and is written in PHP, so it could be modified.


It's really just text, so it wouldn't take up that much space... Certainly not as much as the forums themselves and all the rest of the stuff on CB, although resources are a consideration. But Ju-Sun is really the only person that could make that estimate (unless someone else here has extensive knowledge of the server setup of CB; I don't, I'm just conjecturing).


Mediawiki is available free of charge.

Definitely 100% go on this idea.

That would be really fun. But I agree about the vandalism and all.

Instead of just post count, how about ... how long had we been here?

Nah, I would rather not use "seniority" instead of something like post count. Post count would better represent how contributive someone is to the community.

Really though, I'm not even sure yet whether we should or could do it by post count.

Yeah, I'm iffy on the whole post count AND seniority thing. Why not have people who want editing access apply to have it? Nothing fancy, a PM to a Admin or something would do. That way those who are interested in contributing, not spamming would have access. :)

I'd just hate to see something really fun like this become too regimented.

^ That's the best idea.

Or would it be better to just take away the privaledge if it was abused. rather than the hassle of applying for it?

Well,What if you restricted it to only offcial members/designers/promoters or whatever wouldent that bring down the people who just come to vandalize.

Ok, so there's obviously there are several method we could use to go about this vandalism thing. We're eventually going to formally establish a rule on that, but for now I guess we could just keep tossing ideas around.

Right now, I'm leaning towards either Rebecca's or James's idea, which could possibly be combined with Diana's idea if need be.

The reason why I'm still hesitant on Rebecca's idea is because the original purpose I had in mind for a cB Wiki was to follow up on the cB News Staff's idea of a community "blog" that could be accessed and edited by a majority of the community.

I want to give the community as much freedom on this as possible. Of course, it's also a matter of whether or not the community can handle that freedom.

Well, I hear ya. But it still can be accessed by anyone who basically just puts forth a little bit of effort and asks. :)

The wiki will imitate the forums and just become a big circlejerk.

But it'll be the open-source circle jerk that anyone can edit.

But...but...we have a thread on kids talking about anal sex. Why don't you shut that down?

I didn't post pictures. I posted a link that had pictures as part of an encyclopedic article. Wikipedia is not censored, so don't go there if you can't handle it.

Besides, it's a pedantic difference. We still have a thread going on a very in-depth discussion of anal sex that isn't locked. The only difference is that you don't mind text-only discussion, but what if someone else does? I mean, what if I'm offended by the discussion of anal sex? Should we close the topic? Anal sex isn't PG-13, last time I checked.

Plus, that thread includes a picture, too. It also includes the phrase "happy ass ramming" in the first post.

Bullshit. Browsers show URLs before you click on them. And I linked from the phrase "circle jerk".

Furthermore, the two pictures accompanying the article are historical artwork. Should we remove pictures of all nude statues from CB, too?

(Never mind, formatting is screwed up?)

Okay. But where do we draw the line? A number of people have complained about the threads in the Boys Locker Room and the Health forum, too, but rarely are any closed or even edited.

Clearly this is a question that needs to be addressed, especially if a wiki is hosted, because judging by the content of the forums, there will be inappropriate content. And as we see, CB's "rules" are vague at best.

http://www.createblog.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=172258

Please continue it there guys. I know it seems like I'm being rigid (and it wouldn't be the first time people have thought that), but really, I like the idea of CreateWiki and it would be nice if the integrity of that idea and feedback regarding that idea would be discussed here.

The only thing I feel strongly about is how CB is Serious Business!

i like this idea. i can see the wiki being used for the tutorial sections, but its quite a departure from the current way of contributing, where a member submits something to get approved.

im going to check out the software locally on my computer and see if i can integrate it with cb4. since the member interfaces of cb4 is tightly integrated, if there is a significant change in that aspect, we'll to wait and include it sometime after the cb4 launch. and since wikis usaully utilizes its own own member databse, it looks like it so far. ill have to see and get back to you guys.

if we dont include it with cb4, itll be included probably by summer time.

Alright, cool, Jusun.

So, I guess we sit tight until then...

Thank you for doing your part to improve the community.

I like the idea. If you would need any help modding it I would be up for the job. =)

So, quick question--if this goes into action, there's obviously going to be people writing about situations they don't fully know about. For example, the situation between me and Justin or how JAK stands at the moment. These two both involve me directly, and I'd rather not air out dirty laundry for the entire cB community to see, especially because it isn't exactly anybody's business. At all. So the question is: is there going to be some sort of "waiver" (for lack of a better word) in terms of what information is disclosed? Should people have to approve of what is written about/involving them before it is made official?

I'd be in favor of information going through a queue and then, if the information is highly personal, then approved by whatever person or persons is most affected by the information. I know regular Wiki doesn't require review before edits on most pages, but I suspect the articles on CreateWiki might become a tad less educational-informational and more gossipy-informational.

And when I mean queue, I mean a mod or, if we should create a whole new group, a CreateWiki mod would be able to see the information, forward it to whoever they believe should see it, and if that person or those persons approve, accept the edit and it would be published.

Kinda takes the wiki out of CreateWiki, doesn't it?

This all is starting to sound too much like a xangapedia, for the lack of a better word.

Exactly.

The original purpose of the cB Wiki (that I had in mind, at least) was primarily for the community's pleasure. I would rather stick to the original concept of the community (everyone and anyone) being allowed to add or subtract information from the Wiki. (However, this would be a privilege, not a right.)

I actually never thought of the Wiki as becoming a source of "educational-informational" content, but in fact, more of the "gossip-y" (community events, insides jokes, etcetera) type of information. However, the Wiki definitely has the potential of being the former, or even both.

Although this would be a open-edit Wiki, any information added should try to remain as neutral as possible, or, at the least should not offend anyone. Also, I wouldn't have a problem with people being able to request for information to be removed (and to not be added again).

---
Content Removed (AGAIN) :) - Duchess of Dork---
Image removed. OMG, look at me. I'm going to blind people with porn. Grow up. - Mona Lisa

Ok, I don't have modding power in here, but given that you seem to be a returning member of some description, and certainly know what you're doing is in total violation of cB Guidelines, consider yourself suspended forthwith.

*Apparently someone beat me to it. Kudos.