*** I think we need a WIKI ! What do you think???

[Adrian]

Greetings Richard!

Thanks for your input http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile.gif" border=0>

However - no post will get deleted from here over time - so there will always be a constant knowledge base to refer to.  You can display as many messages as you want to over any time scale by using the time filter on the forums pages.

The search engine will find anything you want, and that is what makes the forums such a good knowledge base.

There are other things we can do, for example, there is an articles feature, where, once everything is setup, people write much more extensive articles than they would do in a normal post. This forum goes way further than UBB in capabilities, not the least reason because it is SQL Server based.

I am not sure about Wiki, and if it is CGI based, I would not use it anyway - it is my policy not to use CGI for anything. We could consider a seperate SQL based knowldege resource, but I don't see what it could do that the forums cannot already do. Perhaps you could explain that more.

At the final analysis, we want to provide the best possible resource for everyone, so keep the suggestions coming!

With best regards,

Adrian.

[SteppenWolf]

Hi Adrian -

About the CGI - I'm pretty sure that there are Java and Microsoft versions of Wiki so that wouldn't be a problem.

However this Articles area sounds quite promising - I'll have to check it out.  The main thing is that it needs to be easy for people to add information, and there needs to be a way to categorise articles etc.  If that can be done within the articles then I will be extremely happy!  As then, people can add their coolest OBE experiences and all sorts of things quite happily.

Cheers,
Richard

[distant bell]

did someone say wiki?  I think I prefere Kiwi! hmmm.. kiwi!! I just love Kiwi!

-- Love is the Law - Love under Will --

[SteppenWolf]

Well naturally everyone prefers a good Kiwi when they can get their hands on one!

Cheers!
SteppenWolf (a good Kiwi bloke)

[SteppenWolf]

Adrian (et al.) -

Let me say the forum is great.  In fact it's AWESOME.  Really cool.  People wonder about something mystical and ta-da, a lot of the time someone with some kick-arse experience tells them the answer.  Brilliant.

However there are 2 pretty serious limitations with these forums.  Firstly, postings no matter how good get archived or deleted over time.  Secondly, the threads are sorted into several broad categories but underneath there there is no categorisation.  So if I want to read more about a specific subject - say experiences with meeting astral beings, I can search for vague keywords using the Search function, but chances are I'm going to be frustrated.

So I thought that perhaps all the good threads should be collected somewhere as a sort of "knowledge" database.  But then to do that, you need some sort of program like UBB etc and I couldn't think of one which would make that easy.

Then I remembered.  For posting messages you have message boards but for storing user-editable knowledge dynamically (with cross-referencing) you  use a Wiki.  A Wiki is a set of dynamic text pages which users can edit at will, expanding them further and further and further, cross-linking everything over the place by whatever topics they wish to define.

For more detailed information:
The Wiki Wiki Web:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiWeb
Wiki web philosophy:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiPhilosophyFaq

Some examples of Wikis in action:
http://www.pobratyn.com/phpwiki/ - a sci-fi Wiki
http://www.wikipedia.com/ - a collaborative project to produce a complete encyclopedia from scratch

You can even have a play aroud with editing content at the Wiki sandbox:
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiWikiSandbox

Also the EXTREMELY COOL thing about this is that within an Astral Pulse Wiki you could have a section for forum members' OBE experiences and people could voluntarily put all their most interesting OBE experiences in there!  And there could be sections for all sorts of things - in fact anything anyone wants as you can create whatever you like - all from your web browser.

Not that the Wiki is a perfect system, as no system is perfect.  Because all registered users can edit content, it is open to abuse.  However there are some protections and perhaps the latest Wikis offer some good rollback functionality.  The latest changes are always indexed and abuses shouldn't be too difficult to spot and fix.  Nevertheless, it does offer something which Astral Pulse desperately needs - the opportunity to have a knowledge database where all members can input.

And note that the Wiki would not replace the forums.  The forums are for general interaction - ie discussion, chat and asking questions - while the Wiki would be a permanent and evolving repository for knowledge, experience and whatever people think other people are interested in reading if they swing by.  So they each serve pretty different purposes.

I would really appreciate comments on this idea because I think it has a lot of offer us and people interested in reading and sharing knowledge about OBEs and general spiritual advancement.  Also I would really recommend that people visit the links above - the Wikipedia is a great example (even if the server is a bit slow).

Cheers!
Richard http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/images/icon_Smile.gif" border=0>