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PVD Wiki is now online!
cwdean:
Hello Everyone,
Many folks, including myself, have requested making a Wiki available to assist in supporting the Personal Video Database (PVD). Well, you’re suggestion have not fallen on deaf ears and I’m happy to report that the PVD-Wiki is online, live and ready for use!
I’ve participated in several community support sites over the years, whether they be forums, blogs and/or wikis. I find them to be an effective way of promoting social awareness and support of the service being offered. A wiki will help to supplement the support already provided within the PVD Forums. Ultimately, the goal of the wiki should be a one-stop location for documentation and training purposes. Then, if something isn’t clear and you need additional assistance, definitely check out the PVD Official Forums.
The wonderful thing about programs that are freely available, like PVD, is that they promote a strong social community. People love to get involved in such projects; they feel a personal sense of satisfaction in knowing that they are contributing to a community of developers – or in the case of PVD, a community of users. Obviously, nostra is developing and supporting PVD as a labor of love. That’s an infectious feeling that is hard to ignore. :) Which is why I volunteered to create and support a PVD Wiki.
Both nostra and rick.ca believe in a community-driven support system (as do I). It fosters greater enthusiasm and support for PVD and ultimately leads to a much better product. Most users of PVD are here because it’s the best product of its kind. Most of you participate in the forums for that very same reason. So my hope is that you will use and contribute to the PVD Wiki for the same reason as well. Let’s make the Wiki an incredibly useful tool in supporting PVD and the PVD community. With your help and participation, I’m sure it will be so.
To find the PVD Wiki, click on the link below. Be sure to bookmark the site for future reference. And don’t forget, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Wiki, be sure to check the forums and ask. Then, if you think the answer (or subject) should be included in the Wiki, feel free to add it. ;D
http://www.nimidia.com/pvd_wiki/tiki-index.php
By the way, we welcome your suggestions/feedback on the Wiki…so don’t be shy. ;) Post your comments in this forum.
cwdean:
To get the ball rolling and to serve as an example of how to add content to a Wiki, I’ve taken the liberty of creating some wiki pages (41 pages to be exact :)). Please feel free to review them. If you can contribute and improve a wiki page, please do so. If you feel a relevant PVD topic is missing, please add it. In other words, your contributions are more than welcome. Not only welcome, but really necessary to creating thorough, effective documentation for PVD.
The purpose of the PVD Wiki site is to create truly effective documentation for PVD. To that end, it must be:
* Relevant (i.e. up to date)
* Accurate (i.e. don’t guess, verify before posting)
* Thorough (i.e. it’s okay to start a topic as a placeholder, but please be sure to complete the entry in a timely manner)
Suggestions for good documentation:
* Include pictures and snapshots to illustrate your point
* Use step-by-step instructions if the topic warrants it
* Focus on one topic per page. If a page is related to another page, reference it. After all, that’s what a wiki is really good at.
Nobody’s looking for perfection. But we should strive to be as accurate and thorough as possible. So if you see something that could be improved upon, please indicate so (via comments, or whatever). Better yet, make the improvement yourself. Incremental improvements over time will make the end result a quality product.
And by all means, if you have suggestions or recommendations for improving the Wiki site as a whole, please let us know. Documenting an evolving program is a living process. The program will change over time and therefore, the documentation must also. Help us to make the PVD Wiki a useful tool by contributing so that everybody can benefit.
rick.ca:
WOW! You've done a fantastic job of getting the Wiki started. Thanks!
I can't think of anything to add to your introduction (OMG, I'm speechless?!). So, I'll just reiterate—this is all about building a strong social community in support of our common interest. I hope others will appreciate you are offering them not only a very useful reference, but a way to participate. I enjoy testing and trouble-shooting, but writing doesn't come easily. I can see from what you've done, however, writing or editing a wiki topic is an excellent way of walking through an issue or procedure. And it leaves something that others can easily benefit from—and improve.
I've noticed you've borrowed some of my posts for the Wiki—I encourage you to do so. And please feel free to clean them up to make them more readable and consistent with the writing style you've established. Maybe if I see more of those, I'll be encouraged to do so myself. Over time, I'd like to see everything in the Help Index covered in the Wiki.
A note to new users: I'm sure you will find the Wiki a very useful introduction and source of help for using PVD. But I also appreciate that when you have a problem or are stuck on something, 41 pages of information may not be what you need. Sometimes, having too much information or too many options (something PVD is particularly good at) is the cause of your difficulty. Please do not let the existence of the Wiki deter you from asking questions here.
Enough talk—let's get to work. The first order of business: Replace that ugly logo/banner! ;) We're obviously in dire need of assistance from someone with some (any?) artistic ability. I like the idea of using the distinctive PVD splash screen, but I can't figure out it might be employed as a banner (i.e., shorter and wider).
patch:
--- Quote from: cwdean on March 12, 2009, 06:26:34 pm ---To find the PVD Wiki, click on the link below. Be sure to bookmark the site for future reference. And don’t forget, if you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Wiki, be sure to check the forums and ask. Then, if you think the answer (or subject) should be included in the Wiki, feel free to add it. ;D
http://www.nimidia.com/pvd_wiki/tiki-index.php
--- End quote ---
nostra
How do you feel about having a wiki that is not at www.videodb.info and you don't have direct control of?
Advantages
It may solve a potential hosting problem of graphics files.
Leaves you to concentrate on continually improving PVD
Disadvantages
Sends users away from your site for support
Removes your direct veto power if something is published you take exception to (eg donate button, advertisements etc.)
Dilutes www.videodb.info
User name inconsistency between www.videodb.info and www.nimidia.com
A possible solution would be for cwdean to be an admin for a wiki part of www.videodb.info
But maybe there is no problem to solve, if you see more advantages than disadvantages.
rick.ca:
Nostra can speak for himself, but I don't think there's anything to be concerned about. In the short term, it may reduce traffic here, but it's a necessary and positive step in the development of the user community. When this was proposed and discussed privately, I expressed these concerns and more. With no disagreement or resistance on any side (that I could detect), nostra and I were given full administrator rights for the wiki, and it was agreed the full content of the wiki belongs to nostra. So if there ever is an issue (e.g., cwdean can no longer host/support it), the whole thing could be moved here or elsewhere.
That being said, I still think we need to do what we can to make the experience of using the two sites as seamless as possible. I think there are more challenges because the SMF and TikiWiki systems are quite different, than because it's a different site. Even if the software is similar and hosted by the same site, forums and wikis—even if well integrated—are quite different in nature and therefore "dilute" one-another. Perhaps a good illustration of this is the SMF Online Manual. Yes, it's nice how that ("docs") is integrated with the forum ("community") and has the same look and feel. But there's no concealing the fact they are two separate systems.
There's virtually no user administration functions happening at either site, so there's no administrative need for a common login. And only those who wish to contribute need to register. It would be helpful for user recognition of one another, however, if everyone used the same user name on both sites. Maybe all that's required is a request that users registering at the wiki site use their PVD username—although I don't see a way to do that. Are you listening, cwdean or Starlock or whatever your name is? ;D
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