Beyond Zaurus

[koan]

Hi Chaps,

Just thinking ahead here: I think we should combine the current two sections of the wiki, Zaurus FAQ and How to and add a new one for non-Zaurus things, like Kojinsha, Archos, iPaq/familiar, Tom Tom etc.

What do you think ?

If we can get some interlinking going we might find some useful stuff that can be back-ported to the Z anyway.

[adf]

Hi Chaps,

Just thinking ahead here: I think we should combine the current two sections of the wiki, Zaurus FAQ and How to and add a new one for non-Zaurus things, like Kojinsha, Archos, iPaq/familiar, Tom Tom etc.

What do you think ?

If we can get some interlinking going we might find some useful stuff that can be back-ported to the Z anyway.

Yeah--eventually we will all have other stuff, too.

[Meyer]

I agree that the current FAQ/How-to organization is not the most useful. I'd like to see index pages that make it easy to find articles related to specific hardware or ROMs as well as a more meaningful use of real estate on the main page.

Koan, if you have some ideas in this regard, I suggest you start by creating new index pages for us to see and discuss. We can replace the current index and main pages after we've had a chance to revise and compare.

[tux]

I agree that the current FAQ/How-to organization is not the most useful. I'd like to see index pages that make it easy to find articles related to specific hardware or ROMs as well as a more meaningful use of real estate on the main page.

Koan, if you have some ideas in this regard, I suggest you start by creating new index pages for us to see and discuss. We can replace the current index and main pages after we've had a chance to revise and compare.

Seconded!

[koan]

Ah ha ha, very good !!

You're asking the person with the least amount of spare time (but possibly best opportunities to sneak in some edits during working hours).

I'm just trying to take a stab in suggesting the direction that the wiki needs; by consensus rather than unilaterally making big edits. There are other big editorial questions, such as how to structure; index by rom or by hardware ? The unofficial Zaurus FAQ is out of date, aimed mostly at the 5500 and collides with a lot of stuff in the how to. It's going to take a lot of work to sort that out.

This is nothing to what we really need (more work for dz, I'm afraid):

1. Spam protection now. There are 3 of us, maybe more but Meyer and Tux spend all their time deleting spam and blocking bots. We need to block all unregistered user edits and all new users to be approved by a human. I suggest bulk deleting 99.9% of the users see https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Listusers - the user list is spam itself.
2. Fix image linking. It's totally broken.
2.1 Upload new files/images: disabled. See https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Upload
2.2 See https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Newimages for an example of other image problems.

[tux]

Ah ha ha, very good !!

You're asking the person with the least amount of spare time (but possibly best opportunities to sneak in some edits during working hours).

I'm just trying to take a stab in suggesting the direction that the wiki needs; by consensus rather than unilaterally making big edits. There are other big editorial questions, such as how to structure; index by rom or by hardware ? The unofficial Zaurus FAQ is out of date, aimed mostly at the 5500 and collides with a lot of stuff in the how to. It's going to take a lot of work to sort that out.

This is nothing to what we really need (more work for dz, I'm afraid):

1. Spam protection now. There are 3 of us, maybe more but Meyer and Tux spend all their time deleting spam and blocking bots. We need to block all unregistered user edits and all new users to be approved by a human. I suggest bulk deleting 99.9% of the users see https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Listusers - the user list is spam itself.
2. Fix image linking. It's totally broken.
2.1 Upload new files/images: disabled. See https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Upload
2.2 See https://www.oesf.org/index.php?title=Special:Newimages for an example of other image problems.

 And you thought we hadn't got a sense of humour!  

To be serious for a moment: I agree wholeheartedly with the points you make. The spam is not as thick as it was but it is on the increase again. dz has given access to the Wiki database and settings to Meyer and myself. But obviously we need to bring ourselves up to speed with getting logged in, deciding what to do and how and when. dz is in Texas, I am in the UK and Meyer is in Japan. We are each about 8 hours apart in our time zone. So communication does lag. I think you'll agree we need to be very careful not to break things!

I'm in the fortunate position of being retired. So that, in theory, gives me plenty of spare time. Ask any retired person you know: they'll all say that they don't know how they found the time to work!  The other guys have careers and/or families to fit into their schedule!  

But progress is being made, even if it seems rather slow-paced. We're getting there. The pace should increase soon.

Hopefully the other repairs/improvements in the forums will start coming through. dz, ISO and the new one(s) there will get to grips with that too.


Cheers and thanks again for helping out and for the contributions to the Wiki.  

More helpers and contributers please!

[desertrat]

We are each about 8 hours apart in our time zone. So communication does lag.

Look on the bright side, between the three of you, you can work 24 hours a day on the thing

[tux]

We are each about 8 hours apart in our time zone. So communication does lag.

Look on the bright side, between the three of you, you can work 24 hours a day on the thing

 Nice One!

[koan]

Koan, if you have some ideas in this regard, I suggest you start by creating new index pages for us to see and discuss. We can replace the current index and main pages after we've had a chance to revise and compare.

If you look at my user page you can see my suggestion for how to layout the organisation of the Wiki, It's not really an index page. For the main index page, the first 2 levels of bullets could be shown; more or less detail as appropriate. Some of the pages don't exist yet, particularly "chapter headings" like for Zaurus-Hardware comparison.

Let me know what you think.

[dz]

Honestly, one of the visions Mike and I had for the OESF was to expand out from the Zaurus.  That's why we decided to rename it to the Open Embedded Software Foundation, rather then the Zaurus User Group.  If there's a better device out there that can let us keep the openness of the Zaurus, there's no reason we shouldn't be able to support it and provide a community to develop for it and make it even better.

I'm all for this idea.

[koan]

No one seems to have commented on my suggestions for reorganising the wiki.

I'll take it that means "yes" and start making changes in that case.

We can always change things back later.

@tux/meyer: can I change the Main Page ? It is still locked.

[tux]

No one seems to have commented on my suggestions for reorganising the wiki.

I'll take it that means "yes" and start making changes in that case.

We can always change things back later.

@tux/meyer: can I change the Main Page ? It is still locked.

 I'll bring it to meyer's attention. Have you said what you'd like to put on the main page in the discussion page for your work or on the discussion page for the main page? I'll have a look, a bit bogged down with this debian stuff at the moment.  

With the present successful battle against the spam: all hail meyer     , I've unprotected as many pages as I put on protection, so we probably don't need to lock the main page either.

That page is a bit crowded, where you thinking of a bold heading and a link to somewhere else?

Cheers

 

[koan]

That page is a bit crowded, where you thinking of a bold heading and a link to somewhere else?

If you mean the current Main Page then I was thinking to change as follows:

• Reduce the current discussion by dz a bit.
• Put the wiki links at the top.
• Change the wiki links to the first  couple of levels of my proposed layout and add some very short explanation.

[tux]

That page is a bit crowded, where you thinking of a bold heading and a link to somewhere else?

If you mean the current Main Page then I was thinking to change as follows:

• Reduce the current discussion by dz a bit.
• Put the wiki links at the top.
• Change the wiki links to the first  couple of levels of my proposed layout and add some very short explanation.

 I relaxed the protection on the page and let you and Meyer know on your talk pages. Meyer has done some editing there, hope you like it. I think it is good.

[koan]

I relaxed the protection on the page and let you and Meyer know on your talk pages. Meyer has done some editing there, hope you like it. I think it is good.

Thanks, I made the changes as planned. A bit easier to use now I hope.

A lot more work is needed now to bring out the details; cross linking; updating new sections and getting image linking working again.