Talk:Main Page
From MontCo MediaWiki
jack I just opened this discussion page....
MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Peterblaise 10:29, 5 April 2007 (EST)
Peter Blaise says:
Hi and thanks, Jack (Jack D. Pond, CIO, Montgomery County, PA, (610)278-5200), I agree that we need to keep growing the search/sort/select capabilities of our collective wiki software - the amount of information to sift through is immense and only getting immenser! Kudos to you for exploring whatever tools are available to make such flexibility happen inside wiki discussions. With such an idea in the Discussion page, we might encourage article contributors to actually talk with each other in an ongoing dialog. Newbies as well as oldies to the discussion might have a clearer view of the discussions so far. Prototypical discussion group features such as threading and the resulting search/sort/select capabilities should help MediaWiki mature.
Now, my brother (Toyota) and I (USDOC/USPTO/TO) tend to contribute our chats like this (below) wherever we contribute, regardless of pre-existing (or lack of) structures for threading:
Bob says: blah, blah, blah ...
Peter Blaise says: Oh, my, yes, I totally agree ...
Bob says: yada, yada, yada ...
Peter Blaise says: Put the ball on the other side of the throcolated hydro-couple and that should do it.
... and so on, in other words, we're disciplined inside our notes anyway so we can find each other.
As the amount of info gets more and more voluminous, it makes sense for the "discussion" feature of MediaWiki to mature. I'm thinking Yahoo Groups (ne One Groups, then eGroups, then mixed with Yahoo Clubs), Google Groups, and even Microsoft wants in the game with their SharePoint groups.
Anyway, this is a test, too many subjects inside to make easy threading (test, right?). Here at the USPTO/TO we want to allow lawyers to discuss proposed changes to rule articles, and not only make it inviting for non-coders to contribute, but help anyone make heads or tails of the resulting discourse.
More!
Peter Blaise Monahon
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Office of Program Control
600 Delany Street, Madison East, 4D68
Alexandria, Virginia 22314 US
http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
mailto:peter.monahon@uspto.gov
571-272-3950
Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Jdpond 10:45, 5 April 2007 (EST)
Peter, you get the concept. See here how I just 'replied' to your post?
Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Peterblaise 10:47, 5 April 2007 (EST)
Peter Blaise says: Jack, did you just clean up the tests?
Re: Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Peterblaise 10:56, 5 April 2007 (EST)
Peter Blaise says: Hmm ... this is NOT in real time, and I wonder about conflicts with multiple users "editing" replies at the same time where the last person wins and anyone who thinks they saved the page earlier will be overwritten by the last (slowest?) person to save? For instance, I Google Toolbar spell check before saving, and that takes time (and saves trivial subsequent re-edits).
Also, I had my own WOS Wiki running while visiting here and multiple MediaWikis, PHPs and MySQLs are a no-no! Nothing was refreshing properly! Argh - I get in my own way!
Re: Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Jdpond 11:05, 5 April 2007 (EST)
Yes I did just clean up the tests. Also relevant to previous, there are real limitations re: real-time and overwritten. The same merge rules would apply. Not the best tool for doing this, but better than free form discussions.
Re: Re: Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Peterblaise 10:43, 6 April 2007 (EST)
Peter Blaise says: I wonder if we could setup a Yahoo Group and make one subscription to it redirect it's received daily summary output here? And back and forth - build a front-end for Yahoo Groups using our MediaWiki (frames? - naw - that would loose tracking and inclusion in our own MediaWiki database). Is there a web post feature in MediaWiki we can hitchhike onto, or would that require a POP3 and SMTP feature MediaWiki doesn't have. I mention this because there are already very sophisticated discussion management solutions out there like Yahoo Groups, and "reinventing the wheel" for me would be like going back to dial-up bulletin boards or worse. Any thoughts?
Re: Re: Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Dtsig 10:53, 10 April 2007 (EST)
First, on an INTRANET what are the possibilities of 2 users colliding? I would *guess* that the possibilities are slim.
Having said that, if use a js prompt window to enter 'talk' then it would be pretty easy to put a 'tag' which could keep the 'link', then use this information for the threading.
Thoughts?
Re: Re: MediaWiki Article Discussion Threads - like Yahoo Groups or ... -- Dtsig 13:00, 9 April 2007 (EST)
I was just thinking about how it might be possible to 'prompt' user with a js window. Making it easier for the user to enter their comments without knowing the bits. This is a nice hack.
By the way I see your editor buttons contain 1 for RSS, is this a standard hack or something you have done? Thanks again. I will play with this and get some ideas on how it can be used with our version of MW. DSig
How to start a new thread?
Peter Blaise says: I just used the double equals signs to start a new thread. How would I otherwise do it? Anyway, I see many mailing list discussion threads surrounding wikis such as http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikisource-l/2007-April/thread.html for example or even http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l which appears right inside a wiki frame, at least for subscriptions. Anyway, thanks for the chance to play with new ideas - you got me thinking, and I hope I've done the same for you. PS - POS should have been WOS Wiki On a Stick - putting Apache, MySQL, PHP and MediaWiki on a USB drive in toto! Cool! http://www.chsoftware.net/en/useware/wos/wos.htm - it's what I'm developing on / with.
Re: How to start a new thread? -- Jdpond 16:01, 7 April 2007 (EST)
To start a new thread, you would use the 'post msg(+)' tab at the top (next to edit). Glad to help Peter - like I said, it's not perfect, but it does really help organize discussions.
Trying the post msg tab -- Dtsig 13:38, 11 April 2007 (EST)
In response to a message I saw about 'how to create ..' i am playing with the postMsg(+) tab. Let's see how this works
Re: Trying the post msg tab -- Dtsig 13:39, 11 April 2007 (EST)
Kudos .. this does work well .. Are you thinking about the installation?
I will contact you by email
