DVi.net wiki?
 

It seems more and more as this board grows that new users that come in ask the same questions that have been asked before, and so many of their posts become "meta-threads" that just refer back to old threads on the topics. With the vast array of knowledge already contained in the posts on this board, has Chris or anyone on the warden/wrangler staff considered a Wiki?

A Wiki is a sort of live database driven website that can be edited and added onto by anyone who belongs to it. This allows new topics of knowledge to be created and added to easily, and allows "moderators" to come by and reformat the information contained in the wiki to be most useful to everyone anytime they wish. Popular topics such as "on camera lights" or "external mics" could have well constructed wiki nodes which concatenate all of the useful information that has been posted in the pass on the board, without having to search via topics or wade through side conversations. Here are some pointers on wikis:

A good jumping off point about wikis:
http://www.wiki.org/

A live wiki in action (covering some Digital Video topics, to kind of prove the point):
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video

Brian,
We have, indeed, been wrestling with this matter for some time. Our most recent idea is to construct FAQ posts/pages in several key forums and maintained by the forum's "Wrangler". Basically, these would contain frequent questions or topics, followed by links to some of the best threads on those topics. In essence, a kind of auto-search function.

Your wiki idea is an interesting one. Thanks for that. We'll look into it.

Bascially, however, the site's Search function provides a pretty good facility for a motivated member to research nearly any topic. The issue is motivation. DVInfo veterans and veterans of similar boards use Search to great advantage. Newcomers either do not realize that Search is available, or don't care, and often post questions on very old, well-worn topics. (Hence our current campaign to highlight Search in our signatures.) I don't think that any extended facility will stem that behaviour; it just comes with the turf.

Thanks very much for your tip, though. It's definitely interesting.

Thanks for the input! In our back room, we've been kicking around the concept of individual forum topic FAQ's (even have one ready for the business forum), but the wiki idea sure is interesting and I'm exploring it right now. Much appreciated,

The problem with search functions:

terminology: newbies don't always know industry/accepted terminology. A post maybe well written and informative, but if the newbies don't know the question to ask or words to use then they get lost.

Your FAQ posts by forum topics would alleviate much of this. Possibly a forum topic aimed at new people. Just a series of stickies that give alot of useful information to get them started.

The problem I have with search are all the topics where someone asks a question, and the reply is "Do a search". Well, I am doing a search. So I sort through another couple threads with the same response, and eventually give up.

When you do a search, scroll down the page and read the posts with the most replies and views. The single replies are almost always "do a search."

Lo-tech FAQ would be great
 

A well constructed FAQ may be invaluable in answering *frequently* asked questions and providing important guidelines and structure for beginners in the matter in addition to the links to existing threads.

Look at http://brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/ for a great example.

Cheers
-- Andre

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Tanaka : Brian,
We have, indeed, been wrestling with this matter for some time. Our most recent idea is to construct FAQ posts/pages in several key forums and maintained by the forum's "Wrangler". Basically, these would contain frequent questions or topics, followed by links to some of the best threads on those topics. In essence, a kind of auto-search function. -->>>