originally posted by Andy
I noticed that there is already a Wikipedia article created about Janny Wurtz and the War of Light and Shadow. Unfortunately, it appears that little to no content has been added.
originally posted by Trys
Ugh!!! if they spelled her name wrong.
originally posted by skeoke
spelled correctly.
With a list of works (including Arc breakdown for WOLAS)
AND - a link to the official Janny Wurts site by the fabulous gryphon!!!
I say - anything you want, provided that any copyrightable content should be done as a link directing fans HERE. We will try to accommodate, if you think there's a "service" or cross reference that fans would enjoy having.
Mind, it's up to the Gryphon to consent to hosting, and help getting such a work done. I gotta write new story! 
I welcome the interest and interaction of fans, where it doesn't put a shadow on rights that must stay in the clear (such as for motion pictures, etc, that REQUIRE one to promise such things related to story and characters have not been compromised…quirks of the industry, not mine.)
originally posted by Trys
Many thanks to Konran to mentioning Wikipedia, I've begun the process of adding Janny's books to the encyclopedia.
I'll also investigate what it would take to create a searchable/submittable dictionary… that's gonna take a good while longer.
originally posted by Technetus
Janny: Last I saw, part of Wikipedia's policy is that copyrighted material shouldn't be entered onto the pages in any case. Even if someone naughty does post such, it's likely to get removed anyway.
Trys: The Wikipedia and other Wikis like it run on freely-available WikiMedia software ( http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki ). It's written to run via PHP, and usually run in conjunction with the MySQL database software, both also readily available.
wiki.paravia.com anyone? Athera's certainly large enough to warrant a wiki all of its own, in my opinion. How many of us would help out by wiki-fying the glossaries, or building up a Paravian dictionary from what's scattered hereabouts?
originally posted by Trys
The risk of a wiki is the monitoring process to ensure that nothing improper gets uploaded.
As to Wikipedia, copyrighted information is ok so long as the poster can prove they own the copyrights. Not what I'm doing over there. Just making entries for the books. 
originally posted by Konran
I'd definitely work on the wiki if we had one (obviously, since I suggested it in the first place…) But even if something improper DOES get uploaded, Trys, the good thing about having a wiki is that anyone can get rid of it… and usually the people who want to keep the page looking nice outnumber the stupid ones who come in and mess it up.
originally posted by Trys
I'll do some investigating into this.
originally posted by Trys
Well it is not going well getting a Wiki.Paravia set up. It is a complex process that has very little in the way of understandable help. This is a result, no doubt, of there not being a single focused intent behind the development of the software. At least that's my feeling. The latest problem I've encountered is that the installation of the software does not come with a set of help pages. And this software is complex enough that even bad help is an absolute requirement or I would be deluged with requests of "How do I…?". Not something I'm going to deal with. Further, the Wiki system allows for exporting/importing of pages. So I exported the help domain of wikimedia, hoping I was only getting Public Domain pages but who the frack knows… The software created an invalid XML file that I had to hack to fix. Then when it 'imported' I got an error message. Some help now seems to be there but it references pages in a separate domain. YOWL!!! What the frack is this? Why isn't there a set of help pages… OH!!! yeah, they are 'working' them. ::ARGHHH::
Here's the bottom line skinny. I have no time to deal with what I'm rapidly evaluating as a piece of crap software. If there is anyone here who has experience setting up a wiki site, I'd appreciate some direction. If not, it's dead, dead, dead and the coffin nailed SHUT.
Can you tell I'm frustrated?! No?! Well I am!
Trys
originally posted by Laurence J Johnson
Hello Trys, yes, I did get that impression!
Skol from Laurence.
originally posted by Technetus
Trys, are you after help for the users or help for the administrator(s)?
(And just to make sure, did you pull the help from wikiMEdia or wikiPEdia? Wikipedia does have help pages for user editing of entries, starting at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Tutorial – perhaps they could be used as a skeleton set of help to adapt by using the View Source link and copying the text box contents to the Paravian wiki? Slow, but something at least…)
(And releasing software without documentation when it's an ongoing project is downright inconsiderate. I'm mildly surprised that it's proving so troublesome, though – there seem to be a LOT of sites about running wikimedia. If I wasn't parked in the middle of exam preparation I'd already be tinkering with it on my test system. 
)
originally posted by Trys
Technetus,
User help. What I got I got from WikiMedia as I assumed Wikipedia to NOT be Public Domain.
quote:Yes, it is.And releasing software without documentation when it's an ongoing project is downright inconsiderate.
Some one is giving me some help in evaluating 'flavors' of Wiki (something I didn't know existed but there are 20-30 different open source flavors and a few commercial flavors). They indicated that they tried to setup a Wiki around 9-12 months ago and had similar problems.
At this point in time WikiMedia is not in the running as a option for wiki.paravia. Perhaps one of the others will work out. Time will tell.
Trys
originally posted by Trys
Progress report on this. I've now looked at about 5 different flavors of wiki and each one of them has an insurmountable problem (one wouldn't let me login as the created admin user) or a major shortcoming (the last one requires that the pages be named with a single word. That would mean the Arithon s'Ffalenn page would be something like ArithonsFfalenn. URK!)
Technetus,
Given that the only real drawback with wikimedia was lack of help pages, are you still interested in looking into this after you are done with exams? It would be greatly appreciated.
Trys
originally posted by Gary
Hi Trys,
I'd also be happy to help, if there's anything I can do.
Have you looked at this page? http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Installation
The Ubuntu installation was up and running in about two minutes for me, but you're likely to be using the system with the longest set of installation instructions, due to some version of Murphy's Law
Gary.
originally posted by Trys
Gary,
The system was up and running in about 5 minutes. But the system does not come with a set of Help pages. They are all blank. Wikimedia explains this as 'they are working on creating one'. Why they don't make what they have (Wiki Handbook) available with the installation is beyond me (mabye something to do with not releasing one language with out all its translations). Further, exporting the Help domain of pages from Wikimedia and importing them into Wiki Paravia gives a set of help pages that are between 10% and 20% complete. However, I've actually found a work around for this. I've pointed the Help Link at Wikimedia's Wiki Handbook.
There is still much that I have to figure out, like look and feel, security (it won't be like this board… only registered users will be able to contribute) and I don't know else. I also need to come up with the posting guidelines based on the conversation I had with Janny on the subject of having a wiki.
As to all the other 'flavors' of wiki, the need to have pages named as 'wiki' words (no spaces, punctuation, etc.) eliminated them and even though I only looked at 6 of the possibilities it became clear to me Wikimedia is the only that will work for Paravia.
Trys
originally posted by Technetus
Trys: Sure am. When I'm finished will depend on the uni's schedule (still not released, grrr!). Once that's done with I'll grab Mediawiki and find out just what you're up against.
(I did check the public domain status of the Wikipedia help pages a couple of days ago; provided my reading of the Wikipedia license is correct, it's ok to use and/or edit them for another wiki site so long as there's a link back to where they came from and an authorship credit is given.)
originally posted by Technetus
Trys: You probably keep up with this stuff anyway, but: http://secunia.com/advisories/20458/
originally posted by Technetus
Trys, I've downloaded and installed mediawiki on my test system. If you're still after assistance, I'll dive into it.
originally posted by Trys
Technetus,
I haven't been doing anything with it due to time constraints, but the big issue I had was that it did not come with a set of help pages.
Trys