josephhenryblack wrote:
Because this wiki has been kindly made available for the Open Graphics
Project, I want to say my appreciation for the wiki.. though there is
a small 'but' here that I want to ask the list about..
Okay, let me first say "I do not represent OGP, I am an outsider". And
I don't
want to throw any bad karma into the project, but....
The wiki sucks.
I can't find anything!
I think this has something to do with a lack of hierarchical structure,
poor overall indexing, no breadcrumbs (that I can find), and a lack
of clear versioning. Older documents conflict with newer documents,
and (more importantly) compete with them for primacy (there probably
is some way to figure out which is which, but it's not as obvious as it
could be).
For example, reacting to a comment on the mailing list, where a poster
said that he wouldn't be able to afford the OGD (but perhaps the OGC),
I tried to find out which was which and how much each was likely to
cost. I know this can't be a solid number at this point, but in order for
someone to have reached such a conclusion, they must be aware of some
estimate.
After about 15 wiki pages, I still didn't know the answer. I tried googling
the wiki site, still no dice. I did eventually find an estimate of "$600 to
OGP members" for the OGD (but no numbers for the "real" price). Of course
that did answer my real question, which was "Can I afford one?": probably
not. But my point in relating this is that I couldn't find a particular
piece
of information about the project, even though I knew exactly what I was
looking for and (presumeably) the right place to look for it.
I spent a lot of time getting lost, and wound up going in circles, because I
would find slightly different references to the same pages, thinking they
might be slightly different variations on the content (of which there *are*
examples -- another bad wiki issue).
Some of this might be due to issues with the particular wiki software (e.g.
not having breadcrumbs), but I think it's mostly due to a not-so-well
thought-out strategy of laying out the information, and a lack of
attention to organization (OTOH, the site is obviously updated pretty
frequently -- the "newsletter" pages included quotes from me that were only
a couple of days old!).
Visitors to the Open Graphics Project, are going on to see prominent
links to some other interesting projects that have no connection with
the Graphics Project. Yet, as part of presenting a professional image
of a organized group which is solely focused upon making a Graphics
Card, we are using the Wiki to try to build visitors confidence that
we have an ability to finish projects.
"Professional image" belongs on a static, well-manicured web page, which can
then link to a wiki, IMHO. Don't provide the polished site for the
less official
projects -- that makes it clear which projects have received "official
blessing" and
which are just experimental. But having the "experimental" stuff is
good -- it
shows folks that you are willing to innovate.
Remember, it's all about setting standards to follow, not forcing people to
follow them. Volunteer projects can only be managed with the carrot,
you have no stick.
You might want to consider nominating someone to port "frozen" (or
"semi-frozen")
content from the wiki to an official site.
I don't have time to volunteer on this, so I can't offer to make it better,
but I think you should at least understand this problem. I think this may
contribute to your website stats that you quote.
Cheers,
Terry
--
Terry Hancock ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Anansi Spaceworks http://www.AnansiSpaceworks.com
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