Announcing... The 68kMLA Wiki!

[~tl]

Well this has been a "pet project" of mine for a while now. I've started getting a general layout in place, but it's still far from there. I haven't had much time or inspiration to work on it lately, so I've decided to just go ahead and announce it!

First a little background. There has been talk for some time about starting 68kMLA "information repository". Basically collect as much information, specs, tidbits, drivers etc as possible in one place -- make it the ultimate reference for everything 68k. The server crash got me thinking that this would be a really good idea. Also there is the fact that many websites dealing with old mac stuff may disappear at any moment. A Wiki seems like the perfect way to do this . It would also serve the reference purpose well -- while threads on the forums have some really useful information in them, it's a pain having to wade through all the crap to find it.

To get this off the ground we need some people willing to help set up a structure of the Wiki. I've done some very basic things to start with, but it needs a lot more work. I think it's important to get a basic structure in place before we start adding in any data -- otherwise the whole thing is going to be a mess. I also thing we should keep it as technical as possible. Unlike the (shortlived) MLAgazine Wiki, this isn't going to be a place for stories about how you found a certain Mac, etc. If you really want to include that, do it on your individual talk page. I also propose that we use the Community Portal as a notepad/to-do list so that anyone stumbling across the site can see what needs to be done. I've also created this forum for planning/discussion etc. Aside from that, it's up to you how this goes!

So go on... do your worst! Let's share the knowledge!

http://68kmla.org/wiki/

[MultiFinder]

Yay! I say we just copy and paste the Wikipedia articles on all the Macs

[~tl]

That'd probably be a good place to start, though I'd also like to see a full spec sheet like apple-history.com has and extra tidbits from other sites.

[funkytoad]

Well, this sounds great.
I'll do whatever I can to help.
It's summer, I've got all day everyday.

[Bunsen]

My dream page would be a table of all models, with all specs. And you can click on each table heading to sort the table by that spec ie by CPU, by RAM type, by expansion slots, etc.

I know (from Wikipedia) that wikis can do tables, but can anyone tell me if the above is possible?

[~tl]

My dream page would be a table of all models, with all specs. And you can click on each table heading to sort the table by that spec ie by CPU, by RAM type, by expansion slots, etc.

I know (from Wikipedia) that wikis can do tables, but can anyone tell me if the above is possible?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Sorting

I believe it is possible

[ChristTrekker]

COOL!

Now, a couple thoughts:

*Any firm policies on what can/can't/should/shouldn't be included?
*Isn't prefacing model articles with "Macintosh" a bit superfluous? It's of no aid at all to sorting, and it's not like Apple has had so many product lines that anyone with even a casual familiarity can't tell them apart.
*I'll start working on some templates when I feel ambitious again. I'm still a little deflated from the loss of the MLAgazine wiki.
*Do we have support for parser functions? All the cool template stuff requires parser functions.

[~tl]

*Any firm policies on what can/can't/should/shouldn't be included?

That's really open for discussion. However, as I said in the first post I think we should keep it strictly technical. Peoples stories about their own Macs for either their own talk pages (and subpages thereof) or the forums. MLAgazine was headed in the direction of being just a bunch of stories collated. I'd like this to be written in a unified way.

Also, I guess we should ask website owner's permission before copying anything (pictures, etc) -- unless it's released under the FDL or similar. That applies to copying from Wikipedia as well. Although the text is FDL, a lot of the pictures aren't -- so it's worth checking before we go a stealing!

Aside from that, I can't think of anything (on topic) that shouldn't be allowed.

As for what should be included... I'd like to see full specs on each machine, specs of as many upgrade cards as possible, overclocking information and things along those lines. I'd also like to see if we could start building a driver database -- though I'll have to look at upgrading the hosting if we're going to be doing that, so that's a secondary priority at the moment.

*Isn't prefacing model articles with "Macintosh" a bit superfluous? It's of no aid at all to sorting, and it's not like Apple has had so many product lines that anyone with even a casual familiarity can't tell them apart.

Possibly, but it seems like the correct way to do it. I debated with myself over this one quite a bit to be honest. In the end I decided it would be best to have the actual articles at "Macintosh Model" and then have the simpler "Model" pages redirecting to them.

*I'll start working on some templates when I feel ambitious again. I'm still a little deflated from the loss of the MLAgazine wiki.

Cheers, yeah MLAgazine was a bit of a loss! Although it was only just getting started, a few people had put a lot of effort into it.

*Do we have support for parser functions? All the cool template stuff requires parser functions.

Um, to be honest, I don't know! How could I tell? If we don't then I'm sure they can be enabled.

[funkytoad]

So have we officially decided wether we are going to do a table? like this: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... ic_ii.html

Or something more like Wikipedia?

[~tl]

So have we officially decided wether we are going to do a table? like this: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... ic_ii.html

Or something more like Wikipedia?

It hasn't been decided yet. Start a new thread about it and see what people think

[Patrickool93]

I made a page for the Centris 650

[funkytoad]

So have we officially decided wether we are going to do a table? like this: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... ic_ii.html

Or something more like Wikipedia?

It hasn't been decided yet. Start a new thread about it and see what people think

I did just that! http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1168

[MacMan]

I made a page for the Centris 650

Good start. I'd be happy to write some of the Mac descriptions but it'll need to wait until I have some free time (ie. no time soon). I can also take some photos of Macs that I own for the specs pages so that we have something different to Apple's standard ones. I am a strong believer in the "A picture tells a thousand words" philosophy and I think we should try and include an original picture of every model.

[ChristTrekker]

That's really open for discussion. However, as I said in the first post I think we should keep it strictly technical. Peoples stories about their own Macs for either their own talk pages (and subpages thereof) or the forums. MLAgazine was headed in the direction of being just a bunch of stories collated. I'd like this to be written in a unified way.

Yeah... While I liked the stories, I myself was hoping for more of a tech resource site. (So 68kMLA wiki is right up my alley!) While there are several good ones out there, none so far are open to contributions from the public.

Possibly, but it seems like the correct way to do it. I debated with myself over this one quite a bit to be honest. In the end I decided it would be best to have the actual articles at "Macintosh Model" and then have the simpler "Model" pages redirecting to them.

Still seems like extra work to me, but I'll follow whatever consensus there is.

Cheers, yeah MLAgazine was a bit of a loss! Although it was only just getting started, a few people had put a lot of effort into it.

I know...I was one.

Um, to be honest, I don't know! How could I tell? If we don't then I'm sure they can be enabled.

I have no idea; I've never been admin for a wiki before. From what I've read at the Traxus Project, I'm pretty sure it's an add-in module for Mediawiki. Evidently MW is extensible that way. IMO, includeonly/noinclude blocks and ParserFunctions are the two most valuable add-ons we use, to start with. Creating useful (i.e. anything beyond simple boilerplate text) templates is hobbled without them.

[ChristTrekker]

Suddenly I remembered LEM.info...

[Bunsen]

So have we officially decided wether we are going to do a table? like this: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/m ... ic_ii.html

Or something more like Wikipedia?

Hey woah there nelly. I was suggesting this table as a single page in the wiki, not the entire wiki.

[~tl]

Suddenly I remembered LEM.info...

Yeah... just noticed that after I posted this. Great minds and all that!

They do seem to be potentially covering the same territory, however the LEM.info Wiki seems to be more concerned with keeping a directory of links to other Mac sites, while ours will (hopefully) be more an archive of the information itself. So I guess they could coexist.

[Bunsen]

In case my description was a little vague, I'm imagining a page much like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... ng_systems.

IE: model name column down the left, then columns for CPU, Bus speed, slot type, RAM type/min/max etc.

And not to take over the purpose of every single page on the wiki, with detailed info on each model. More as a handy page where folks can say, "OK, I have a Comm Slot II modem, what machines does it go in?" <click> Sort by slot type.

[funkytoad]

Suddenly I remembered LEM.info...

Intersting... I must say. I have never seen that before.

[~tl]

Suddenly I remembered LEM.info...

Intersting... I must say. I have never seen that before.

It was posted quite recently:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1074

[funkytoad]

Suddenly I remembered LEM.info...

Intersting... I must say. I have never seen that before.

It was posted quite recently:

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1074

Strange, I must have missed that post.
Or more likely, I saw it at 1:00 AM. Thats always a blur!

[~tl]

Um, to be honest, I don't know! How could I tell? If we don't then I'm sure they can be enabled.

I have no idea; I've never been admin for a wiki before. From what I've read at the Traxus Project, I'm pretty sure it's an add-in module for Mediawiki. Evidently MW is extensible that way. IMO, includeonly/noinclude blocks and ParserFunctions are the two most valuable add-ons we use, to start with. Creating useful (i.e. anything beyond simple boilerplate text) templates is hobbled without them.

ParserFunctions is installed

[ChristTrekker]

ParserFunctions is installed

OK it's official... Tom rocks!

[ChristTrekker]

In case my description was a little vague, I'm imagining a page much like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... ng_systems.

IE: model name column down the left, then columns for CPU, Bus speed, slot type, RAM type/min/max etc.

And not to take over the purpose of every single page on the wiki, with detailed info on each model. More as a handy page where folks can say, "OK, I have a Comm Slot II modem, what machines does it go in?" <click> Sort by slot type.

This certainly can (and should) be done in a list for completeness. If the infobox for each model is fairly complete, we can also build categories driven from that info--i.e. if you put "30-pin SIMM" for RAM type, the article would automatically appear in the "Machines using 30-pin SIMMs" category. Wikipedia has three "types" of classifications for Macs, but on a specialist wiki like this we could go really nuts with it.

If you are interested in expansion slots specifically, please provide a list of all the types there are, and I could sure build something into the infobox template to categorize on that.

[Bunsen]

OK

Nubus 7" and 12"
PCI 7" and 12"
AGP and speed

Machine specific:

Classic RAM Expansion
Classic II ROM/FPU Expansion
PERCH (beige G3 AV/sound card slot)

PDS types:

LC
LCIII (compatible with LC cards)
SE
030 (SE/30 and IIsi)
IIci (also in IIvi and IIvx)
IIfx
CPU socket only

PCMCIA
Cardbus

"Performa" slots:

Comm Slot
Comm Slot II
Video In
Video Out
TV Tuner

DAV

This is not yet a complete list, I think. Does anyone else want to throw some in?