Idea for the forums: Featured Member

[Cory5412]

You'll have to ask ChristTrekker about the serial number thing, but if you already have a page, say "drawing programs" and you want to add a link to a page, just add the text of the link you want to add.

[[New Page Here]] links to a page called "New Page Here"

You can alos use the pipe character to link to a specific page, but use different text for the link.

"For more information about these concepts, visit the New Page Here page, whic his located [[New Page Here|here]]."

 

[MacJunky]

Why not spotlight a specific machine and a specific application every month so people can talk about them? Kind of like an ice breaker so new people who used either one can bring up something of interest without having to start a new thread.

I think this would be _much_ better. It would also help people expand the capabilities of their older Macs if they knew of more applications that could do interesting things. As it is now it seems like many don't use older Macs due to limited capability or flexibility but if we start showing off interesting apps people might get more into using their old Macs.

 

[Cory5412]

I'm also for the idea of spotlighting a specific piece of software or hardware. It wouldn't be difficult to set up the wiki to do that either, we could set up a two-column layout, one for information about the currently featured topic, and one for the standard content.

My wiki at http://ueberlandowiki.net/ has the layout that was actually created for the MLAgazine Wiki (before 68kMLA Wiki), which was intended to have a featured article on the left and a jumping-off point on the right. (i use both columns for links though.)

 

[equant]

Why not spotlight a specific machine and a specific application every month so people can talk about them? Kind of like an ice breaker so new people who used either one can bring up something of interest without having to start a new thread.

I second (third, fourth, fifth) this idea over the "Member of the Month" idea which although I'm sure was about pure intentions, seems like a forum disaster in the making.

 

[bigD]

I don't see what the big deal is here. *I* am always, and will continue to be, the featured member at any given time. Why are we talking about this?

 

[equill]

I don't see what the big deal is here. *I* am always, and will continue to be, the featured member at any given time. Why are we talking about this?

To foster the latent insecurity revealed by your post? :-*

More seriously, I must me-too the proposal for a soft- or hardware-focussed periodic 'feature' rather than raves about members.

de

 

[ChristTrekker]

If you want to share biographical data about yourself, my reccomendation is actually to do it on the 68kMLA Wiki.
http://68kmla.org/wiki/User:Cory5412

You can set up the page however you like, include whatever information you're comfortable with, and update it as needed. You sign into the wiki with the same username/password you use for the forum, and you click on the link to "your userpage" in the top, and it lets you edit your page.

I can't imagine the featured member thing going over too well, it would require a lot of resources to set up, and we'd end up with a "Kastegir's PowerBook 180" situation, where one member who didn't say or do very much at all was featured for three years.

I completely agree. Sounds like a nice, warm, fuzzy idea...but implementing it has a lot of pitfalls that make it more hassle than it is worth.

I bet that Tom could figure out a way to pull a random page from the Members' machines category and make it a "featured computer" link here, or something. Not so much featured as random, but that would eliminate some of the headaches you describe. And I think spotlighting a 68k would be more interesting than spotlighting the owner, anyway. No offense, I like you guys, but I don't kid myself that anybody is actually interested in me except as it pertains to what I've done with my Macs.

 

[ChristTrekker]

I set up a page there...but have another question about the Wiki. How does one go about adding a page where one is needed? For example, under "Drawing Programs", there are no entries. If I want to make one for MacDraw, how would I go about doing that?
Also, I have a tidbit about the Mac SE but have no online source for it...how do I go about documenting it? (It's something from personal observations regarding serial numbers)

Easiest way to figure out how something is done in the wiki is to hit the Edit button and look at the code. If you can't figure something out, ask on the community portal talk page, or in the wiki forum here. Check your "my contributions" link to see if anyone has cleaned up behind you (a couple of us more active folks will usually do that when we know someone is new), then go look what they did.

For the record, we're not so concerned about documentation as Wikipedia is. If you have something useful to share, add it.

 

[Torbar]

C'mon guys. While I may not post as often anymore as I used to, I think we all know who the feature member should be.

 

[gobabushka]

yea, ME!!! lol

 

[register]

Yes, I agree to the proposal for a soft- or hardware-focussed periodic 'feature', too. Probably the board of admins is willing to use this kind of feature to initiate a continuous flow of new contributions to the wiki.

How about a featured wiki entry to work on? This way threads might condense to some very useful documentation.