Future of DT

Findecanor · 10 Dec 2018, 10:01

matt3o wrote: Maybe we could have a yearly "DTWiki Award" (DTWA) much like the DTA but dedicated to just wiki content. It might be a way to keep people engaged. I dunno...

There was a contest the first year of the Wiki, just for that purpose. Then "Best wiki contributor" was a DTA prize category for two years but later folded into "Best DT contributor".

matt3o wrote: Regarding the forum, maybe we could convert the "mice" section to "geek stuff" or simply add a new section, have to think about it.

I think we should keep the existing category, if only to indicate that we welcome discussions that is not just about keyboards. It is an active subforum with specific talk about mice and trackballs.

matt3o · 10 Dec 2018, 10:05

What could be a good name? I don't like "Geek stuff" that much...

andrewjoy · 10 Dec 2018, 10:45

More focus on vintage computing and tech and "desks" as a whole would be awesome!

Still keep is mainly about our core but expand into that area, we have people who love old computers too , there is lots of overlap.

Laser · 10 Dec 2018, 10:52

Most important thing is to have the users, a critical mass of users that come up with useful materials. Then it's a question of how to organize that material, how to make the forum encourage that kind of threads, keep the other kind of users entertained ...

andrewjoy · 10 Dec 2018, 11:06

matt3o wrote: What could be a good name? I don't like "Geek stuff" that much...

I don't see a need to change the name. Drop the mechanical keyboards subtitle

matt3o · 10 Dec 2018, 11:13

andrewjoy wrote:
matt3o wrote: What could be a good name? I don't like "Geek stuff" that much...

I don't see a need to change the name. Drop the mechanical keyboards subtitle

for the additional sub-forum......

kbdfr · 10 Dec 2018, 11:23

My entry page to DT always being the Spy, I would rather object to wiki contributions unduly inflating it,
but on the other hand as a great fan of (even if rare contributor to) the wiki, I think it would certainly reassert its worth.

And by all means keep the general look and feel of DT unchanged!
Anything but black on white and linear chronological posting would inevitably drive me off.

andrewjoy · 10 Dec 2018, 13:10

kbdfr wrote:
And by all means keep the general look and feel of DT unchanged!
Anything but black on white and linear chronological posting would inevitably drive me off.

This

chuckdee · 10 Dec 2018, 20:19

We need to "reinvent" DT if we want to keep it relevant.

Has anyone asked the question 'why'? And 'relevant to whom'?

XMIT · 10 Dec 2018, 21:08

I would love to take more of a role here. Perhaps 2019 will be more kind with the amount of free time available for projects. (I write this with browser tabs open for a laser cutter and a 3D printer, so, I'm optimistic here.)

The main change I want to see is a more mobile-friendly style sheet. I don't want to use Tapatalk but do want to be able to view DT from my Android phone.

I like our little niche within the community. People come here for something a bit beyond the ordinary. Apart from the occasional troll we have a really high quality of community discussion here.

I still recall 2014-2016 as a sort of golden era with discoveries, projects, and all sorts of other things nearly every week. We can get there again!

flowerlandfilms · 10 Dec 2018, 21:11

1. The wiki is the main port of call, making it easier to contribute information is key. I would also like to see it encouraged to add more information beyond the technical aspects of a board. Who made it, why, when and where? The tech industry is full of wonderful human stories. How did these devices come to be?

2. A greater focus or spotlight on projects is a great idea. So many people get into vintage keyboards because they see someone else doing something cool, in a step by step process, and start to think it might be achievable for them. I think it's imperative that the wealth of knowledge and creativity on display be the flagship feature of the forum. Like McDonalds, you go there for the Burger (Wiki), but you stay for the Shakes (Conversions, Barn Finds, Restorations, Tomfoolery)

3. Dedicated forum groups for fans of individual switches/manufacturers. Nothing stirs up activity like assigning people to arbitrary teams. ALPS deserves their own category, not just the appreciation thread. Someone who really loves Outemu switches might disappear in the "Keyboards" topic, but if they had their own place, they might find their own voice and really start to contribute their passion to the community, and get others onboard too.

4. If a software change is in the cards, I would like to put in a vote for a darker theme. I'm not saying full Geekhack, I know the contrast is somewhat intentional, just some grey tones so it's easier on the eyes. I'm thinking a Grey with White lettered double shots kind of colour scheme.

5. Getting into the less important but still relevant in a first impressions kind of way, I know it's almost blasphemous because it is a cool logo, but I've always thought it odd that the DeskThority title isn't made from a keyboard specific font, or group of of fonts. I am more than happy to lend Graphical Assistance.

6. On a board with a lean towards the vintage and classic, there is always going to be a predilection for leaving things the way they are and not changing anything. So thank you if you made it this far into my suggestions without exploding into a torrent of fiery rage and planning out your next Viking Blood Feud.

matt3o · 10 Dec 2018, 21:47

I like your thinking @flowerlandfilms, I like the "switch" subforums.

Findecanor · 10 Dec 2018, 22:26

Instead of subforums for different switches, I think the category-tabs should be used, or some other type of tag function.
It is nice to have an "All" tab. BTW. did you know that the search function is local to the current category-tab?

Findecanor · 10 Dec 2018, 22:29

If nobody has anything to add about the article templates, I'll start writing some tomorrow.
I'm thinking a "Article templates" category with "Keyboard article template", "Switch article template", "Company article template", etc. But first I'll go look for what other Wikis (could) have done.

matt3o · 10 Dec 2018, 23:27

Findecanor wrote: If nobody has anything to add about the article templates, I'll start writing some tomorrow.
I'm thinking a "Article templates" category with "Keyboard article template", "Switch article template", "Company article template", etc. But first I'll go look for what other Wikis (could) have done.

hold on on that for a sec, I believe newer versions of mediawiki supports template directly (or via plugin). I have to check that.

__red__ · 10 Dec 2018, 23:39

matt3o wrote: hold on on that for a sec, I believe newer versions of mediawiki supports template directly (or via plugin). I have to check that.

Can confirm.

Also, tangentially related I'm apparently in the process of becoming the package maintainer for mediawiki in Nix so if you need to build a mediawiki installation in 4 lines of code I'm that guy

Engicoder · 11 Dec 2018, 00:09

Edit: hansichen already mentioned this, but...

The wiki is invaluable and I have a long list of things I have been meaning to add. My biggest hurdle is the amount of time it takes to add a set of pictures to the wiki. The current process requires adding each picture individually and entering the same boiler plate information for each one, waiting for it to complete and repeat. I believe there are some bulk upload extensions for mediawiki for example UploadWizard A bulk/batch upload could make this process less tedious.

hansichen · 11 Dec 2018, 00:16

I already brought that up on the first page and I have mention it again cause it really needs a lot of time. Just needed 90 minutes to write one very small article and to upload pictures of three keyboards.

Someone mentioned that we could add wiki edits to the spy: I'm not sure if that will work as planned. Quite often you do minor edits or you mess something up and have to fix it again (yes there is a preview function but we are all human

). Setting such a spy system up to only grab important stuff seems to be rather difficult. Instead we could think about doing a "Stuff that I just added to the wiki" thread where everybody can throw in a link when he thinks that he added something valuable. People then have the chance to check the new stuff out and give feedback and share their ideas, thoughts, informations or pictures of the board. Maybe that will encourage people to add more to the wiki.

__red__ · 11 Dec 2018, 00:42

In mediawiki there is a flag for "this is a minor edit" which could be used for filtering,

Findecanor · 11 Dec 2018, 08:00

"This is a minor edit" is not set by default.
I don't know what the intended use for it is really and what happens when you check it... I check it when I have edited mostly spelling and grammar, but don't when I have added facts.

Yeah, I think Wiki additions showing up in the Spy should be predominantly new articles. Then significant edits.
Therefore I what's preferable might be a new checkbox for significant edits:
"[x] This is a significant edit (will show up in forum Spy)"

matt3o · 11 Dec 2018, 08:44

I don't think pushing all edits in the spy is a good idea. We either create a new "wiki spy" or make it so only huge edits or new pages are sent to the standard spy.

matt3o · 11 Dec 2018, 12:41

I checked the wiki, good news is that it's not that outdated and upgrade should be painless. Bad news is that we probably rely on an outdated phpbb auth plugin... hopefully it won't be too much pain...

snuci · 11 Dec 2018, 12:45

matt3o wrote: I don't think pushing all edits in the spy is a good idea. We either create a new "wiki spy" or make it so only huge edits or new pages are sent to the standard spy.

Is there anything wrong with just looking at this page? wiki/Special:RecentChanges

matt3o · 11 Dec 2018, 12:47

it's mostly a visibility issue.

snuci · 11 Dec 2018, 12:50

There's a lot of information there that is available through custom searches. If the theme was a little nicer, it would make the page look better and you can just link to the from the forums.

__red__ · 11 Dec 2018, 16:35

matt3o wrote: I checked the wiki, good news is that it's not that outdated and upgrade should be painless. Bad news is that we probably rely on an outdated phpbb auth plugin... hopefully it won't be too much pain...

Quick talk about use-cases. I just came back from an almost 1 year break (real life, don't I know it) so I ended up using DT when I came back in two main ways:

"View your posts": Reason: Did anyone post anything that was specifically about the topics I was active in? (long-term catchup mode).
"Spy": Once caught up, this is how I stay connected to the community.

I think "Spy" is primary for those who are more 'community-focused' than content focused.

I very rarely (if ever) read the forums in a 'per-board' format and I think that has a lot to do with my personal focus being more community than content. I expect this PoV is over-represented here in this thread because by definition those in this thread are likely more community-focused than content.

Lastly, I'm not sure that "Spy" is the right place for wiki updates (or at least the same spy as the forum posts). I follow the wiki's twitter feed so updates aren't a deluge... but I think the users interested in either feed are probably not overlapping in the main.

matt3o · 14 Dec 2018, 16:00

I'm checking a new server, the current host is actually not bad but I've heard someone complaining about speed.

On the same tier of the current one I'd say we have OVH (and soyoustart which are the same thing I believe), online.net. Does anyone have experience with them? Alternatives?

JP! · 14 Dec 2018, 18:08

andrewjoy wrote: More focus on vintage computing and tech and "desks" as a whole would be awesome!

I like this "desk" idea

Also one thing I think would be nice to have would be a checkbox to tag a new post as "knowledge". Any post and the OP's content could be fair game for the wiki including photos. Basically items tagged like this can be searched and then the poster or other members can go back and fill out a proper wiki entry. After the content is added to the wiki the post can be marked being listed as being in the wiki but still be searchable as "knowledge".

matt3o · 14 Dec 2018, 18:10

that's not a bad idea @JP!

TheInverseKey · 14 Dec 2018, 20:25

JP! wrote:
andrewjoy wrote: More focus on vintage computing and tech and "desks" as a whole would be awesome!
I like this "desk" idea

Also one thing I think would be nice to have would be a checkbox to tag a new post as "knowledge". Any post and the OP's content could be fair game for the wiki including photos. Basically items tagged like this can be searched and then the poster or other members can go back and fill out a proper wiki entry. After the content is added to the wiki the post can be marked being listed as being in the wiki but still be searchable as "knowledge".

I like this idea but would it be better to have a section in the wiki called "to be added". Then once OP is done with all of their knowledge then they check the "OP is done" box. Afterwards, anyone can add the information to the wiki. I think that segmenting this information into it's own section might make it easier to find rather amongst all of the projects that would be in the same section that might not need to be added to the wiki.