GeekHack Wikia

[Matt_]

The main topics will be around the central interests of geekhack. Such as artisans, keysets, customs, etc. Most of that stuff you all don't even care about so why is it such a huge deal that it won't be on the DT wiki?

Are you really suggesting that no one here is interested in custom keysets, keyboards and artisan caps?

Some of us (I guess many) are active on both DT and GH and don't care about these parish rivalries. There's already a big wiki, some content is missing, the question is why create a new wiki just for it instead of expanding the existing one?

[Halvar]

I agree. I like Geekhack a lot, too, e.g. for the DIY stuff and of course the group buys. The "social" side of it is a bit further away from me personally because it seems to be mostly US college kids, but why should that bother me? Great thing about the internet is that both are just a click away.

[Sankart]

Well, I'm a rather new member, but I guessed I might as well post my thoughts.

I don't really get why GH having its own wiki is a bad thing.
Their focus is so different to DTs that I doubt there'll be a lot of redundant articles.

While DT is my board ̶t̶̶o̶̶ ̶̶l̶̶u̶̶r̶̶k̶ of choice I can really understand why they want their own wiki. GH in general is so much less formal than DT (which is why I don't lurk there, but in the end it's personal preference) and they want a fitting, less formal wiki. While I really like the orderliness of DT it is also keeping me from contributing sometimes, my english not being the best and all. I can see why the rather fast community on GH doesn't want to obey some of those rules, since the wiki would (probably) move significantly slower than the forum.

[pr0ximity]

I've been meaning to try and add some stuff to the DT wiki. I think it could be a pretty great repository for information on Korean customs in particular which have a serious problem with sparse information. There are a small handful of people in the West who can speak authoritatively about them who would be awesome to get contributions from. Especially when it comes to programmability, firmware, features, and assembly of Sir Eungsam's 356/456/360 boards.

[Muirium]

That would be very welcome. I know bugger all about Korean customs, and they aren't the easiest thing to study as a newcomer, either.

GH in general is so much less formal than DT (which is why I don't lurk there, but in the end it's personal preference) and they want a fitting, less formal wiki. While I really like the orderliness of DT it is also keeping me from contributing sometimes, my english not being the best and all. I can see why the rather fast community on GH doesn't want to obey some of those rules, since the wiki would (probably) move significantly slower than the forum.

I honestly wonder what makes us seem so formal. I mean we use memes and shit too, sometimes. Is it our eerily infrequent use of key words? Maybe all the sentences with angry dots at the end. Ach, I dunno. Maybe it's just the whitespace in our visual design and the fancy pictures of old boards. If it is just that, we're keeping it!

Plenty of people have less than perfect English around here. (I'm a Scot…) It's not a problem at all. Even when language issues do come up, we're usually pretty kind about them. The single biggest difference with DT is the general lack of forum drama.

This thread right here being a striking counterexample! Many people posting here have spent dozens or even hundreds of hours contributing to our wiki. That makes the issue complex. Everyone's entitled to start their own open wiki project, of course, but when you're already deep down the rabbit hole of your own, the perspective is mighty different!

[ohaimark]

Mu, we're very formal. There is remarkably little shitposting for a forum. Little drama. Few memes. We use full words instead of abbreviations. We capitalize properly and use full-blown grammar...

DT is like a department run by graduate students, where intellectual debate, discipline, and skilled work are important. We keep up appearances, as it were.

GH is like a... Well... Normal forum on the internet. Much more energetic, much more focused on undisciplined fun, and generally much more raucous, yet still possessing greatly skilled and intelligent members.

Both are wonderful in their own ways.

[Muirium]

And yet Andy is a top DT regular! He's either dyslexic or likes to play one on the internet…

I don't get how we're meant to be so damn formal. When I do follow links to GH and Reddit, I don't see anything fundamentally different from what we're up to. It's just slapped into a butt ugly design (which I'm very much a snob about, if I don't like the look of a site: I won't use it) and juiced up with more animated gifs, fugly avatars, and nested quotes.

I can understand the idea that many forums bring out the inner stupid in people. But I don't think we're formal, so much as just unencouraging of going balls-to-the-wall moron in here. You tend to get snark when you do that, instead of a conga line.

It'll be the whitespace…

[ohaimark]

You just answered your own question. Very few conga lines here.

Even the people who write badly still (almost always) have something relevant, useful, and intelligent to say.

[Sankart]

DT being formal wasn't meant in a negative way at all. The mere fact that of all the memes possible you linked a "cat meme" and not some stupid smug anime face or some pepe or wojak is a shining example of what I was trying to say.

I'll shoot you a PN to not further derail this thread.

[kbdfr]

[…]
I'll shoot you a PN to not further derail this thread.

There’s no such thing like derailing a thread on DT

[Muirium]

Nothing to see here, move along.

[ohaimark]

Well, back on topic. I'm waiting for nubbinator to add more to this, but it sounds like there are ways we might improve things here for new contributors. Let me mention some things that I've noticed.

We have a... unique work environment here at times, and it appears that new contributors are quite put off by it. There's a lot of snark and bitter humor at DT that one must have a thick skin to deal with. Coming to this forum when one is used to less pointed jabs is quite shocking.

This isn't some touchy-feely bullshit -- the only reason I handle direct criticism of my writing and my actions so well is because I've been trained to as a professional writer. I've read PMs that weren't particularly helpful or polite, and certain parties were difficult to work with. I'm guilty of bluntness in my communications, if I look at my own messages -- I'm not perfect.

I think the barbed humor and direct, unflinching confrontationalism stems from the culture of our forum. Making the wiki an acultural place which is polite, intentional, and helpful to newcomers would be a good first step toward convincing GHers that it's worth working here.

Instead of directly jumping to criticism, sarcasm, or snark, we might try being inclusive and exceptionally helpful (though criticism has its place). Some users here are that way already, but not everyone keeps their cool all the time. We ain't perfect, but we can try harder to be...

Right?

[matt3o]

I believe I got what GH is trying to do with the wiki that I believe is something different from DT's.

I'm sure there will be some content collision but while DT is trying to be a mechanical keyboard encyclopedia, GH wiki wants to be a rationalized content management for GH itself. Did I get it right?

Anyway don't listen to what I say, I'm a jerk.

[Halvar]

Good point. Linking relevant forum topics is something we could do more in our wiki, too.