Forums

Posted: 12-06-2009 21:01 Post subject: Fortean Wiki

I've just created a Fortean Wiki called Forteana. Early days, but it's envisaged that the site will become a bit like Wikipedia without the non-fortean bits, and with less chance of the pages being edited by disinterested parties. It should be possible to make it a lot more detailed than the fortean pages on Wikipedia, and because it will be wholly dedicated to forteana it should be a lot easier to find what you want there.

This will only work if people join and contribute. Administrators and moderators would be needed. I have created the bare bones but don't really have any interest in dictating how it should be; I think that's best left up to the users. At the moment it is only possible for members to add and edit but once there are enough members and moderators to keep an eye on things this might change.

The site can be found at http://fortean.wikidot.com

There is a facility for joining by using a secret password and this password is Yowie. You will need to open a Wikidot account before joining but this is fairly straightforward. Just go to http://fortean.wikidot.com/system:join and there's a link there for opening a Wikidot account.

Posted: 13-06-2009 11:43 Post subject:

We've been discussing the establishment of a Fortean wiki (or Fortopedia) on and off for ages : there's a thread about it here. Bravo for finally getting one off the ground!

I'm sure many users on here will be glad to help.

Posted: 13-06-2009 12:43 Post subject:

I've signed up and will contribute a scan of the 'Escargot Letter' Wink

which we still have lying around. Very Happy

Posted: 13-06-2009 18:48 Post subject:

I've tried to set up the bare bones but, as you can imagine, with thousands of pages needed it will take some time. The cryptozoology section is starting to take shape, though most of the individual pages are still empty. It may be necessary initially to lift some of the material from Wikipedia so that it has some content. This could then be edited, corrected, improved and added to. The feeds section is handy; good to have them all in one place.

Hopefully, when the number of members increases it will start to look a lot better. The sites are very customisable for anyone who knows CSS so the possibilities are there for a really good looking and useful site.

Posted: 20-06-2009 13:43 Post subject:

Now that the basic structure of the site is in place and enough pages have been created to give an idea of how they are created and edited, I have opened the site up to anonymous editing. So this means that anyone can contribute whether or not they are a member of the site. This is also partly due to a lack of interest in the site, which is a shame, as I'm sure that the wiki could turn into a valuable resource. If, in a couple of months' time, there is still no interest, then the site will be deleted.

If you would like to contribute to the site I would ask you first to read How to Edit Pages at http://fortean.wikidot.com/how-to-edit-pages and then to take a look at some of the pages already created. A list of existing pages can be found on the Site Map at http://fortean.wikidot.com/site-map though there are a few pages even here which are still blank. A reasonable example page can be found at http://fortean.wikidot.com/con-rit.

There are now pages for a Fortean Timeline; so fortean events for any particular year can be added, and also pages for individual days, so, eventually, visitors will be able to see "What happened on this day in history?"

For anyone who would like to add their own complete articles to the site, but do wish to relinquish copyright and do not want anyone else to edit these pages, I have created a mechanism whereby copyright pages can be created; these are blocked from being edited by others. Contact me if you would like further details on this, or any other matters.

Posted: 21-06-2009 02:41 Post subject:

I'd really quite like to be involved in the wiki, but I don't really know how I could contribute. I don't feel like I know enough about anything to write articles, so is there anything else I might do that could help in some way?

Posted: 21-06-2009 18:57 Post subject:

Hi Lauren.

Any help would be good at the moment. I guess you could cut and paste some of the smaller articles to be found on Wikipedia into the relevant pages on the Fortean Wiki. The cryptozoology section would probably be a good place to start as the links for new pages are all already set up. This should be fairly easy to do, but if you need any help just give me a shout.

If you don't know how to do the formatting etc then I can always do that afterwards and you can just cut and paste the text in. Wikis are fairly easy to edit though with just a few basic rules.

I'm not particularly happy with having clones of Wikipedia pages on the site but at least they will give the site some much needed content, and I'm hoping that those more knowledgeable than I will amend and expand the pages, so that eventually they bear little resemblance to the Wikipedia pages.

If you don't fancy this then you could always add events to the Fortean Timeline. If you have any books or magazines etc and find any notable fortean events which happened on a certain day then go to the timeline, find the relevant year, and put a brief summary of what happened. This is very easy to do. A single entry can be done in less than a minute so its easy to do as much or as little as you want. Take a look at the ones already done to get an idea of how it works.

Posted: 23-06-2009 00:47 Post subject: Re: Fortean Wiki

Posted: 23-06-2009 08:13 Post subject:

Awesome. Thanks Vibracobra. I'll start on that tonight Smile

Posted: 10-07-2009 20:52 Post subject:

Having managed to learn the basics of CSS I have given the site a makeover, though would still like to improve the banner.

I have also added a blog at http://fortean.wikidot.com/blog:_start

Only members of the site can add blog entries, but for anyone not comfortable with actually adding or editing the other pages on the wiki, the blog is a great way of getting used to adding stuff, as you can just basically type your text in.

The site has just been made site of the week by Wikidot, and Wikidot were recently bought by Google, so I guess that's quite good. What's not so good is that the site has only five members so far, especially considering how much has been said in this forum about members here wanting a dedicated fortean wiki. Am even more disappointed that I am the only one who is adding anything.

Anyways, ideas for a banner would be greatly appreciated.

Posted: 11-07-2009 02:13 Post subject:

Posted: 11-07-2009 07:26 Post subject:

Don't be so hasty. I myself told you I had stuff to contribute, but it would a couple of weeks until I had the time to do so (and indeed, will be able to contribute next week.)

Things like this are usually slow to take off - we've come this far, so hold off a while.

Posted: 11-07-2009 14:42 Post subject:

Only just come across this: looks great, notably visually, I haven't had the time to read much yet.

Posted: 11-07-2009 16:45 Post subject:

I signed up for it, all keen, but can't work it. Sad

Was hoping to post our own Charles Fort newspaper letter too.

Posted: 11-07-2009 16:47 Post subject:

Likewise, I tried to sign up, but it won't let me in.