Wouldn''t that be cool? A interface to all the articles at GameDev, plus all those cool forum threads that everyone keeps linking to when someone asks the same question yet again, and people could add to it so that articles (wiki articles, not articles linked to) could evolve and always be up to date. Maybe there''s already a game developer wiki somewhere else?

We briefly raised the idea about one year ago, it didn't fly far.

“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.” — Brian W. Kernighan (C programming language co-inventor)

[edited by - Fruny on January 12, 2004 5:10:19 PM]

This would be a bad idea. Unless you have a lot of moderators working 24/7 with this Wiki (moderators that can ban the use, or edit, of the Wiki) then you will get a lot of trash. This is GameDev.net.

If there are moderators, more then there are in the forum, and people can be banned from editing, then yes - I am for this Wiki, a wonderful idea.

quote:Original post by Boops
Sounds very cool to me, Wiki''s are pretty successful and it would make gamedev modern (and they''d at once finally have a reason to switch to php )

There are lots of wikis that run under ASP.

I agree with Aftermath.

if gamedev.net had a Wiki, it would end up being 1 good article combined with 1000 pictures of goats.

It would be like wack-a-mole!

Hit the good article, avoid the goats!

~~~~~
"One Reality is worth one thousand dreams"
Download and play Slime King I.

What about a combination wiki and forum?

Instead of threads, you have wiki topics, following the normal rule of WikiFormat tags, and automatic cross-linking. Each wiki topic has its main text, and an attached list of comments, just like a normal forum thread. Most users can only post replies as normal comments, but power users (staff, moderators, and trusted users) can edit the main topic text.

When a question is posted into the wiki, the question text will be put in the main wiki text. Someone will hopefully answer it, either by posting a comment reply, or (if they're a power user) by editing the main wiki text.
If someone who isn't a power user posts a good reply, then hopefully a power user will eventually come along, delete/hide the good reply, and move/copy it into the main wiki text (editing and integrating as necessary).

Power users (in fact, any user) would be encouraged to create indexing and cross referencing topics, if they notice a suitable set of topics to index.

A large difficulty is that it needs more maintanance (moving good replies into the main wiki text, creating cross reference/index pages, and so on).

I'm not sure that it would need much more moderation than the existing forum approach though.

John B

[edited by - JohnBSmall on January 12, 2004 5:51:54 PM]

quote:Original post by Run_The_Shadows
Right now it's fully available to any member of the community to go to the less-travelled forums to find good threads then back to other topics to post links. It just doesn't happen. I don't see how making it only slightly easier will spur much more interest in such a thing.

Well, perhaps because with a wiki, the only way you can create a new topic is to link to it.

Edit: And because with a wiki, things aren't time sensitive. Old topics aren't any harder to find or see than new topics, so if the link hierarchy is reasonably easy to understand, then you're more likely to find whatever has already been written about a topic. With the forum, you have to use the search, and although it looks easy, it can sometimes be difficult to choose key words which will get you the results you're really looking for.

John B

[edited by - JohnBSmall on January 12, 2004 6:11:03 PM]