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FrozenGate by Avery

Laser Hobby Wiki?

M

Murudai

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Recently I played a part in setting up a Wiki for a game, and I was just thinking that a wiki would be a cool thing for lasers.


Where as these forums are a Discussion Board, the Wiki would be a knowledge resource for everything related to the hobby of lasers. Here is a list of topics I think could be covered:

- Company profiles (little background on the company, what the company sells, experiences, etc.)
- Laser Model profiles (pictures, features, things about the model, etc.)
- Laser Science (how lasers work, etc.)
- Tutorials (write up some of the tutorials on here, the more tutorials the better!)
- Laws (everything to know about laws in various countries)
- Safety (discussion on laser safety, where to get the best goggles from, etc.)
- And anything else to do with lasers!

That's a few hundred articles right there if all those get done, and that's pretty good.

What do you think of the idea? I can set it up, but as my knowledge of lasers is fairly basic I'd need the support of the experts to write some articles :) That's the idea of a Wiki anyway, anyone can edit :)


So yeah, think this is a good idea? Too much work and no one will use it... or think it could become a valuable first stop resource for the laser hobbyists of the world? Dunno, send me your thoughts guys :)
 





I think it would be a valuable resource, but only if it is constantly updated and highly advertised. Also, non biased articles would have to be wwritten, and they have to have the typical wiki style of non biased, third party look to them
 
Those things will fall in to place if the Wiki has the support of the member base on these forums, that's what I'm looking for. I won't be doing anything without the full support of the internet's best laser forums :)

As for impartiality, that should be fine. I'm looking at a factual style for articles, not opinionated. People can make their own opinions based on the facts. If some people decide to abuse this, I'll just edit that out of the articles.
 
Great idea, I would participate. You would need to make sure people don't say biased things about companies.
 
Hi fellas, I'm new to the forum here but a laser wiki sounds like an excellent idea! A major reason I decided to join the forum here is to get more information about lasers. I think the sections on wikipedia is a good start, have you checked out what they have there? Anyway, good luck with the project!
 
Hmmm.... for some reason I could see it as one of those things that hard work goes to waste on. Pretty much all of the articles you can think of are posted on here many times. Figuratively speaking this forum is like all of the facts about lasers on wiki put into one, plus you can ask questions and get answers.

It is a very good idea and you can make it if you please, I'm sure that you'll get all the information you need from people here too. But I just couldn't see people going onto a wiki page instead of here.
 
i can see some of the members here saying "READ THE WIKI" to almost every question

besides that i think it is a good idea but there are a few people on here that are already assholes about questions and i think it would only give them more reason to bitch

i think it is funny that they tell people to go search the forum for their answers then bitch because old posts get pulled back up
 
I think it is a good idea, but very challenging. For some ideas or just general-referance, have you checked out "Sam's laser FAQ"? http://www.repairfaq.org/sam/lasersam.htm
It would be nice if we just had more of the best threads "stickied", there is some real gold buried in some of those old pages.
DH
 
NO noob is going to want to trawl through Sam's laser faq. It's a good faq and all but it's HUUUUUUUUUUUGE!
 
Excellent idea. I would surely want to be a moderator of some kind on the wiki.

I've been on LPF a few months now, and I have seen that valuable information is often buried in the threads, not important enough to sticky. Other information is spread in random places, and sometimes there is a nice person that tries to gather this stuff and asks for a sticky (which never came). And those threads that are stickied are often very outdated, disregarded and/or incomplete.

The wiki should not have to consist of strict factual, unopinionated, dry information, but can also consist of tutorials, howto's and user experiences. One thing that writers have to realize is that what they write is public domain. It's not a forum, so things forum folks take for granted don't apply. When someone posts a tutorial he's proud of, he should expect people are going to improve the tutorial for the benefit of the greater.

I can already imagine it being filled with pages that describe all laser diodes, usable laser hosts (the official ones, as well as improved ones if they can be applied generally), (LPF-)famous laser drivers, laser curves, optics, safety measures, laser basics and environmental properties, electronics knowledge, batteries, heat sinks, modules, and more.
 
I can host... I have a VPS going, soon to move to a dedicated, that is bringing me a little money from various online ventures.
I'd be more than happy to host it - anyone want to volunteer for admin? I vote Murudai. I can easily provide FTP and SSH access.
(Just a note - so far, the uptime has been 100% but there's some scheduled maintenace with possible network disruptions:
Start Date and Time: 8/06/2008 9:00:00 PM PDT
Completion Date and Time: 8/06/2008 11:30:00 PM PDT
Click to expand...
)

Question is, do we put ads on there. If so - do they go to my hosting costs (damn thing barely pays for itself) or to the forum (which has enough ads already)?
I'd vote either for option 1 or no ads.

Murudai: Contact me on email at cgeeky@gmail.com if you want to get it set up.
 
I've already got hosting for my own little collection of websites and that's what I was thinking of, but if you guys have better hosting, go for it :)

My life is just getting busier and busier. I was thinking of doing most of the work setting something like this up, but I just simply do not have the time anymore. I can certainly watch over it though and oversee such a project, but all the bulk work may be a bit much. But hey, many hands make light work :)

Any more members here think a 'wiki' type collection of tuts, articles, etc. a good thing to have? More support the better :)
 
I think this is a 100% GOOD idea. Wikipedia is generally always in the top 3 in google searches, and with the current lack of effort taken by the media to research the subject, I think it would be a great way to get the word out there that there are generally good people who love laser light. Not everyone wants to be a douche bag and there are good, general reasons why a person would want to own one.

+Rep...
 
I would totally support and help the wiki if it was made. Such a good idea, why didn't I think of it earlier!
 
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