Fate of the BPL Wiki

[Ryan Jordan]

Hello Everyone,

Should BPL continue supporting the BPL Wiki?

The reason that I'm asking this question is that content development of the Wiki has slowed down since its initial launch, and I'm questioning the value that it might have to the BPL community.

Some options on this table:

1. Make the Wiki a standalone site and open it up to the public (rather than just registered users);

2. Close the Wiki down.

3. Keep the Wiki where it's at and increase our administration / marketing / development efforts to foster its growth.

I'm open to your feedback on either of these options and welcome new ones as well.

I would like to continue supporting the Wiki, but not unless it continues to have value to the BPL community.

[Dave T]

I'd say total conceptual overhaul, or, more likely, shut it down.

[John S.]

Standalone site open to the public to see what happens. And if/when that is done, delete the people section.

[Jamie Shortt]

Ryan, I was initially exicited when I heard about the BPL Wiki coming out. The idea of this user base collecting knowledge into one place in a collaborative manner seemed like a great project.

I know personally that I am amazed by how much I have learned from this site. This has comes mainly from BPL publications (articles & books) and forum participation. I'd like to see the articles better organized (much like the book did), but even more so I'd like some way to organize the wealth of knowledge being traded and developed in the forum's. I hoped the Wiki would do this. For example Richard Nisley's work measuring thermal ratings of garmets is outstanding and resides scattered in the forums. I really think a section in the Wiki showing garmets relative value and discussions on measurement would be a great add, but I don't think it is their.

So where am I going with this… I am extremely comfortable putting knowledge out as a forum post. I don't feel like I have to be an expert to do so, only a well informed poster. But for some reason I am not comfortable making additions to the Wiki. I feel like I should be "the" expert in an area to contribute otherwise I should not touch it. Now maybe that's the case, I don't really know.

I don't think going outside our user base will help, so many people just don't get it. If there were some way to channel the effort going into the forums into a better organized place like the Wiki I think it would be a winner.

I'm curious how others feel on this.

Jamie

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I never found the ambition to learn yet another markup language for the wiki.

I've tried to use the wiki, and just found that it required more effort to use than I was willing to put in. Richards posts were some that I wanted to add to the wiki, but gave up in frustration.

It would be nice to be able to take a forum post, and click a button to 'add to wiki' and then get a little assistance in the process of getting the content migrated to a proper location.

[adam blanton]

We've got a Wiki where I work and it's a blessing and a curse. Keeping things up to date is one of the more frustrating things due to change happening so frequently.

One suggestion would be to incorporate it more with the articles and reviews here.

Reviews

When a review is posted, I like the idea of being able to click a link to a wiki describing that product. Usually I'll end up searching for that item, finding it at several retail outlets… within a few minutes I've got so many tabs open my browser is on the verge of crashing.

Articles

I'm not complaining, but the search on the site doesn't often yield the results I'm looking for.

If I need info on bear bagging techniques, I get 20,000+ hits from the forums and over 230 articles. It would be really cool if I could look up bear bagging on the wiki, have a list of related articles, suggested techniques for different regions and some products available.

In a way it would incorporate more products and techniques with the wiki. I like the separation of items in the shop: Packing, Clothing, Shelter, Sleeping… and so on.

Corresponding information in a wiki would be handy. Maybe I'm describing more of an information hub. But, that's my 2 cents!

[Bob Bankhead]

Kill it.

[Jay Wilkerson]

I only use the Wiki for the quick link to the UL business and there products.. 2 cents worth

[Jim Colten]

(Slightly) random thoughts on the topic:

1) As evidenced by reaction to today's relatively minor BPL website changes and the reaction to a previous more extensive change, the collective we want to continue using what is familiar

2) The forum section of BPL are extremely effective at generating and delivering a continual flow of chatter that feeds the appetites of this century's culture … but the signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal and the forum is extremely INeffective as a searchable repository of useful hard knowledge regarding (S)UL techniques and gear.

3) The WIKI could become a much more effective repository but that'll require dedicated effort from somewhere. I'm not expecting BPL to provide that effort at the current subscription rate schedule. Point #1 argues against the membership providing that effort and the low level of WIKI activity indicates it has not been happening

4) Someone mentioned that it's a barrier to learn yet another another markup language. Very true. But providing a half decent WIKI editing tool or at least some examples how to markup a few useful article formats would lower that barrier.

[Ken Thompson]

Bury that thing out back. Been dead for quite some time.

[Marco A. Sánchez]

2) The forum section of BPL are extremely effective at generating and delivering a continual flow of chatter that feeds the appetites of this century's culture … but the signal-to-noise ratio is abysmal and the forum is extremely INeffective as a searchable repository of useful hard knowledge regarding (S)UL techniques and gear.

I would close the Wiki down (or leave it as it is) and focus all development efforts on improving the (really simple) forums.

The forums are an incredible source of information to which we are accustomed, and we are creatures of habit…

[Matt Mahaney]

Could the Wiki be used to make finding info in the forums more user friendly? I've always had a hard time with search.

[Marc Shea]

I think that the forums eliminate the need for the wiki. Plus, there are other sites, such as Trailspace, that provide a better resource for available gear and collected user reviews.

In my opinion, the strength of BPL is in the user community and the knowledge that is shared within the forums. As other people have mentioned, the search functionality needs improvement to enable use of the vast amount of knowledge already contained on the site.

I would think that better organization of the current forum topics might help as well. There is one category for "Gear" that has over 12K threads. It would seem to me that subcategories such as, "shelter," "sleeping gear," "stoves & cookwear," etc. would help to focus users on the categories that they are most interested in.

[Jim Colten]

The forums are an incredible source of information

OK … I've been biting my tongue regarding that but apparently my teeth have lost their grip today, he-he.

People often do not understand the difference between data and information. They are absolutely and very much NOT the same!

Data (plural of datum) are plain facts.

Information is data that has been processed, organized, structured and presented in a given context so as to become useful.

The forums contain a lot of data and relatively few isolated islands of information (Richard Nisley has been a source of several of those islands … and I have those islands indexed as browser bookmarks).

Could the forum's data be mined and organized so as to produce more information? Cetainly! But I doubt that BPL will ever have staff for that at the current subscription price and I see little evidence of members volunteering to take on the task (Chris Morgan's Trip Report Index being a notable exception!)

[Cayenne Redmonk]

A wiki presents a single instance of the information, and the edits that led to the current version, which is very easy to reference, and, very easy to search. It is a place to store information, not a place to have a discussion.

Searching on forums is generally a hard to use feature. Even the best of forum searches has to deal with the same conversation occurring over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again since the creation of the forum. When searching a forum, Is the first conversation the most relevant, or the most recent ? Perhaps the one with the most responses, or the one with the largest number of participants, or something else entirely…

[Danny Milks]

My personal thoughts align with the general comments above: the forums are the best resource and any efforts to improve BPL should focus on upgrading the search function and organize the forum content. The wiki duplicates the community's effort to share information via the forums.

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