UKBouldering.com

Improving the Wiki (and possibly bolstering income). (Read 15868 times)

slackline

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A while back I started structuring the skeleton to a Venues page on the Wiki.

I just spent a spare few minutes adding a few links to bouldering guides on Amazon for the Peak District and thought the site admins might want to consider setting up an Amazon Associates account so that any click-throughs generate a few pennies for the coffers (I did consider putting in Associate links for my account, but that wouldn't be fair  :hug:).

Obviously you may wish to approach other publishers to arrange more direct remuneration (e.g. Vertebrate?).

More importantly lots of the Venues need filling, I've provided a basic structure for most pages (if I remember correctly) so its just a case of adding a small amount of text for different areas and adding links to other web-sites and/or to Amazon (or other) places to buy the guides.

GCW

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Love to help out, Slackers, but I still can't log in.

The only problem with the idea is number of visits, you'd need to make that page more accessible.

slackline

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Can't help with the login I'm afraid, but  :agree:, although pedantically, would say its prominence as opposed to accessibility since its the same as every other web-page, just click/follow links but few people know about the Wiki at all.  Its not even linked from front page

Perhaps a link on the front page and in the forum headers when the theme is customised would help with that, although I reckon more work would need to be done to bulk it out before thats actually worth doing.

I realise that the revenue from this sort of thing is likely to be small in comparison to paid banner adds, but every little helps.

Filled in the Guides section for France with some Fontainebleau guide links (not all to Amazon though as they don't have them all listed).

Plattsy

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I can log in fine and I've had a look around a couple of times but I was put off attempting to contribute anything as I don't know what I'm doing and it didn't seem at first glance to be intuitive or have an idiots wizard. Any guides/tips out there?

slackline

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There is the lots of info on how to edit Mediawiki's (the particular brand of Wiki's used on the UKB one)

Once logged in, click on the "Edit" tab on the top right to edit the whole page, there is then a dialog box with the text in place and the mark-up around things.

Have a play around with say Glossary of Bouldering Terms.  Add some stuff, and then use the "Preview" button to see what it looks like, revise if its not as wanted, or just close the tab (or navigate away from the page) before saving if you don't want anything saved.

There are buttons at the top for inserting bold italics hyperlinks etc.  The concept is the same as BBcode used in posting here, in so much as you encapsulate the text you want to be presented in special format in specific "tags", although these tags obviously differ on the Wiki, e.g. to make something itallic...

Code: [Select]
''this will appear in itallics in a wiki'' by virtue of the '' and '' around the text

Can be handy (once pages are full of content, but handy to get in the habit of it) to put a short note as to what you've changed when editing pages.

highrepute

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As suggested I had a play in with the glossary of bouldering terms

It's a good idea I think, just at the moment it's looking empty. Some contributers are needed but it's hard to do so when I honestly don't think I know very much.

slackline

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As suggested I had a play in with the glossary of bouldering terms

 :thumbsup:

It's a good idea I think, just at the moment it's looking empty. Some contributers are needed but it's hard to do so when I honestly don't think I know very much.

Well, where do you live (N. Wales possibly if my memory vaguely functions), what about writing about the venues you frequent?

GCW

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Is it only me that can't log in?  Is this some kind of conspiracy?  :paranoia:

Plattsy

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Did you hear that? Hmmm probably nothing...

Cheers Slackers. I'll take a look at that and have a play around when I have some time.

highrepute

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Well, where do you live (N. Wales possibly if my memory vaguely functions), what about writing about the venues you frequent?

Sheffield. Although I'd love for it to be N. Wales.

I might give it a go when i've got a bit more free time than usual. I guess the key is - if someone doesn't like what's been written they can edit themselves.

slackline

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Well, where do you live (N. Wales possibly if my memory vaguely functions), what about writing about the venues you frequent?

Sheffield. Although I'd love for it to be N. Wales.

 :oops: My mistake I thought it was yourself who'd been doing some ticking of winter climbs in N Wales.

I might give it a go when i've got a bit more free time than usual. I guess the key is - if someone doesn't like what's been written they can edit themselves.

Go for it, a paragraph on say "Eastern Grit" would be a good start, and the fact that "anyone" (who's registered) can edit it is the beauty of Wiki's, over time there will be disagreements, but it should (in theory) move towards a consensus.

Serpico

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Is it only me that can't log in?  Is this some kind of conspiracy?  :paranoia:

No it's me as well, it blocks Bolton IP addresses.

Duma

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Sketchball??  :lol: :lol:

slackline

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Nice to see the Glossary starting to bulk out, liking the amusing style too.

SA Chris

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When I click the "create an account" bit it sends me back to UKB forum page?

Bubba

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You should be able to just log in using your forum credentials. I realise login is broken for some people though. I'm going to try to have a look this today.

SpanishJuan

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After Days and Days and Days of procrastinating about useful terms to add I have now been locked out confused as I had access before today  :'( :'(

Bubba

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I've changed a config setting.

Although it doesn't work seamlessly if I log into the forum I'm automatically logged into the wiki

SA Chris

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Cool, can log in and edit.

SpanishJuan

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just say's

Preview

Sorry! We could not process your edit due to a loss of session data. Please try again. If it still does not work, try logging out and logging back in.

 :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

SA Chris

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Nice to see the Glossary starting to bulk out, liking the amusing style too.

Just looking about, is there anything other than the Glossary there right now?

Bubba

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If it still does not work, try logging out and logging back in.
Have you tried this?

It's not perfect, it's a 3rd party bit of code that's written neither by mediawiki nor SMF.

GCW

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I just clicked on the above link and it logged me in automatically  :thumbsup:

slackline

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Nice to see the Glossary starting to bulk out, liking the amusing style too.

Just looking about, is there anything other than the Glossary there right now?

Not masses, but go to the front page and you'll be able to find what is there. I've written a few skeleton pages for venues.

Bubba

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SA Chris

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OK, started some blurb on Scotland.

If someone creates a heading for SA I can do the same

slackline

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OK, started some blurb on Scotland.

 :thumbsup: Good work, I think once content is added it can then be standardised (e.g. my thought was that the guides section should link to publications perhaps on Amazon so that site owners could set up an Amazon Associates account to get revenue from click-through sales).

If someone creates a heading for SA I can do the same

Done its easy though, just edit the "Venues" page to add a continent*/country in, the link will appear, but no page will exist until you click on it to start editing it.  Then simply copy a template from another country and fill it in.

* No need to add additional continents now though as with the addition of Africa thats all of them, I hear "Atlantis" is a bit damp and not worth the journey.

SA Chris

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excellent DWS to be had there.

Nice one slackers.

GCW

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Boring morning at work, I've made a start on a Lancashire 7s and 8s list as an experiment.  I needed to get one compiled anyway, so this was the kick needed.

People in the know please check for accuracy.  Ta.

Once it's right, I'll sort a list by grade- be too complex to get on that at the moment.

SpanishJuan

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I did try following the instructions of turn it off and on again Bubba, and it didn't work at the time but it seems to have caught up now and it works. If I could only remember what I wanted to add!!! ;D ;D

SA Chris

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e.g. my thought was that the guides section should link to publications perhaps on Amazon so that site owners could set up an Amazon Associates account to get revenue from click-through sales

Way beyond my capabilities, but feel free to edit.

Offwidth

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You should add 'Boulderer', especially since this site amusingly still regards the word as a spelling mistake.

shark

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Is it possible to add a an article in Word format to the wiki ?. I tried to do that last week but it wasnt immediately obvious how to do it apart from cut and paste to the summary.

Bubba

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It is possible to set up the wiki to allow .doc attachments but if you want the article to be indexed by search engines, and in a format that is consistent with the rest of the wiki, then it might be better to copy the contents into a wiki page (formatting them up with wiki formatting).

Usually, attachements are used in a wiki environment for things like images/videos/poi files/etc, i.e. things that can't be represented as text in the wiki.

If the content is an article that isn't to be edited, then the content can be made read-only to enforce this.

shark

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It is possible to set up the wiki to allow .doc attachments but if you want the article to be indexed by search engines, and in a format that is consistent with the rest of the wiki, then it might be better to copy the contents into a wiki page (formatting them up with wiki formatting).

Usually, attachements are used in a wiki environment for things like images/videos/poi files/etc, i.e. things that can't be represented as text in the wiki.

If the content is an article that isn't to be edited, then the content can be made read-only to enforce this.

Is there a help page on how to do this...I really am incompetent

I was going to post up an unpublished training article and maybe the published UKC ones too


Bubba

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It needs a change to the wiki config files - might be worth converting .doc to .pdf for those who don't own Office?

I'll post up in the admin forums :)

Bubba

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Love to help out, Slackers, but I still can't log in.
Is this still a problem?

If so, try adding "www." to the url of the wiki and try again. It may help as a similar problem on the ukcaving wiki has been bypassed this way.

GCW

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Seems to be working fine now, since the last tweak.  Thanks.

slackline

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What about linking to the wiki from the same area that appears on all pages on the forum, i.e. the line that has links to

    * Home
    * Forum
    * Help
    * Search
    * Profile
    * My Messages
    * Members
    * Logout

..and is located just above the line that tells you which area of the forums/sub-forums you are currently in?


tomtom

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Try it and see who yelps?

philo

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Quote
Lank

to lank To climb something utilising one's optimal reach. A technique often criticised by some members of the climbing fraternity who are jealous souls, usually with underlying feelings of inadequecy.


 :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

GCW

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Lank- The ultimate in technique that only a lesser proportion of climbers will ever achieve, the rest just moaning out of jealousy.

Serpico

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Lank - rhymes with  :wank:

slackline

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