Metafilter wiki debut

January 5, 2003 7:42 AM

MetaFilter wiki. "The main purpose of this wiki is to produce and maintain a general guide for MetaFilter" Yes, I know frykitty has created a FAQ, but this Wiki is pretty handy too.
posted by riffola to MetaFilter-Related at 7:42 AM (19 comments total)

i bent my wiki.
posted by quonsar at 11:18 AM on January 5, 2003

It's been mentioned here and here, too. I like it lots. Can I add a new page, or just comment on ones that already exist?
posted by iconomy at 2:42 PM on January 5, 2003

Yet another project artifact. Oh boy.
posted by TuffAustin at 3:04 PM on January 5, 2003

iconomy: Yes, you can add new pages as well as editing current pages; the full procedure is explained in the wiki. Basically it involves creating a link to the page you want to create (that doesn't exist yet) and then 'filling in' the linked but unformed page. Try it out in the SandBox.

TuffAustin: Project artifact? In what way?
posted by adrianhon at 3:38 PM on January 5, 2003

What about a Metafilter links page, for all the links associated with MeFi? The contribution index, the meetup picture pages, the wiki, the FAQ, etc. I know someone has a bunch of them in their profile page, but I can't remember who at the moment.
posted by Vidiot at 4:11 PM on January 5, 2003

vidiot - Riffola is who you are looking for.
posted by PrinceValium at 4:40 PM on January 5, 2003

Lucien has some interesting links. Not sure if that's the one you're talking about, though.
posted by ashbury at 4:41 PM on January 5, 2003

Thanks, adrianhon - I can't wait to try it out.
posted by iconomy at 6:40 PM on January 5, 2003

Wow when did Lucien start doing that? Very cool.
posted by riffola at 6:55 PM on January 5, 2003

Via the little dashes at the top of Lucien's excellent user page - these two comics by rory, which I've never seen before. Cute.
posted by iconomy at 7:17 PM on January 5, 2003

isn't meta/talk-filter kinda a wiki all by itself?
posted by danOstuporStar at 6:10 AM on January 6, 2003

Thanks, PrinceValium and ashbury. Riffola was who I was thinking of. I was just thinking that a Matt-sanctioned links page with a link in the navigation bar and everything would be useful.
posted by Vidiot at 6:53 AM on January 6, 2003

This is a really amazing idea! Thank you riffola!
posted by xammerboy at 8:48 AM on January 6, 2003

If it's Matt-sanctioned, that ultimately means Matt-maintained, i.e. if it breaks -- which is (as we have often discussed) a Bad Thing. The beauty of a Wiki, of course, is that anyone with good intentions and good information can add to it, and it is structured organically -- and unlike a mere list of links, easily navigable. As one can see, that can add up to a lot of information over three+ years of operation, and all good props to those who've acted as MeFi historians and collected them, there's too much for a newbie (or even an inattentive oldbie) to process quickly. There may even be too much for guys like riffola and lucien to keep track of! Hence, a Wiki.

I've personally added a lot of stuff to the Wiki over the last month, so that's my personal investment, as well as a give-back to the community (and maybe some sublimation of my posting rate self-discipline). Note, incidentally, that the Metafilter FAQ is important in its own right, and is much more of a guide to posting than the Wiki, which is intended more as an information resource and is better at tying together all the myriad things that MeFites put together offsite.

Thanks for pulling up those comics, btw -- I've been looking for them, and had no idea where to start! In my mind the first one had morphed into a remarkably clearly visualized Penny Arcade....

xammerboy: riffola only posted the Wiki. Thanks are ultimately due to its administrator, adrianhon, along with early contributors bshort and walrus.

If anyone wants to AIM me at lakefxdan, I'll gladly walk them through getting started.
posted by dhartung at 9:41 AM on January 6, 2003

Hey! That's not nice!

Grrrrrrr....
posted by ColdChef at 8:13 PM on January 6, 2003

Wait'll you see your entry ...
posted by yhbc at 8:47 PM on January 6, 2003

Where is Miguel, anyway? He hasn't posted in over a week. Should we be worried?

Or is he just hoping to lower his MeFi Contribution Index?
posted by Vidiot at 9:33 AM on January 7, 2003

There is no Miguel and never was. He was a collective figment of your imaginations and the experiment has now ended. Please go back to your homes and get on with your lives. Nothing to see here, move along.
posted by dg at 2:06 PM on January 7, 2003

Hey! That's not nice!

That particular wiki entry has had a dubious history of editing and re-editing. Not sure how it got added originally, but every now and then someone writes something less (or more) than complimentary in it, and Adrian clears it up again.

I've kept myself well away from Miguel's entry: I'd prefer it just to be deleted in all honesty (don't feel the wiki is the correct place for dissingdiscussing mefi members), but it's not my wiki, so while I'm happy adding stuff, I don't want to delete anything that anyone else wrote.

Hopefully I'll get some more time to spend on the wiki soon though (or even just getting on the net would be nice). By its nature, the wiki is perpetually a work in progress, and I enjoy its collaborative nature. Agree with dhartung that it's important to have both the wiki and the FAQ, because they essentially fulfill different purposes.
posted by walrus at 7:21 AM on January 8, 2003