Long, long ago I started a project to create user documentation for Coldstone since the docs they included were such utter crap.

It died a painless death fairly early on when I realized I had neither the time nor the dedication to see it through (plus I didn't really have the skills and designed the whole idea badly).

Now I come to you and ask: would you like a Wiki? I'd like to learn how to set one up, and I think it could eventually turn into a good resource for CS users. If people want this, I will try to get in touch with Beenox and see if they will allow me to post the CS manual (such as it is) as the start of the Wiki, and then everyone can take it from there.

If for some reason you have never experienced the craziness that is Wiki, check out the (url="http://"http://www.wikipedia.org")Wikipedia(/url). Any Wiki I set up would be significantly less cool than the Wikipedia, but hopefully I'd be able to work on it over time.

Anyway, let me know if you think this is a good idea or if it would be a waste of time and effort.

------------------
George the Flea
(url="http://"http://www.beckism.com")Beckism.com -- Good Stuff™(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.beckistproductions.com/beck/update")Web Development Blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.idolbat.com")The Idol Bat(/url) -- A college online tabloid

Soooo.... it'd be like.... some kind of dictionary for coldstone? Uh..?

------------------
I want to die on a rainy day...

be aware theere's probably osme opensource free wiki software...don't reinvent the wheel

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")The 2nd CGE Showcase is gearing up.(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 08.04.04(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

Evidently there is some confusion.

Wiki itself is open source. I am not proposing that I create such a system; that would be way more work than I have time for. What I'm asking is if I install a Wiki for Coldstone on my site, will it be a worthwhile resource (i.e. people actually use it), or will it be a waste of time, disk space, and bandwidth?

It would not be a dictionary. The goal would be to make up for the utter lack of meaningful documentation. A lot of good advice on how to get what you need out of Coldstone is here in the forums, but it's difficult to search things out, there's no cross-linking, and topics can easily be duplicated which is highly inefficient. A Wiki would be easier to find stuff in and would hopefully make up for the fact that Coldstone isn't exactly new-user friendly.

Of course, it would only do this if people actually submitted stuff to it and took the time to revise things that were entered incorrectly. If it just sat there gathering virtual dust I wouldn't want to set it up.

Hence my polling the forums. Would you use a Wiki?

------------------
George the Flea
(url="http://"http://www.beckism.com")Beckism.com -- Good Stuff™(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.beckistproductions.com/beck/update")Web Development Blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.idolbat.com")The Idol Bat(/url) -- A college online tabloid

I think that it would be a lot easier to start from scratch rather than try and improve on the manual. Some sections will be added to and some will be completely re-written.

------------------
Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com/network")M cubed Network(/url)

It'll undoubtedly be useful however i imagine new documentation might be part of the rerelease. Also bear in mind that the community is running skeleton crew right now, only a few stompers and staff and people who normally hang around at AmbrosiaSW so, don't be discouraged. As long as you can discuss each function in detail, its basic applications and its ins and outs its sure to shine.

As for the traffic limit, if you cvan keep the number/size of images in the design to a bare minimum i don't see you even approaching 400mb of bandwidth on a rainy day...things to cut down on your bandwidth usage;

ditching the font and other outdated tags in your template...i once took a page from 32k of text down to a about 3k just from eliminating inefficient code, doesn't sound like much but for a naturally massive multi-page format...it is.

consider using frames, the iframe tag, javascript or php, anything that will prevent you from having to physically include constant portions of a page such as navigation.

keep the graphics in general to a minimum, no one really cares how well you know photoshop,golive,dreamweaver,fireworks,gimp,flash etc as long as their eyes don't strain out of their sockets from disgust its a good day

remember tiling/small component graphics are your friend...make the freaking browser do some of the work.

if this isn't useful to you remember its useful to her/him.

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")The 2nd CGE Showcase is gearing up.(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 08.04.04(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

Wow, it appears I have been out of the CS loop for quite a while. I didn't even know it was off the market.

That said, I've read through several (long!) threads about the hopefully upcoming update. I will be emailing Beenox and, if Beenox is unresponsive as I suspect they might be, Ambrosia to see if there is any documentation in the works for the updated version. If there is not, I will work at setting up the Wiki, and just not really expect much action on it for a while. If there is, then I will see about communicating with whoever is responsible for that about whether a Wiki would be helpful.

Any updates on the Wiki thing I'll post here.

------------------
George the Flea
(url="http://"http://www.beckism.com")Beckism.com -- Good Stuff™(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.beckistproductions.com/beck/update")Web Development Blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.idolbat.com")The Idol Bat(/url) -- A college online tabloid

the rerelease is eing handled solely by ambrosia, the individual assignede to the project posted in the help is on the way or some such board.

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")The 2nd CGE Showcase is gearing up.(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 08.04.04(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

Ah, so emailing Beenox was more of an effort in futility than I thought. :rolleyes:

I shall email Ambrosia, and see what they have to say or if they can forward the question to where it will do the most good.

------------------
George the Flea
(url="http://"http://www.beckism.com")Beckism.com -- Good Stuff™(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.beckistproductions.com/beck/update")Web Development Blog(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.idolbat.com")The Idol Bat(/url) -- A college online tabloid

We pretty much all realised that e-mailing beenox was pointless months ago . Maybe, Ambrosia will let the community update the manual.

------------------
Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com/network")M cubed Network(/url)

Update: since Ambrosia never saw fit to reply to my email, and I don't have a lot of time to waste right now, I'm probably not going to work on this. Perhaps if the update comes out and people start getting involved with Coldstone a little more I'll try and get Ambrosia to at least give me the time of day, but as it is I don't see any point in pursuing it.

:mellow:

I think I have some auto install wiki scripts for my server. I'll try and contact ambrosia and see if they will let us try it.