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Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:35 am
by Maximos
Hi,

I've mentioned this briefly in other threads, and I'm enthusiastic about doing a major contribution to MicrasWiki so that we have a true archive of the community's history and those who were key players in it. For a while now I've had an idea to try and catalogue Matbaa's history as well as my failed attempt at the Communist Central Asian nation, the Kazari People's Republic. I have however noticed that MicrasWiki has been looking a bit decrepit recently and I'd like to get a team together to rehaul it and make it an information base worthy of the community, which all nations feel they can contribute to.

Here are a few ideas I've had for Wiki development. Sadly my skills with Wikis only go as far as writing articles so we'd need a more technically-minded person on the team- perhaps Ari if he ever returns?

- Some kind of an agreement between MicroWiki, MicrasWiki, ShireWiki, AntiWiki and Batavia's Wikipedia to make MicrasWiki the main archive for backing up micronational Wiki works. For example, if someone writes an article in AntiWiki about the history of the Antican Dinarchy, it can be backed onto MicrasWiki and stored for the future if AntiWiki gets destroyed or deleted. As a community Wiki, MicrasWiki would be backed up every month by some kind of community appointed 'Chief Wikifier'
- A new set of templates to be added to make articles more customisable and professional- in particular the Wikipedia Infoboxes for Politicians, Conflicts, Treaties, Regions, and Cities. The Conflicts one in particular is a good example- there's a basic one for the Jaris War article on ShireWiki.
- Some kind of annual Wiki Week, where contributions are judged and rewarded accordingly by a Wiki judge. Prizes could be financial, something in the way of a medal, or perhaps land for the contributor's nation.
- Perhaps making a Wiki overview for an MCS member nation compulsory, and checked regularly by the MCS staff if it needs to be updated.
- Some sort of Wiki submissions board where people unfamiliar with how to use a Wiki can submit their works in a forum post and then have it formatted and put into the wiki by a member of the Wiki staff.
- A panel for judging submissions about conflicts, to examine any charges of bias in an article about a past war.

Someone has to take care of all this now that Spangle has left us, and I think it's high time we save MicroWiki.
Starting next week I shall be embarking on the arduous process of writing an article for the Circum-Reynor War and War of the Broken Pottery (Holzborg War).

Hoping there are other enthusiastic people out there,

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:39 am
by Craitman
Maximos wrote:- Some kind of an agreement between MicroWiki, MicrasWiki, ShireWiki, AntiWiki and Batavia's Wikipedia to make MicrasWiki the main archive for backing up micronational Wiki works.
Don't forget CräiteWiki too :wink:

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 2:17 am
by Andreas the Wise
There are various nations out there who have their own wiki (including Gralus, Nelaga, Natopia, Normark just off the top of my head; all of which have links in their announcement box to the wiki). And what I've noticed, at least for myself, is once you have your own wiki, you don't bother with other wikis because you think "Why do I need to?" Max's idea is good - if we all agree to duplicate articles onto Micras Wiki, we'll soon have a massive wiki that we can all be proud of. It shouldn't be too hard to do up a template box which says "This article comes from Wiki XYZ, for latest updates go here" and has a link to the original article.

The other alternative would be to do this with Microwiki instead, to reach out to that community, but I don't know how keen we are on that.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:06 pm
by Guido Zambelis
I can do pretty much anything technical for MediaWiki, plenty of experience coding templates etc. at en.wiki 8)

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 3:37 pm
by Maximos
Well, ultimately MicrasWiki needs to be something which over time nations will just have to use, because unlike their own Wikis it's guaranteed to be maintained and looked after long after they leave or after their nation dies. If we can work on a new layout for the website and forum in which the Wiki link is displayed much more prominently, then the Wiki will be a source of information for people having a look at the community's archives.

MicrasWiki needs to be the future, really. MicroWiki is far too broad in scope to be feasible- a 'micronational' wiki can include any nation from Seborga to Shireroth, whereas with a Micran Sector Wiki we at least have an idea of the limits of what we need to put in it.

And Guy, I'd be very grateful to you if you could work on a template for micronational conflicts, which would include small flags for each participant or participating organisation and a space for any propaganda pictures or maps to be used. Something like the conflict box in this Wikipedia page.
I'll start by doing an article for a small-ish war- perhaps the Ashkenatzi-Tellian War or the Mahoz Insurgency in Ashkenatza and you guys can give me some advice.

If someone could get brainstorming on publicity and possible prizes for best contributions in WikiWeek, that'd be great.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 7:22 pm
by William Danforth
Why don't you migrate to MicroWiki? It's an already well-established Wiki, with ready-made templates and whatever else might be needed, and as far as I know it's the largest current anglophone micronational community. Hardly anyone there knows about Micras or the MCS, which is why I think it's about time you guys went more public there :)

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:25 am
by Maximos
Thanks for the input William but the whole idea of us having our own Wiki is so that we increase our sense of community which has been so lacking recently and which needs to be strengthened. By hosting our own Wiki we also make it more relevant to us as members of the Micran Sector. Perhaps we should try and sort out an article-sharing agreement with MicroWiki instead, as I've described?

I have just finished my first big article, on my short lived Communist state, the Kazari People's Republic. Most of you probably don't remember it, but having articles on dead nations such as the Kazari PSR is in my opinion very important as it helps foster a sense of continuity for the Micran Sector. People looking at the Wiki should see all the nations which have come before them and hopefully be reminded that they're not the first micronationalists and hopefully won't be the last. I'll be writing an article on the CIS next, if anyone wants to give me some input on that (most of their forums are gone unfortunately).

Anyway there is one really, really important thing- we urgently need to change the security settings for that Wiki. At the moment you can edit pages without being logged in. That seems to me like far too great a risk without any concievable benefit- if Spangle or whoever's the Wiki admin now could change that I'd be very reassured.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:47 pm
by dr-spangle
Hey, so what do you want me to do?
Enumerated list perhaps would be nice :)

@William Danforth: I dislike the idea of that wiki being hosted on that free wiki host, it seems unreliable, they could change things, break, you can't fix things, change settings, etc, it seems unsafe.

[POSTBOX]
Factuality: Not so high, not a lot of proof on how that wiki host works, how safe it is
Opinions: High, i like enumerated lists, that's an opinion, wiki host being unreliable and not being able to change enough are opinions too
Joking: Said with a smile, but not really joking
Emotion: :)
Spelling & Grammar: High, maybe 100%
Research Sources: None
[/POSTBOX]

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:06 pm
by Maximos
Well basically changing the security settings so that you have to be registered to edit or create articles would be a great start- also we need a Wiki logo for the image in the top left-hand corner.

By the way, I've just finished an article on the CIS- it was the best I could do given that so many of the CIS' forums are down and the information is lost. And Spangle, seeing as you were leader of it until it ended, I hope you especially like it!

Basically, although there are some great articles on it, the Wiki is looking a real mess. There are articles unformatted, articles on nations which have been dead for over two years left without being updated, and far too few categories to file pages into. Off the top of my head we need a Communist Nations category, a Lovely Sector category, a CIS member category, a GC member category, and a Micronational Organisations category.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:25 pm
by dr-spangle
I have changed the edit settings for guests, I don't have a wiki logo, but give me one and I'll set it.

That article on CIS is nice, it might be worth noting all the stuff with sep at the end?
He removed me as admin after I won the election, then made a secret section called sector 8, with oscar's help I got sep's password, logged in, set myself as admin, looked in sector 8, it was empty, he was angry, he left
months later i email him, he seems happy with it all now, but doesn't want to return while graius was around, not emailed him since really.

I can't word that nicely enough for the wiki :P

also maybe a note that interstellar condominium had several citizens, every one of them being sep himself.


[POSTBOX]
Factuality: He did leave, I did use his passwords, I did use oscar's help to get them, I have changed settings, it's all most probably facts
Opinions: I don't think i can word that nicely enough, that's an opinion
Joking: Sort of a laugh about my uselessness at writing nicely
Emotion: :) and :D at your CIS article
Spelling & Grammar: Probably not great
Research Sources: None, could find some old MNN threads, but meh.
[/POSTBOX]

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:29 pm
by Colonel Vilhelm
We should revive the CIS!

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:31 pm
by dr-spangle
No.

[POSTBOX]
Factuality: None
Opinions: It's my opinion it shouldn't.
Joking: Sorta joking about, vilhelm's not seriously proposing this is he? :P
Emotion: :lol:
Spelling & Grammar: 100% except in this postbox.
Research Sources: None.
[/POSTBOX]

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:52 pm
by Guido Zambelis
We should make every effort possible to form a presence on MicroWiki.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:15 pm
by Colonel Vilhelm
dr-spangle wrote:No.

Joking: Sorta joking about, vilhelm's not seriously proposing this is he? :P
I'm serious! Only get the nations of TODAY involved.

Re: Some ideas for MicrasWiki

Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:52 pm
by Maximos
Well I've now completed the pages for the Lovely Sector and Gaia, and am finishing off the page on Ashkenatza.
Matbaa, the NAM and Xinguo will be the next nations.

I think our priority ought to be those basic nation pages- especially for nations which are now dead. We don't know when their forum hosting will end or if their owners will finally delete their micronational information and 'do a Jeremy', to coin a phrase. There were some great nations out there which need to be preserved on MicrasWiki- obviously we can't do every nation- and some were so pointless there'd be no point- but Kampong, Anthelia, Angsax, Karnali, Talamthom... those are just a few examples of interesting nations we can save the memories of. Hence why I'm doing Xinguo.

I'm going to also write an article on Communism in Micronations, so if Benkern could write an article about the USSC I'd be very grateful.