New "Knowledge Base" category

LinearLineman

Well, the iOS muse visited me last night in the cloak of @infocheck. His thoughtful remarks clarified ( in my tortured cerebrum, anyway) how I think we should proceed. Feel free to hit me with a baseball and dunk me, but here is what I think...

1/ we collectively create a list of generic topics that span the entirety of what a beginner needs to know. My list above is a crude beginning,

2/ for each topic heading we formulate a list of all the basic questions applying to that topic that a newbie would need to know.

3/ folks volunteer to supply the intital explanation for each question. Whether they write it or glean it from elsewhere is unimportant. Clarity, brevity and examples or analogies is what I would look for.

4/ after an answer is posted initially members can have the opportunity to suggest corrections, changes, improvements to the initial statement. Then a final opening answer is complete. At that point these comments will be deleted and the thread will simply begin with a pristine and concise overview of the answer to a specific question. Then additions furthering the understanding and depth can be contributed. I am not certain about including questions people have to further their understanding. Probably it is a good way to stimulate the discussion. Funny, Ouspensky’s “The Fourth Way” comes to my mind. The Q and A format made it much more alive and easier to absorb a lot of esoteric material,

5/ what I like about this is that an ongoing discussion begins at a concrete point and it’s continuation by others can be of service to the advanced user as well as the neophyte. It can go as deep as anyone wishes to go.

6/ there would be an admonition when you open the KB category that posts on these threads must strictly adhere to the topic. None of the continental drift we so love ( many of us, anyway) in normal discussions. So the posts will always be a furthering of the knowledge base and not a debate that is very enjoyable but not very encyclopedic.

These are just my thoughts. I am not wed to any of them, but perhaps it can serve as a starting point for a more focused discussion. Thanks for your participation. It seems like there is sufficient approval of the concept for a viable attempt to be made to implement it.

See, @michael... less work for the motherboard!

Michael

...and bear in mind the wiki will be online soonish (think weeks, not months)

espiegel123

@LinearLineman said:
Well, the iOS muse visited me last night in the cloak of @infocheck. His thoughtful remarks clarified ( in my tortured cerebrum, anyway) how I think we should proceed. Feel free to hit me with a baseball and dunk me, but here is what I think...

1/ we collectively create a list of generic topics that span the entirety of what a beginner needs to know. My list above is a crude beginning,

2/ for each topic heading we formulate a list of all the basic questions applying to that topic that a newbie would need to know.

3/ folks volunteer to supply the intital explanation for each question. Whether they write it or glean it from elsewhere is unimportant. Clarity, brevity and examples or analogies is what I would look for.

4/ after an answer is posted initially members can have the opportunity to suggest corrections, changes, improvements to the initial statement. Then a final opening answer is complete. At that point these comments will be deleted and the thread will simply begin with a pristine and concise overview of the answer to a specific question. Then additions furthering the understanding and depth can be contributed. I am not certain about including questions people have to further their understanding. Probably it is a good way to stimulate the discussion. Funny, Ouspensky’s “The Fourth Way” comes to my mind. The Q and A format made it much more alive and easier to absorb a lot of esoteric material,

5/ what I like about this is that an ongoing discussion begins at a concrete point and it’s continuation by others can be of service to the advanced user as well as the neophyte. It can go as deep as anyone wishes to go.

6/ there would be an admonition when you open the KB category that posts on these threads must strictly adhere to the topic. None of the continental drift we so love ( many of us, anyway) in normal discussions. So the posts will always be a furthering of the knowledge base and not a debate that is very enjoyable but not very encyclopedic.

These are just my thoughts. I am not wed to any of them, but perhaps it can serve as a starting point for a more focused discussion. Thanks for your participation. It seems like there is sufficient approval of the concept for a viable attempt to be made to implement it.

See, @michael... less work for the motherboard!

@LinearLineman : my recommendation is to create a discussion in this topic with a subject line that says what the topic is and a first post that summarizes what information is to be gathered with a reminder that the topic is not for discussion of the app but for documenting tips/tricks/tutorials.

See the the topic I started about Audio Layer. This should make it fairly easy to mine the gathered information and move it to the wiki when it is ready.

[Deleted User]

@LinearLineman said:

5/ what I like about this is that an ongoing discussion begins at a concrete point and it’s continuation by others can be of service to the advanced user as well as the neophyte. It can go as deep as anyone wishes to go.

6/ there would be an admonition when you open the KB category that posts on these threads must strictly adhere to the topic. None of the continental drift we so love ( many of us, anyway) in normal discussions. So the posts will always be a furthering of the knowledge base and not a debate that is very enjoyable but not very encyclopedic.

These are just my thoughts. I am not wed to any of them, but perhaps it can serve as a starting point for a more focused discussion. Thanks for your participation. It seems like there is sufficient approval of the concept for a viable attempt to be made to implement it.

See, @michael... less work for the motherboard!

While I agree with many of the points in original post this was taken from, I would suggest the following for consideration:

1. A wiki is like a tree in some respects yet there can be connections to other branches in other trees. Strictly adhering to a topic I would think might be going too far as it could inhibit an adequate discussion of new branches or trees for the knowledge base. Nevertheless, I think the point of keeping in mind the goal here and trying to have new or subthreads is appropriate as getting too disorganized or broad in scope with a specific topic can undermine creating coherent organization.
2. Perhaps we might develop guidelines over time on how to create posts with a defined scope to address the issues raised in point one?
3. As with Wikipedia, I think having references would be useful whether they be websites, videos, or articles.
4. The benefits of a tagging system could help people to find what they’re looking for.
5. There will not always be consensus and some knowledge is more about options and preferences. Like objective knowledge, these more subjective forms of knowledge can also be represented in a wiki. This will allow people to choose from , modify, or mix approaches in whatever way they choose to rather than having to always come to a consensus on every topic.

LinearLineman

Just bumping so people can be aware of this project.