Hello all,
As you would have seen from the newsfeed we have started our own 'wiki'. I'm hoping that this will become a fountain of knowledge for n gauge topics and 'real railways'.
Maybe some of you will already have an idea on how to use this (it's the same as on Wikipedia) and will be able to make your own articles and expand on current ones. If not, there is a link below which shows a page that Pengi has made to get members started.
N Gauge Wiki:-
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page)
Help Article:-
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Pengi%27s_Quick_Start_Page (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Pengi%27s_Quick_Start_Page)
I hope it becomes popular and can be somewhere for us all to go for reference. :thumbsup:
Tank.
not a clue what wiki is or what it does :dunce: is it moderated or can anyone just post anything and thats it there forever.
:) A 'wiki' is explained here - http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Wiki (http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/wiki/Wiki)
It is moderated, but whatever anyone writes can be edited by anyone. :thumbsup:
Is this replacing the Knowledge Bank? If it's not then wouldn't it be a case a doubling up of the same info? :confused1:
The idea was borne out of the Knowledge Bank and is a way to tidy it into a more cohesive format :)
I would guess that once the Wiki is well-populated that the KB would eventually become redundant? ;)
Paul
That would make sense Paul
Having just found the new Wiki button on the top row. With it being a small button might it be an idea to bold it the same way as the search button, or even place it along side the search button so it becomes easier for everyone to find. Just a thought.
Thanks Jack. I'll certainly look into creating a bigger button for it soon. :thankyousign:
The idea of the knowledge bank was very good, but items will become out of date and eventually hard to manage. The wiki allows everyone to edit pages, and therefore keep links and information up to date. The wiki software also keeps everything in order and therefore easy to find (as although the KB is in alphabetical order, it soon becomes difficult to find items if there is more than one page).
Hope that explains things a little better. :)
Great step forward
The original Knowledge Bank was good but the Wiki should allow us to add better links throughout the forum threads.
Look forward to seeing it develop. Are there going to be guidelines issued as to what structure the info should take or a FAQ section ?
Thank you! We're working on it, but for now we're grateful for any new articles that can be written. :)
There is no FAQ as such but 'Pengi's Quick Start' guide is being updated as we learn more about the Wiki. I've just added a bit on images
If you want to add some content to the Wiki and are stuck then please contact us or send me a PM
Hi All
Also, if you don't like using wiki syntax, or even the inbuilt wiki editor, you can always use an application that can link directly to the wiki, and ormat everything nicely for you :) I use http://www.libreoffice.org/ (http://www.libreoffice.org/) , the free multi platform office software, as that has a wiki editor plugin installed by default. Very easy to use. We keep a wiki at work, and I use LibreOffice for any of my documentation, and all your editing is in a standard word processor format. If you're used to using MS Word, you'll have no trouble using the LibreOffice word processing component.
Cheers
Tony
Quote from: linuxyeti on June 11, 2013, 07:44:43 AM
Hi All
Also, if you don't like using wiki syntax, or even the inbuilt wiki editor, you can always use an application that can link directly to the wiki, and ormat everything nicely for you :) I use http://www.libreoffice.org/ (http://www.libreoffice.org/) , the free multi platform office software, as that has a wiki editor plugin installed by default. Very easy to use. We keep a wiki at work, and I use LibreOffice for any of my documentation, and all your editing is in a standard word processor format. If you're used to using MS Word, you'll have no trouble using the LibreOffice word processing component.
Cheers
Tony
Thanks Tony, that is worth investigating :thankyousign:
Etchedpixels has produced a whole series of pages of suppliers of N gauge products in the Wiki - :thankyousign:
The Wiki also has a section about the forum which explains how to use some of the features. The Book reviews have been transferred over and the Knowledge Bank is in the process of being transferred (although the posts remain on the Forum)
At the moment most of the pages, apart from the suppliers, are related to NSE and post-privatisation EMUs/DMUs (so you can guess who has been working on the Wiki!). If you have a particular era, or loco, or model of a loco that you are passionate about, then this is an opportunity for you to write about it. You can include some of your pictures too.
One of our long-term goals is to have a list of every loco that has ever been produced with pictures of the loco taken by our members
Quote from: Pengi on June 11, 2013, 08:02:56 AM
One of our long-term goals is to have a list of every loco that has ever been produced with pictures of the loco taken by our members
If it helps, I've already researched the locomotives of the S&DJR and have put up the results on this page. Feel free to copy it over for the wiki. I also have the data available in the original Excel sheet, if that's preferable. Not many pictures, but I guess it's a start:
http://www.ngauge.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesS&D/locomotives.htm (http://www.ngauge.historyfiles.co.uk/FeaturesS&D/locomotives.htm)
Thanks great - :thankyousign: Pete
Track planning software and list of example track plans now in Wiki
Quote from: Pengi on June 15, 2013, 11:43:31 AM
Track planning software and list of example track plans now in Wiki
Well done on setting it up :thumbsup:
I added a few bits from my own notes, so I hope they're okay. The only thing I couldn't find out how to do was to link references to the links at the bottom of the page. I just left a [1] instead.
Thanks Pete - that's great :claphappy:
I couldn't work out how to do references either :worried:- I think we may need a specific module to do it
I think you might be right. I tried copying over the scripting format from WikiThickie but that didn't work.
Would you be interested in building up a definitive list of N Gauge rolling stock on the wiki?
It's just that I have a few odds and ends of notes that could help to start it off, including a Graham Farish release of two different versions of a Coronation Class 4-6-0 loco under the same model number. It's something that I couldn't find any information about until I posted in the forum. Apparently the version I have is quite rare, so there may be other people who end up conducting the same information hunt in the future. I bet there are quite a few cases like this that a good quality list could help with.
Yes - definitely. One of the goals is to show everything that has been produced in N gauge with pictures if possible. It is a huge task so any help is much appreciated :thankyousign:
Actually it was a lot harder than I expected. I regularly set up tables in html, and it's a lot easier than setting up a wiki table! :goggleeyes: Anyway, I've made a start, and will get around to a few wagons and some scenery when I'm awake again!
The items on the list so far aren't in any particular order. I'll leave that up to you to decide on, and feel free to add any further columns for more information. Perhaps it would be best to divide the notes into production notes and historical notes (related to the real-life version). It might also be a good idea to include start-off lists on the other manufacturer pages to get them started off in whatever final format that's used on the Grafar page (just a suggestion) :)
Okay, I've added wagons, and done quite a bit of 'improvement' work. At least, I hope it's been improved :hmmm: I've broken down the table(s) into categories, sorted the locomotives into wheel arrangement and broken down wagons into broad types. If everyone's happy with the list format now, I'll be happy to get the same list started for Dapol (and perhaps some others).
I also noticed that some edits were made that apparently removed a couple of my entries (probably by overwriting). I'm sure it was accidental, but can we be very, very careful with data entry in the table, please? The format is a little complicated until you get used to it and it seems to be all too easy to make a mistake. The trick to doing it well is to use the 'Preview' button again and again until you're absolutely sure you're happy with it.
Now, what do we do about adding photos?
Well done Pete, I'll take a look.
You can upload pictures on there as Pengy and I have. Look for 'Upload a file' on the left.
Pete,
There is a section on images in Pengi's quick start guide. The key thing is to make sure that the images are 250kb or less. Ignore where it says you can upload bigger files - it is a lie :o