So in Bitches the other day, I had an idea - to have a thread, and/or some other place, to collect the good advice we Buffistas give each other. I'm kinda thinking it could be sort of like the funny stuff in COMM(A) and the BRQG, only instead of accessing it randomly, we could have some kind of index. It was suggested that we could make de facto tags to make such a thread more easily searched by topic by including something like !dogs or !prescription meds. Or perhaps someone (me, I suppose) would collect and index it elsewhere. How huge a PITA would it be to do, do you think? And also, how many people would think it a good resource?

I'm in favor of it.

Sounds like a really good idea.

How about a wiki?

I like it. I often Mark posts I find useful, but then forget I have them marked. No clue what the best way to do it would be.

t dupe

I've considered a wiki. My hurdle was the idea of duplicate authentication mechanisms. If someone is willing to recommend a package where it's easy to swap that out, or someone is willing to do the work to put B.org authentication into an existing package, I think it's a great idea.

Two separate authentication mechanisms is a nightmare.

I think a thread seems a good idea at first blush, and then I realised I need to get YA SFF recs for an 11 year old and I can't even work out how to search the thread we've got for that...11? Eleven? Fantasy? YA? Juvenile? Young adult? Our search engine only does 4 characters and longer.

Are you going to want to take the advice out of where it happens organically and put it into a thread, or COMM it and discussions there? I prefer the idea of maintainable articles, myself. Because an index isn't very searchable, and searchability is key. Plurality of search terms.

Just the authentication thing. It should be Buffista only, at least for edits.

ita, I think I only understood about a third of what you said. That may be the lack of caffiene speaking, however. I'm not familiar with the term authentication in this context - guessing that it's got to do with the nuts and bolts of running the website. Do I need to know more about it than it seems to mean "who is allowed to contribute"? Also, you may be picturing this as far more vast than I do.

I was thinking that an index would work because, say a few years from now I decide I want to get a dog, and I remember that bonny fides offered some guidance to someone sometime on how to judge a puppy's character, so I could go to the Buffistas Guide to Life, the Universe, and Everything, look under pets, skip past my own entries on feline nutrition, to find, among several entries from bonny on dog behavior, to hone in on the one I want. But I can also see why sometimes a whole discussion would be valuable - some issue at work for one that was so similar to an issue that another had yonks ago, that the same advice would apply. There could be a home for everything from potty training hints to gardening to dealing with in-laws and outlaws.

To the extent that I could grapple with any external websites, I'm afraid I was rather thinking something like LiveJournal (probably I'd lean toward using Dreamwidth) and employing the tags. A wiki would do very well, but I haven't the tiniest idea of how to work one, so if that were the preferred format, then we would need someone who has a clue about them to wrangle it.

When Windsparrow first suggested an advice compilation, I cheered. Specifically, when it comes time for me to buy a new vacuum, I'll be embarrassed to ask for a conversation I know I've seen several times over the years.

But, my limited imagination went only so far as a COMM-like GFY (good for you) thread where interesting bits could be copied and then searched.

I would hate to see advice discussions taken out of where they happen organically, not the least because a separate space would be much less dynamic and likely to be outdated as soon as the technical effort is put into adding something.

In addition, queries for one thing often spark conversations about other things, and losing that part of the conversation would be a shame.

Building a wiki, just seems daunting to a marginally tech-savvy me and I was taken up short by ita's mention of whatever comes to pass being Buffista only. This is a critical point to me for two reasons.

1) When I am pressed to seek the sacred Hivemind (and please don't think I'm joking with the honorific), my question/discussion is generally personal. If it weren't, I'd rely solely on google. 2) Ours is a unique perspective on the world and I'm, frankly, less interested in the opinions of those who are not us.

Having said all that though, I would love a place to poke around the captured bits of wisdom Windsparrow has suggested. I read a COMM entry once (maybe twice) but an advice thread would get lots of visits from me!

Great idea. Like Laura, I have so many posts marked that I find useful, but then I forget about it, and I can never find what I want in there either.