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.

So, Windsparrow, what's an example index entry? How do you put enough information in the entry to make it searchably useful? Whose responsibility is it to tag?

an advice thread would get lots of visits from me!

Or is this what you're proposing? I mean, we already have topic-specific advice threads, so this is quite different.

By "authentication" ita means a single login that gives you full access to both b.org and the associated wiki.

I think. ita?

No, no. Misspoke. NOT proposing a new advice thread. Thanks for asking for that clarification.

I am only supporting the idea of a 'place to put our stuff', with thanks to George Carlin.

As for whose responsibility it would be to place the tags, I would prefer something like the COMM system we already have. If someone likes what I have to say about choosing a puppy, that person copies the comment into 'the place to put our stuff' and applies the tags that seem appropriate.

Accuracy or completeness seem minor considerations to me. If, for instance, someone wants a repeat of my advice about separation anxiety but cannot find it in the tagged thread because the person who put it there tagged it as 'problem barking', the new seeker is more than welcome to ask the question again!

My quaint imagination makes me think of this new comm-like thread as being similar to the index card file of ideas a dear old gran might accumulate over the years...or the 'Dear Abby' columns lovingly clipped from the newspaper and sent to the kids at college.

I know that not every bit of advice I offer is golden, so I would not want to be responsible for nominating my own material.

And, while I know this last point is specific only to me...or perhaps to some of the other service professionals among us...I offer what I offer here out of respect and deep affection for the community. I'm hyper sensitive about the community ethic around self-promotion and would avoid that at all costs. So, adding stuff that I charge a hefty fee for elsewhere would be both pushy and self-defeating.

I don't know. I can see this getting unmanagable pretty fast.

Yup, that's it, Jon.

I agree with you, brenda. The advantages to a wiki format are that the advice can be collaborated on and refined over time. A static index or copied over articles, less so.

The wiki things been on my back burner for a while, but the couple packages I looked at made my eyes cross. Our authentication isn't complicated--I was just not able to find one and excise theirs.

I share Brenda's concern.

Though I'm wondering if it would work by the same principle as COMM. When people get good advice or see something they would mark for future reference they could move that to a dedicated thread and include tags for searching.

Since the search function already picks up text in the posts you wouldn't need a separate tag function. You could just list the tags at the beginning or end of the post so they'd be readily findable.

I think a thread might work because people would do it. I am not sure of our ability to sustain a wiki-- we can't even rewrite our FAQ! (And I am one who failed, so I am not complaining-- just being realistic.)

A non-techy alternative might be a dreamwidth which we chose from a list of predertermined tags.

So, Windsparrow, what's an example index entry? How do you put enough information in the entry to make it searchably useful? Whose responsibility is it to tag?

I think I may be being a bit Giles-like, having a rather clear image in my head of an actual book, and trying to translate it to something that could be done online. I'm specifically thinking of things like:

• Pets, cats, urinary tract issues, cf. nutrition, by WindSparrow [link] [link]
• Pets, dogs, choosing a puppy, by bonny fides [link]

Carrying on with my previous example, if that makes any sense.

Though I'm wondering if it would work by the same principle as COMM. When people get good advice or see something they would mark for future reference they could move that to a dedicated thread and include tags for searching.

This also sounds do-able.

I'd be for the wiki idea, if there's some software that doesn't make ita's head spin. A wiki would actually be a better way of capturing Buffista culture than the FAQ.

In a wiki, any Buffista could enter information. For example, a Buffista could cut and paste a series of posts about nail polish into the "Nail Polish" category. Later, some compulsive editor Buffista reading about nail polish might edit out the non-nail polish parts. A third Buffista could think "This nail polish entry needs a list of the best black nail polishes." She could post in Natter or wherever, "I'm collecting the names of the best black nail polishes." Then people could make suggestions in the thread or go straight to the wiki.

The problems I see with its being a COMM-like thread are that some of these useful conversations go on for many posts and the thread could rapidly become a mass of stuff that's not really an improvement in terms of finding what you're looking for.