And if we're really clever, someone can maintain an index post. Or maybe summarize a week's worth or a month's worth of posts at a time, like they used to do in some threads back at Table Talk. (Other people's threads, not ours.)

Oh god. Didn't we kerfuffle about that back in the day?

Oh god. Didn't we kerfuffle about that back in the day?

Yup.

No, that was digesting all of Natter.

Thing 1: I really don't see a thread working because it has the same problem as finding the same useful information in the actual useful information threads where it originally appeared -- threads are sequential, and I'm not looking for advice on troubleshooting my wireless dog at the time it scrolls by; I'll probably remember next week that I saw something recently; but if I'm looking for it 5 years from now -- or even more, if I'm looking for "does the hive mind have anything to say about thing X, with which I'm not familiar enough to come up with great search terms" rather than "where was that thing that Scola said about Linksys wireless dog networks?", I'm pretty much kerfucked.

Thing 2: Nobody (or no small group) should be asked to maintain an index by hand. Way, way, way too much to ask, and if the project is dependent on having a good index, it's much too likely to lose steam when one person gets busy for just a few weeks. Crowdsourced or nothin'

Thing 3: Buffistas only, because of What Jess Said. It's fine if it's browsable if you're not logged in, but no edits except through a Buffistas.org login. Single sign-on, and appearing in the navigation links or footer or some such place that it's integrated into the site. It has to be a part of us and not off somewhere out of sight if it's to work at all.

Thing 3b: ALL Buffistas. Dreamwidth won't work (aside from the sequential thing; the possibility of tagging somewhat fixes that but not totally) because we're not all there, and those of us who are there don't all have the same identities, and those of us who are there don't all have the same personas whether we have the same names or not because it's a different community over there and that's awesome but it's not part of this space. The Hive Mind Repository Of All Universal Wisdom should be available to anyone who's a member here, as easily as going and dropping a link back to a discussion. (We may very well find that some awesome lurkerbrarians are too shy to speak up in thread but would happily do their bookmarking in email public.)

I can see a wiki working. I can also see something like a rewrite of the bookmark system to allow something delicious-like, with public bookmarks and tagging and really good search. But please not a thread.

I can also see something like a rewrite of the bookmark system to allow something delicious-like, with public bookmarks and tagging and really good search

That, I could get behind. But I have zero comprehension of what that would involve from a tech or labo(u)r standpoint.

I totally love the idea of a Buffista Knowledgebase wiki.

I use pbworks' wiki format with my students, and it's incredibly user friendly and low maintenance. The creator invites participants, so any Buffista who wanted access would just have to have the admin(s) send an email invite or create a username. Super easy peasy.

I'm against anything where you have to have a separate authentication mechanism. We can install any wiki on this server we want. That's not a problem. The issue is having it be an organic outgrowth of this system. Something externally hosted never can be.

Even if anyone was going to volunteer to send invites out to every single registered Buffista, who's going to stay on top of that?

Oh, that's fine. I wasn't saying it was a better option, ita. I don't have a clue what b.org is capable of internally, so I was just throwing it out there. It's great if we can build it into our own space.