Should Handheldmuseum move to being a wiki

vcoleiro1

I was wondering what it would take to convert the handheld museum pages to a wiki which would work like wikipedia where everyone could add and update pages.

Rik, is this something you have considered?

I don't know whats involved with setting one up , but it would lend itself well to the handheldmuseum task of logging all electronic games and writing up details about them. Thats what a wiki is best at achieving.

Perhaps this has been discussed before, if so , forgive my noobness.

kisember · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:18 pm Post subject:

Although I'm not a HandheldMuseum staff, let me add my two cents as I have experience in this topic.

Wiki is easy to install and many people already familiar with using it. It is also easy to learn how to edit pages, so it should be a good idea to use it for this purpose. I guess it would grow rapidly.

Unfortunately it has some serious limitations. As it is a general purpose database it cannot handle game specific attributes properly. Lets see a very basic attribute: serial. Suppose if a game belongs to a serial, then each of the game should contains a reference to the page of the serial (where all of its members listed) or each other game of the serial. Now suppose that a new game of this serial appears, then both the page of the new game should contains a reference to the serial page and that page need to be also updated, or all of the other games need to be updated. Sooner or later it would became incostistent, and it yields a really annoying user experience.
Another weak point is searching. Would it possible to find all games released at 1981? Well, might be possible to search all pages that contains '1981' but it is definetly not such a list that collectors expect. What about refineing search criteria: games before 1982?

Wiki does not really a communty engine in such way as a forum. How could people add their opinion, memories and such about a game?

Let me share my experiences too. A few years ago I've read many comments here about how collectors eager to help Rik to update this database, unfortunately there was no way to edit the pages, but the only choiche is to share the info via the forum or email and wait until Rik has some spare time to update the site.
As I'm a web developer and a handheld game collector it was so inspiring to me that I've decided to create HandheldEmpire. It has all the features (and many more) collectors complaining about but guess what? When people got tools to achive their goal it became less urgent. Yep, a bit hars but I believe it is true. Obviously, it might went differently if we could achieve this under the HandheldMuseum domain, no doubt.
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www.HandheldEmpire.com: open vintage hand-held game database and collectors' site.

vcoleiro1 · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 9:49 pm Post subject:

Yes, your last statement is exactly where I was coming from. There are pages I wanted to add to , update and even add new games (like the Commodoor Dolphins) . It occurred to me the best way was possibly a Wiki

I see from handheldempire what your doing there, suffice to say Ive found a new site to explore . Can anyone be an administrator on handheldempire?

kisember · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:21 pm Post subject:

Rik · Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:44 pm Post subject:

blanka · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:18 am Post subject:

@ kisember:
What do you mean with serial? Not the number on the bottom do you? Is it more about series of games that belong together?

vcoleiro1 · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 2:25 am Post subject:

Sorry if I have upset anyone, I sincerely didn't mean to that. It was just something that popped in my head as something that might work and I was wondering what people thought about it. You could say I'm a bit of an idea's person - lol.

I know I can post changes, additions etc to the forums, but I thought that would just bog you down Rik. Especially when I'm sure others are doing the same. What I thought might work with a Wiki - if it can be done - Is that people could make additions , changes etc that don't go live until an administrator(s) reviews and approves them. I think a wiki can be setup to work this way and it would make it a lot simpler for you as well as getting people more actively involved in the DB listings. If you want total control, you would just setup yourself as the sole admin - or you could add a select few you have total faith in.

Anyway, it's just a thought. I think the Handheldmuseum is fantastic and that you have done a great job with it. Just would be great if there were a setup where people could help you out as effectively as possible

Rik · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 2:57 am Post subject:

vcoleiro1 · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 3:49 am Post subject:

Ah those bloody spammers, why do they do it. I've seen a couple of forums absolutely destroyed by these guys. Real annoying

kisember · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 1:15 am Post subject:

Seems like I constantly missused serial word over series?! Embarassed

Although I don't believe if wiki would be an ideal solution for a handheld site, if anyone want to try it, I could support with the data to have a good kick-start. The best would be someone with database skills as nobody want to create ~3000 pages manually.
I'm really curious how it would turn out.

On the final word, I'm on the Rik's side. I've made efforts to design the data structure that serves well so I want to make sure that it is used as it should be. The number of administratos not so much and most of them doesn't come day by day, it is stlill possible to track all the modifications. I've made a tutorial to lay down some rules and it also help members to understand how games related to others. If someone read it and understand why and how relations works then it became obvious that no general purpose web-engine (cms, wiki, ...) would fit well.
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www.HandheldEmpire.com: open vintage hand-held game database and collectors' site.

Tomasrg · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 4:47 am Post subject:

Hi friends, interesting theme for me here.
In my opion may be a Wiki isn´t the better way to manage a site like this, but surely another advanced content management system (CMS) will works.
I´m thinking time ago on make a maintanable and updatable site on Drupal.
Drupal is a high level CMS with a lot of posibilities and higly scalable.
Kisember has worked a lot on Hanheld Empire and is for me is the nearly site to my thoughts.
The problem always is the maintenance and the people who want to help to create the site and fill the data, pictures , etc.
I´m working when I can and investigating what can be the better way to make a open database for collectors. If anyone is interested can contact to me.
Thanks and sorry for my english is anything is incomprehensible
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kisember · Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:22 pm Post subject: