I have fashioned an updated version of our Proposal For The Creation of a Forum Wiki, incorporating the many fine contributions of the membership. Feel free to add to or emend the current iteration until it is ready for presentation.

regards,

Barry

Should there be a copyright/copyleft link somewhere in the wiki?

The proposal has a description of why we've done a "practice" wiki to gain experience in how it might work, but there's not really anything saying why we want to do a wiki in the first place is there?  Or is it obvious?  The main points being it's organized, easier to find information, and you can refine, collaborate, update articles and avoid all the off-topic, tangents etc. that come up in forum threads?   Something like that

why we want to do a wiki in the first place is there?  Or is it obvious?  The main points being it's organized, easier to find information, and you can refine, collaborate, update articles and avoid all the off-topic, tangents etc. that come up in forum threads?   Something like that

You might want to work these concepts into a brief sentence or two in the opening Proposal and History section.

Should there be a copyright/copyleft link somewhere in the wiki?

Simba, that's a good idea. GFDL would seem appropriate.

Will add something now

done.  I would have done last night instead of just suggesting it, but it was almost midnight

mike;

I've suggested major revisions in your text, as well as leaving an explanation in the comments. The tenor of your description of wiki benefits suggests the replacement of the forum with a wiki. This conception would never be accepted by the board.

Ken and Simba:

You might want to add a section concerning the copyright issue. I would suggest a few easy to understand sentences defining the issue, along with a suggested recommendation. probably with a link to the wikipedia article on the topic. A nice fit would be to place it as a  third subtopic under the management topic, just after subforums.

Barry, I took a stab at the copyright (really copyleft) issue.

My thinking was what if they ask "why do we need a wiki, we have the forum" so my intention was to explain where it had advantages over a forum, but I didn't mean for it to sound like a replacement.

I added the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) to the current wiki. I'm not atttached to this license in any way, so I'm very open to changes. However, I wanted to do something quickly. It's embarrassing to put a licensing arrangement in the proposal when we're not using it in the test wiki (which has substantial content). Anyone on the admin team can read our draft proposal even though it hasn't been "sent."

Thanks Ken.

Everyone:

Let me know when you feel the proposal document is ready for use and what you regard as the proper time to present it to the Forum Administration Board.

I think the proposal looks great. There is plenty of content here to prove the concept of a wiki, although you might want to do up an alternate front/index page with links to some of the more complete sections so anyone looking for the first time doesn't have to hunt around looking for the pages with lots of good content?

I looked it over, and I think it's good to go. I made one nontrivial change. The end of the Moderators/Librarians/Editors list item now reads

We may also need Reviewers who monitor changes and check for accuracy; these individuals do not require moderator privileges.

I thought it was important to point out that Reviewers need not be highly privileged.

Barry and everyone else did a great job. Now let's keep our fingers crossed.