Outdoor Wiki

storl

storl

Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
1,607
I haven't been here all that long, but I see an awful lot of complaints about having the same questions asked over and over and then having to provide the same answers. Forums are great for discussion, but are kind of a bad format to share article type knowledge, so I thought I would try to help and installed a wiki on my site.

If you haven't used a wiki before, head over to wikipedia.org to get an idea of what it is about. Basically, you can post articles about something and then other people can edit or add to them as needed. I thought this would be a good way for us to share knowledge about fire making, water procurement, shelter building, etc. The only limitation I have is that it pertains in some way to the outdoors.

Anyway, I haven't done anything to the wiki after I installed it, so people have a clean slate to play with. I haven't even edited the main page. If you all can think of any way to improve this idea, let me know. Anyone can post or edit once they create an account.

I was thinking some good initial articles would be about firesteels, batoning, fuzz sticks, tinder bowls, etc. Good basic skills and knowledge that not everyone knows about.

Mods, if this is stepping on this site's toes, please delete this thread. I made it to help us share knowledge in a way that forums don't allow us to, but I don't want to crap in the house that has taught me so much.

OUTDOOR WIKI
 
We are working on that now. Plan is to come up with as much posted info here in BF, and on the web. Linking to articles with good info on subject we are all interested in, and then go out and try them. We then can come back, and post our experiences.

Take a look here and feel free to chime in with your suggestions.:thumbup:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=514974
 
Another nice thing about a wiki is that it is made to be searched, so we shouldn't have problems with unresponsive searches.
 
an outdoor wikki is a great idea. you could include everything from bushcraft skills to major wilderness areas to outdoor product companies. Knife makers, knife sharpening techniques... I could go on and on.

Alot of that info or at least enough to get you started will be here, on BF.com. you just need to compile it. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.
 
I can see some of the arguments had here turning into a battle of "who edited the artilce last." i.e.

Chopping... Why it IS (NOT) the most important thing that a Survival Knive can do

Why Magnesium Firestarters are (NOT) awsome

Charcloth is (NOT) your friend

1,000,001 uses for a cheap knife/sharpened prybar (including holding down the liner in a trash can)

Sharpened Prybars are for Sissys, and so are Moras.
 
hlee said:
I can see some of the arguments had here turning into a battle of "who edited the artilce last." i.e.

Chopping... Why it IS (NOT) the most important thing that a Survival Knive can do
Click to expand...

Yeah, wikipedia had a lot of those arguments before, but the new versions of the software log and show IPs and logins of every edit, so there is accountability. The articles are supposed to be objective, so hopefully opinions would be edited out quickly. I'm sure people would disagree on "firesteels are the greatest thing in the history of man" but it is hard to argue with "firesteels are rods of ferrocerium that generate sparks when scraped with a sharp edged object."

For those that have sent offers of help, go add some stuff. That would be the greatest help in the world! :)
 
People who make the "but anyone can edit it so it will suck!" argument generally do not have experience with using a wiki. It is very easy for admins to spot argument type edits and stop them.
 
Not saying that it will suck, just that it could be "an undertaking" in that much of wilderness survival/outdoor Fact is not much more than OPINION.
 
You know, you can still state opinions in such a format by saying things like "Some people claim that..."

Portray facts as facts and state all conflicting opinions as opinions. Let the reader decide which one they think is right.
 
Edit: nevermind.... misunderstood!
Hello everyone.
I'll create the Wilderness Wiki. I created www.funditor.org, which has become very successful, and think an outdoor wiki to be splendid idea. I happen to have about 600 edits on Wikipedia and one of my friends is an administrator there, so I have some experience with the format. The way it will be created, there shouldn't be an issue with "anyone can edit it". If you can hang in there, the skeleton will be up within a couple of days, and we can all pitch something in to get things rolling. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, but forgot about until right now!
~CanDo
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Scratch that! I'm a bit trigger happy you see :) I thought this was a suggestion that one should be created. Good luck with it, I'll check it out and contribute when I have the chance.
 
People must be incouraged to contribute... despite the fear their information might be flawed. That is how a wiki grows.
 
Ottoshot said:
People must be incouraged to contribute... despite the fear their information might be flawed. That is how a wiki grows.
Click to expand...

Yeah, definitely. I have seen people that only contribute when they see something that they need to fix, which is just fine. If people post what they know, others can tweak it if necessary.
 
I've bookmarked the site, but have a question. Doesn't wikipedia already contain much of the information that you'd like to gather? How is better by having a dedicated wiki?
 
Chewy1 said:
I've bookmarked the site, but have a question. Doesn't wikipedia already contain much of the information that you'd like to gather? How is better by having a dedicated wiki?
Click to expand...

Not really. Their information is more along the lines of what something is, instead of how to use it. It's like shopping for computer parts at amazon.com vs. newegg.com. Sure, amazon may have the stuff, but you won't find the super technical information that you might need as a computer guy that you would find at newegg.
 
I just posted an entry all about fatwood over at the wiki. I'm sure it is rife with errors, so feel free to join and correct anything you see that is wrong.

One thing that you'll notice is that I do not yet have any links in the article. Much of the knowledge contained in the wiki will not be present in linkable materials, and will be "how-tos" instead of encyclopedic articles like the ones found in wikipedia.
 
Anyone still interested in this? I noticed the lack of visitors, so I took it offline and was working on it on a home computer for a while. If there is no interest, I don't want to waste a bunch of effort. I made several script changes, and am working on content with some friends.
 
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