Introducing Demopedia: The collaborative information clearinghouse from DU

[Skinner]

In our continuing efforts to make Democratic Underground more useful for our visitors, today we are unveiling Demopedia, a collaborative, information gathering system based on the popular Wiki software. Demopedia allows DU members to create an entire encyclopedia of information on any subject imaginable. The pages are created using "open editing" so any DU member may add information to any page on any topic. Demopedia is available here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia

There is also a permanent link to Demopedia at the top of every DU page.

Demopedia is currently available as a BETA VERSION. We encourage members to log in and start writing articles and collecting information. We do not know how long this BETA testing period will last: It may be a week, or it may be a few months. Once the BETA testing period is over, we may have to shut down Demopedia for a while in order to implement changes. Anything that you add to Demopedia during this BETA testing period will be saved as part of our permanent collection of information. Do not be alarmed if we make changes to Demopedia or to the user database during this BETA testing period.

How to register to use Demopedia

In order to use Demopedia, you must have registered as a member of the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums before December 7, 2004. We have imported the entire database of usernames and email addresses from our Discussion Forum into Demopedia, but we have not imported your passwords. During this BETA testing period, we are not accepting new Demopedia registrations.

Instructions for logging on to Demopedia are available on the Demopedia Main Page: http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia

We think that Demopedia will make it much easier for DU members to collect and organize information on a variety of topics. We encourage you to go try it out right now!

-The DU Administrators

[IAMREALITY]

1. Wow, Great Advancement!

I look foward to browsing and seeing all it has to offer!

[berniew1]

28. Have people sent this to their Congressmen?? to the GAO??

[JD Lau]

2. A Great Help!!! Thanks!

[AnIndependentTexan]

3. very nice

[regularjoe]

4. Great Idea!

I appreciate your efforts and attention to the difficulties of organizing information in a discussion forum.

:yourock:

[truehawk]

5. Yipeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[intelle]

6. This is excellent!

The amount of information I have seen gathered in just the last month is astounding, but very hard to keep track of.

This will be a tremendous help.

Thank you!!

[regularjoe]

7. Oops. Posted twice. n/t

[Wordie]

8. Wonderful!!! Thank you so much for your efforts! This should be a great

upgrade to DU!

[Roger_Otip]

9. i couldn't login

it tells me there's no such user as me.

[Skinner]

10. We're having some problems with underscores.

Elad is working to fix it now.

[Roger_Otip]

14. thanks

it seems to convert the underscore to a space.

[jamboi]

11. Smart idea. Wish I was allowed to use it. :-( n/t

[Skinner]

12. Um, you are.

:shrug:

[jamboi]

13. My bad, I misread part of it. Cool. Thanks. n/t

[jamboi]

31. I got my password and am trying to use it but isn't letting me on. :-( n/t

[jamboi]

32. Thank you for the help mods! I was able to get in n/t

[truehawk]

15. Wonderful But I can't log in with my new password

[skids]

16. May a non-denominational higher power have mercy on us...

Wikipedia's main site has enough trouble with keeping people in line even on the most tame of subjects... and their regulars have got years of experience. I can only imagine the chaos that is going to ensue on a wiki dedicated to political issues. Hopefully we have some DUers around that have already been around the wiki block?

But it should be good for a lark.

Just beware -- keeping your text in a wiki when there are hostiles around can be a full-time preoccupation. Don't let it burn your time too much.

[Elad]

17. Thanks

This is only the Beta version. Eventually, the Demopedia will be integrated enough with our discussion board software that we can easily keep trouble-makers out.

[Wordie]

39. Maybe a "Demopedia Etiquette" posting should be planned too. The

moderators seem to do a good job in keeping things in line on the board, so probably will do the same in the wiki. (Is that the correct way to put it? Sounds silly, somehow.)

[dlaliberte]

30. "Excellent", sneared Mr Burns, contemplating world domination

I made a suggestion in response to the Madsen #4 article that we need to build a version of the article with linked references to supporting documents. A wiki will be an excellent vehicle for this collaborative effort.

But as skids says (I'm not stalking you, honest) there are an order of magnitude more troubles awaiting administrators of a wiki as compared to a forum system. The cut-off of Dec 7 for access is, I expect, a temporary measure, to avoid the recent flood of renoobs. Fine, but some system will have to replace that. I suggested slashdot.org as an example of a forum system with a self-organizing rating system that let's quality messages bubble to the surface, but I think the idea of a ratings system is even more important in a wiki with such open participation.

I'll have to check out this wiki and make my recommendations for changes.

[Viktor Runeberg]

18. What wiki software is it?

You don't have a help page yet, and different wiki software uses different formatting codes, so it would be useful to know which flavor you're running. Is this MediaWiki?

It's also considered good form to give credit to the folks whose code you're running.

[Dolphyn]

20. It's MediaWiki. See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Special:Version

[Deb]

19. How do we use the page for Image list and Unused images?

Can we store images like the FL "Our Leader" billboard there?

My DU profile is hidden, do I understand it correctly that my email address will not to available to other users on Demopedia?

Sorry to be so terribly ignorant.

[Dolphyn]

21. Suggestion: Add some useful links to the main page

The main page doesn't seem to be editable (by us, anyway), and it's hard for a newbie to know where to go. The only way I was able to find any content was to click on the "Special Pages" link.

How about adding some prominent links to, for example:

List of All Pages:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Special:Allpages

Categories:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Special:Categories

Popular Pages:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Special:Popularpages

(EDIT)
arrgh, what a pain to post the Popular Pages link because the forum kept trying to convert : P into a smiley in the middle of the link

[EarlG]

22. I've added those

Thanks. We need some people who are experienced with Wikis to give us pointers on this stuff.

[IndyOp]

23. Is there a tutorial?

Or an example page?

We need to start building our Election Controversies 2004 immediately!! It might help us stop going around and around and around on issues already discussed to death in previous threads. Not complaining, just looking forward to improving communication...

:bounce:

[EarlG]

24. There isn't one built in

I'm sure there's one somewhere on the web, try Google.

Meanwhile, we'll be updating the Main Page as we learn more about the way it works, to provide tips. We've just unprotected the Main Page so other people can help out with tutorial stuff.

Right now the Main Page tells you how to register and how to create new pages. There's also a "help" button in the top-right corner which tells you how to make internal links.

[Zan_of_Texas]

26. Yeah, that underscore problem got me too on attempted login

I didn't see a link to get back to the regular Dem Underground -- could you put that on the page somewhere?

How will malcontents be kept from erasing or junking hard work? Or, just inserting that one little bit that messes the whole thing up <wringing metaphoric hands>

[Karenca]

25. i couldnt sign in with my password, so i got a new one, and i cant sign in

with that one either!
Somebody help me please ? :))

[Roger_Otip]

33. i still can't login

it now tells me my password is incorrect - but i'm sure it isn't. is it to do with the underscore in my name. i don't mind losing the underscore if it's causing problems.

[Roger_Otip]

34. i would really like to be able to login

any idea why it tells me my password is incorrect? it's the same password i'm using now.

27. Great! Wiki is perfect for our purposes.

I was thinking of suggesting a wiki for info gathering collaboration but knew DU has SO much on its plate. We use wikis all the time in my work and, if used properly, they're fantastic collaboration tools.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Eloriel]

29. Out of curiosity,

what kind of work?

[Vidar]

35. Sounds great. Thank you, Skinner.

[Helga Scow Stern]

36. HELP INDEED!

I was all set to get busy entering some information about something,
but, having not the slightest idea how to do it right, clicked Help.

[Karenca]

37. i still cant log on SKINNER--HELP ME PLEASE!!!

du made me get a new password to log on, i did, but i still cant log on
says'invalid'
help please

[DulceDecorum]

38. Can we add 911 stuff?

Some of us have conducted EXTENSIVE research and would like to post it on Demopedia.
But I am afraid that certain other very vocal persons
and their supporters
might not permit these researched links and commentary to remain posted.

If you look at the 911 forum,
you will see that there is a group that routinely stifles discussion.
They are very mean and abusive
and we just had a perfectly good thread shut down
because of the antics of one, JUST ONE, of them.

Since these people will have access to anything that appears on the wiki
I am asking if it is worth the effort to post 911 stuff on Demopedia?

[Wordie]

40. I've not used wiki before, are we really supposed to jump in and edit some

other person's work? Should we discuss it with them first? What are the ground rules, so that there aren't unnecessary squabbles about the edits of material? I've seen a couple of small things, but I feel uncomfortable making edits.

Of course, there are different types of edits, too. I imagine that grammatical or spelling edits would be considered fair by everyone, but what happens when there is a disagreement over content? Are there DU guidelines someplace? Or is that part of idea of making it a beta - so these kinds of issues can be worked out as we go along?

Those questions aside, this looks like it will be very interesting and useful. Thanks again for it.

[Roger_Otip]

42. yes - i think that's what wiki is about

it should be like a cross between a discussion forum and a web site and no one should be too precious about what they've put up there - it should all be flexible. all previous edits of pages are saved so you can't do any permanent damage if you make a mistake - it's easy to back track.

the pages i've been working on are:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Exit_poll
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Election_Fraud
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Mainstream_Media

and a few others. all of these desperately need more content.

and under "wanted pages"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/demopedia/index.php/Special:Wantedpages
there are pages which people have created links to but which have no content on them yet.

41. Newbies want in!

Good luck with the Beta version. Just registered and can't wait to be able to use this information, so I hope you let us newcomers access the site very soon. This is a wonderful site and I am glad I found a "home" with great folks!!