New stickies

[Mark in Vancouver]

After too long, the LOL species index is looking in need of an upgrade. A bunch of us are working on the gradual expansion and modification of the text, and we're hoping to invite all posters to add their experience and pictures to the threads. Ideally, we can then move the threads somewhere else or replace the existing species descriptions.

As we all know, the taxonomy has changed enough to make this a priority. This promises to be a slow process, but with everyone's help and hearty participation, I think we can make it work really well.

For now, some new articles will appear at the top of the forum as stickies. Please feel free to offer your opinions and alternate suggestions, with the purpose of expanding the information in useful ways. The original body of text might be posted by any of the forum moderators, and we will try to hone the initial text into something concise, accurate, and useful for all visitors to LOL.

I posted my recipe for Ich eradication, for instance. Alternate methods are invited. Expansion of the concepts presented are invited.

I think that the threads we build from these sticky notes should expect to be trimmed and placed, eventually, in a different part of the LOL site. If you write in, please accept that your work "may be assimilated" into an expanded piece.

And on the issue of authorship, please understand that each piece must be generated by one of the contributors involved. They will be shown as the initiator of the sticky/article. Hopefully we can develop a way for the article to expand and be moved so that the initial text is anonymous and the broader text is known to be from all of us.

Suggestions about articles beyond species descriptions are obviously welcome. And if you can follow the basic format we hope to present, anyone can write the initial species description text. Expect it to be altered and expanded, though.

It's a project that should work. I'm interested in hearing responses, and I speak spontaneously on behalf of the forum moderators. We need to do some housework. Lots of typing!

[helen nightingale]

Mark i think it's a good idea. i also liked your stick on use of the forum. it may be useful to refer certain people to at times

if we have ideas on species details, other bits and peices etc, should we sent the thoughts to a moderator?

hopefully it wont cause you lot too much more work if we all help and do our bit

[adampetherick]

I use another forum, corsasport.co.uk. Not sure if phpBB has the faunctionality but the software used on that board has a garage functionality

http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/garag ... owner=Adam

the name and fields in the garage can be moddified from cars to aquariums

There's also a FAQ section which again could be moddified for use on here

http://www.corsasport.co.uk/board/forum ... .php?fid=9

[mikev]

The idea is great, the implementation is unfortunate.

How many species are out there? 600? Having a sticky for each species would make it impossible to use the forum for any other purpose.

A better approach would be to create another subforum and put all the developing information threads there.

It also would be very nice if the species lifespan information is supplied where available.

[pedzola]

How bout a WIKI?

Everyone is familiar with wikipedia i assume?

A wiki would allow easy community-based editing. I could easily set one of these up for the group. I had one that never quite got off the ground.

You can see it here: www.fishiz.com/wiki

Take a look. Editing is open to the entire world for this particular wiki. So feel free to add somethig... theres not much in there right now.

Let me know what u think. I'm a wiki fan.

[pedzola]

PS - I have the domain www.loachy.com

I could plop a wiki on there for everyone to use if there is interest. Totally free, no ads, no funny business, just offering to help out the community.

[Mark Janssen]

The idea is great, the implementation is unfortunate.

How many species are out there? 600? Having a sticky for each species would make it impossible to use the forum for any other purpose.

A better approach would be to create another subforum and put all the developing information threads there.

cant ad anymore than that.

i don't find wiku usefull doesn't look nice and personely i would try not to let to many people to be able to ad information on the official site. in a forum like this were the notepad versions are and discussion about given info is possible. and when it's reviewed it can be placed by people that are trusted, are great in english or other languages so the site can be read by other people from other country's too.

or something like wordpress pages can be created with ease and modification can be made by contributors (hmm did i spell that right? guess not but i still hope so ) and reviewed by mods and after aprovel placed on the main website.

in all cases it's a lot of work and a lot of planning en choosing the right software for now and for the long run.

ps. if there is a possibility that articles are in more languages i have a dutch domain for loaches and i can redirect to it and can help to translate and ad my own articles of translate dutch in to english so someone can check for errors wich will be nessesary and it can be placed also.

[Mark in Vancouver]

The idea is great, the implementation is unfortunate.

How many species are out there? 600? Having a sticky for each species would make it impossible to use the forum for any other purpose.

A better approach would be to create another subforum and put all the developing information threads there.

It also would be very nice if the species lifespan information is supplied where available.

Mike, we're hoping to simply develop the basic text here and then move the whole piece and a thread composed of anything people want to add off the forum. None of us have a ton of time to devote to this, and the one guy who can shift things around for us, Jeff S., is a busy guy. So please bear with the experiment. Any points you want to add will likely be assimilated into the body of the initial sticky post.

[mikev]

Mark, it should take 1 minute of Jeff's time to make another Subforum. Really, this much of an effort.
Maybe it is possible to ask him?

Once he does, it will be much more comfortable for everyone, you simply cannot start the required number of sticky threads here.

[Mark in Vancouver]

I'll see if it's something he can do for us. Not a bad idea.

[sophie]

isn't the thing about wikis thta anyone can edite them?

[Mark Janssen]

The idea is great, the implementation is unfortunate.

How many species are out there? 600? Having a sticky for each species would make it impossible to use the forum for any other purpose.

A better approach would be to create another subforum and put all the developing information threads there.

It also would be very nice if the species lifespan information is supplied where available.

Mike, we're hoping to simply develop the basic text here and then move the whole piece and a thread composed of anything people want to add off the forum. None of us have a ton of time to devote to this, and the one guy who can shift things around for us, Jeff S., is a busy guy. So please bear with the experiment. Any points you want to add will likely be assimilated into the body of the initial sticky post.

i get your point but when having 20 sticky's in this forum of the 50 that one can see on one page is really to much. and topics go faster to the second page where they are forgotten sooner than later... thats why i think a "special" notebook forum would be a lot easier this forum could be only for members to so not members don't confieuse them with 100% true and reviewd information about the fish.

[Martin Thoene]

We want LOL to be pre-eminent in the quality and accuracy of it's Species Index descriptions. A Wiki allows no control over input or appearance and we would like each description to be of a standard format as shown in the existing stickies. It has to look good too, because striking pictures can do much to promote loach-keeping and ease species identification.

I've E-mailed the Mods with my suggestion of Jeff indeed creating a sub-forum, but each Species Description being locked and unlocked by Mods so that we can maintain strict editorial control over content and shoot for a consistancy of feel throughout the whole Index. If everyone adds to the thread as in the regular forums, IMO it will create a lot more work for us to integrate everything. I'm still waiting on opinions from the Mod Team as they may have other ideas.

Once finished, a description could replace the existing description, but all current content would be kept below the new standardized format description. This is because basically this stuff is LOL Archive and all relevant in some way.

We want to re-organize, get nomenclature sorted and up the visual appearance of the Index. It's all part of a revamp of LOL that we've felt is long overdue. The Index is very important as it is often how people first find LOL when Googling on a species name.

We want to capture people's imagination, inspire, impress and keep them involved. Ultimately, it's for everyone's good, but most importantly the Loaches.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE MY COPPERMINE SITE STICKY

Martin.

[mikev]

I've E-mailed the Mods with my suggestion of Jeff indeed creating a sub-forum, but each Species Description being locked and unlocked by Mods so that we can maintain strict editorial control over content and shoot for a consistancy of feel throughout the whole Index.

Martin,

You don't need locks at all.

The species description would be the first post in the thread and it will be automatically editable only by the thread originator and the mods, who can update it based on the remarks posted on the thread.

Nobody else would be able to modify the description itself.

This is your control.

[Martin Thoene]

Yes, I realize that Mike. What I want to do is just create a fully visually functional place where we can do the work, but other people can see what's going on. What we don't need (IMO) is the additional clutter of other's opinions being added to the thread during the initial build stage.

By locking it, we can avoid that.

We've totally proven during the writing of the book that a small team can produce a very informative and concise, accurate text by this method. Too many inputs at the early stage only confuse the team focus, and may likely create a less than flowing text. Continuity of quality is very important and I trust this team to produce something infinitely better than what we see now in the Species Index.

Once we have our base text, we may invite comment because at that stage, very little additional words may be needed.

Martin.