20050323
Hi Rob,
This technical problem will not continue for long. We are upgrading to Pm Wiki V.2 and also moving the website to a dedicated server that will deliver pages faster. The error in display is not the fault of our software but are due to the non compliance of MS Explorer to internet standards. If you use Firefox (which we recommend) or other browsers that are compliant then the pages display properly. We will have a solution to "work around" the problem complete soon so that pages will display properly in Explorer. Patrick Michaud is providing support & hosting of our wiki and he is the developer of the wiki software that we are using.
Many wiki have just one "space" where everyone works together. However we want to provide individuals the option to also build their own "wiki group" that can be used for personal interactions with the global wiki community. Also, we can build teams that share a wiki group and in this space (this could be for an enterprise or for a project) there can be lots of details developed that are particular to that project and don't really fit very easily into the collective space where we work together to build up a knowledge base about solaroof methods. The fact that we have these subgroups will keep the main workspace from being overwhelmed with details and communications that involve a particular wiki group. For example Ed and I are working together (others can join in) on the Eco Sphere project. Quite a few pages already exist and they are located within a WikiGroup called Eco Sphere - this is the Homepage of the group. Each Wiki Group can have it's own navigation bar (on the left) and if you want to list all the pages in a group just click on Recent Changes. That gives you only the pages that are within the group.
The Profiles group consists of only Profiles pages - one for every registered member. We don't create other kinds of pages in this group. A Profiles page is the "contact page" for members and we can also leave members personal messages at this page (by adding text at the bottom of the page) and the top of the page can have a link to a member's personal wiki group that has a Homepage name of: YourName/YourName. Pages in this group are "yours" rather than belonging to the community. Most of your pages will be created with a calendar feature - like a blog or web journal. We are still working on getting that feature working in the new version of the Pm Wiki software. It will all work out fine with a little time. I am quite attached to my Log. At the moment it is called Solaroofguy Log but I will change that so that my log is simply the homepage of my personal wiki group. I will need help from Andres to get this sorted out but I was waiting for the migration to the new platform to be completed before taking that next step.
You will find almost daily Log entries at my personal wiki. If I was to post them all at this forum I think it would be wrong. If we all used this forum as a blog then there would be an overload - so I am suggesting that we can do that at our Your Name personal space (remember that this is not a private space) using the calendar log feature. If I had a personal Sola Roof Project I would also use my personal wiki to let people know what is happening and how it is constructed as well as details of operation. A tested system that works well can be used to create information for the entire community to use as a pattern by bring this information into a section of the Sola Roof group, which is our main collaborative group. I am not saying that you cannot put up "seed pages" in the Sola Roof space. It is just that at our wiki you have other alternatives to work first in smaller teams or take a personal approach within your own project space.
This flexibility also makes for some complexity. It takes a bit of time to understand the powerful capability of a wiki and Pm Wiki is not as "structured" as many other wiki. I find that this makes it more easily molded to a vision of what it could become - our implementation has a freedom to explore all possibilities. I hope that we can begin to collaborate closely with the developers of Firefox to make a truly "browser based" implementation possible and where a standard email edit window in Thunderbird will be used to edit our wiki pages.
The right sidebar was created to make more navigation assistance that is interactive with the page (and group) that you are visiting. Navigating from group to group will also be easier. Those who create and maintain wiki groups should also customize the left sidebar (which is only for that group) so that it is easier to navigate the pages within the group. So I will conclude by saying that there is a great potential for improvement and we are just beginning (one year old) to understand the potential and to build a team that can support the further development of our collaborative environment. There is no rush - a slower development will let the site evolve. Except for this flaw on the display, I can say that I have received many complements about this wiki. You can see it right now in the Firefox Browser.
Thanks for your input, Rick
Rob wrote:
Hi there. Don't know when this problem first surfaced (I haven't followed the site too closely as i find it confusing to navigate) but...
Most of the pages have the main body of the page pushed down below the menu (IE 5?). When you fist open the page, you don't see any text and think there is nothng there except the menu.
Clicking on most of the links have the same issue. There are a couple of pages that work corrctly. One of these is the MEMBER ACTIVITY link under the header SOLA ROOF COMMUNITY. You shoud be able to use that page to determine why the others don't display properly.
Good luck and have fun! Rob
24 March 2005
- 00:45 by Solaroofguy
- The MEMBER ACTIVITY link takes you to the Recent Changes page of the Profiles group, which is the only group that still has the 2 column page. The IE display problem is connected with an error on how 3 column css pages display and all other groups in the wiki have been converted to 3 columns and so manifest the problem - but only in IE. It is a pain that we must work around the non compliance of IE.