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Posted by: Fran Jul 27 2008, 11:08 PM

Hi all, and welcome to the http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=17876!

There are several open threads about the matter, but I'm putting it all together, plus some new things, in this pinned thread, so that everyone interested can check it all easily. This is long but hopefully informative and well worth the read! Here we go!


List of GMC:ers taking part in the WCP

Big thanks to the following members who are going to lend a hand on this task!

Ivan Milenkovic
Canis
Matt23
Nick325
OrganisedConfusion
Smikey2006

If I have forgotten anyone (hope not!), or someone else feels like joining, just send me a PM!



ORGANIZATION GUIDELINES

- We will start slow just converting reviews from the Gear Reviews Forum into wiki articles (Soon we will start doing more and more things though!). You guys can choose your own articles and make them into wikis, but you have to do these two things:

1) Write a post in http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=17949 (like the one Ivan Milenkovic has already done), showing which articles you are going to be working on. I strongly recommend that you choose just one article and work on it until it's finished. Once you finish that one, edit your own post, and keep adding the new ones you choose. (Ivan chose so many from the start because he happens to be the original writer of those forum reviews!). If someone doesn't know where to start I'll gladly assign him some articles, just let me know!

2) Once you have finished making the wiki, please send me a PM with a link to the wiki you just created plus a link to the original forum review. I will check it all out and if everything is fine I'll add that to the list of finished reviews, and follow the info to the mods of the corresponding forums, so that they can mark the threads as "done" and perform certain needed database tasks.

It is really important that you follow these two simple steps, so that we avoid having several people duplicating articles, thus losing manpower, and also to avoid possible database problems. And it is much needed to be able to keep track of things and work in a tidy an easy environment for us all

- About the amount of wikis & spected deadlines to do your tasks, I understand we are all volunteering here and that everyone will have a different amount of knowledge/time. Taking it all into account I believe it would be reasonable to ask you guys to produce at least one finished wiki per week (I'm sure most of you will make much more than that!). Again, this is just a guideline, no need to be stressed here!. Creating these wiki conversions is actually really easy once you get the hang of it, and they can be done really fast, as all we are doing is arranging things a bit so that it looks good in the wiki environment. We can certainly discuss these deadlines as time goes by and see each other's progress!, I certainly hope everyone to feel comfortable, setting an unstressful but constant pace here for the ones who lack much time.




WCP WIKI CREATION GUIDELINES

- Make sure you read the previous Organization Guidelines. Then follow the following simple steps!

- You will need a little bit of knowledge about how to write a wiki article. It is REALLY EASY, there's a lot of info about it in http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=9117, or you can feel free to ask me any doubts and I'll hopefully solve it.

- First and most important of all, check that the article you are going to create didn't already exist!. Sometimes the person that wrote the review on the forums also took the time to create the wiki review. Or maybe some other member of the team has already done it, so check the list of articles people are working on or have finished in http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=17949, that was already mentioned above in the Organization Guidelines.

- When you create your entry, remember to add the word "Review" at the end of the title. That way if you are doing a conversion of a forum review called "Boss DD3" you should title the wiki as "Boss DD3 Review", to specify that it's a personal review and not an objective article.

- Regarded that you know the basics of wiki article creation, you will need to follow the templates for each article, as doing a direct copy & paste from the forum to the wiki won't add certain information: most important thing is including the article category. As we will be starting the project doing Gear reviews wikis, adding this line at the start should do the trick:

[[Category:Gear]]

Again, that's pretty much covered in the post that I mentioned before. But easy to forget!

- Just do a copy and paste of the original thread into the wiki page.

- Take a moment to create the index box!, it's really easy to do, just mark each of the main parts of the review with these symbols:

== blahblahblah ==

== Blohblohbloh ==

And putting those == in front and after each title will automatically create the index box!. Adding an extra = will create a subtitle. Really easy, again, this is explained in the forementioned thread, and is even easier to do than to explain

- Add pictures to the wiki!. I would suggest using the original pictures, if any, that the original writer of the review included, to keep true to the spirit of his review. Again, this is a wikipedia, so everyone will be able to build on that later on, but as a first step I'd keep our job as simple as possible. If he didn't include pictures, I believe we should search and include some!

- Don't forget giving credit to the original author!, following the templates remember to always complete the field "Original Author:" at the top of each review. You can also add a simple line at the end stating "Originally by XXXX" if you wish.

- Create some links!, don't forget this is the internet after all, so we have to take advantage of that. Linking to our own related Guitar Wiki articles is what makes the wiki interrelated and cohesive, so if "Fender" is mentioned, link that to the "Fender" article we already have, etc. Don't go nuts though, just do what you can, someone can read the article afterwards and add some more links if needed. After all a wikipedia can't be built by just one person!

- Let's keep things simple by now. We are starting out, so let's try to convert as many forum reviews into wikis as possible, making a nice looking job, which remains true to the original. I'd suggest not adding new information or correcting mistakes as of yet. After all we are just converting and giving credit to the job of other member's opinions here. Maybe they can add/correct the info, or maybe in a later stage of the project anyone could modify and/or make the article better, after all it's a wikipedia. But we can discuss these aspects after we have finished our prime task: Converting the forum reviews into wikis!




Some Gear Review Examples

First example

I took Audiopaals detailed review on the Gibson Les Paul Nashville Junior and easily came up with this wiki:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Gibson_Les_Paul_Nashville_Junior

Here you can see his original review on the forums:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=12128

Second example

Ivan Milenkovic wrote one of the most read reviews in our forum, regarding Toneport UX1, here is the wiki that comes out of it:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Toneport_Ux1

And here is his original review on the forum:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=9152



Some Album Review Examples

First example

Here is a simple example of an Album review conversion, starting with this great Amorphis review by The Uncreator:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Amorphis_-_Silent_Waters_Review

The original forum review can be seen here:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=8886

These wiki conversions are very easy to do, but you should pay attention to small details such as writing the lyrics in italics and making them appear in verses using the <br> command. Just take a look at the source code clicking "edit" and you'll see what I mean. Piece of cake!


Templates

Here you have a couple templates which you can use to create your wiki conversions:

Gear Review Template
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Guitar_Wiki:Gear_Review_Template

Album Review Template
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Guitar_Wiki:Album_Review_Template

Soon to arrive a new template to make Concert review wikis! I will also make some finished wikis to set an example along with the templates. (As of now let's start slow and focus on the Gear & Album Reviews, there are plenty! )



This post will be updated with any new info/ideas/changes we might encounter, so keep an eye on it

Posted by: Fran Jul 28 2008, 01:08 PM

The first post of this thread will always contain the latest, most accurate information possible, as I edit it everytime we make any additions/ideas.

Just to make things easy for you guys to keep track of any changes I will post a message here too stating the new things, so no one gets lost or has to read the whole thing again just to find "what's new".

So, new additions are:

- A slight change in the WCP Wiki Creation Guidelines:

"Don't forget giving credit to the original author!, following the templates remember to always complete the field "Original Author:" at the top of each review. You can also add a simple line at the end stating "Originally by XXXX" if you wish."

- Plus I added some templates for the Gear and Album reviews. That should be enough to keep us all working for a long time, so don't start doing concert reviews as of yet. Plenty of Gear & Albums to convert!


Have a good time wiki:ing

Posted by: Nick325 Jul 28 2008, 02:28 PM

ibanez rg350mdx

Posted by: Fran Jul 28 2008, 02:56 PM

Hi Nick!

Glad to see you've chosen an article already

Just make sure you post it in this thread:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=17949

That's the place where we are all posting what we are working on! Always make sure you choose something that others haven't chosen before

EDIT: Just took a look, and that article already exists in the wiki! It's there under the name Ibanez RG350 Review! The Uncreator already had included it in the wikipedia. Always check that what you guys are about to write didn't already exist!

Posted by: Fran Jul 29 2008, 02:26 PM

New important guideline added as of today:

- When you create your entry, remember to add the word "Review" at the end of the title. That way if you are doing a conversion of a forum review called "Boss DD3" you should title the wiki as "Boss DD3 Review", to specify that it's a personal review and not an objective article.


(I'm going to change all the wiki review conversions we've done so far so that they all are presented that way, please remember to do this from now on!)

Posted by: Fran Jul 29 2008, 10:47 PM

Yet a new addition to our guide!

Some Album Review Examples

First example

Here is a simple example of an Album review conversion, starting with this great Amorphis review by The Uncreator:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/wiki/index.php/Amorphis_-_Silent_Waters_Review

The original forum review can be seen here:
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=8886

These wiki conversions are very easy to do, but you should pay attention to small details such as writing the lyrics in italics and making them appear in verses using the <br> command. Just take a look at the source code clicking "edit" and you'll see what I mean. Piece of cake!


Good luck!