Steve Pavlina Community Wiki (idea)

[Daffy Duck]

Just throwing this out there for feedback.

An idea I had a while ago was for a Steve Pavlina community wiki. It's basically a wiki where members of the community can go and create a mutual web site together. It's very easy to edit and use, just like this forum. We can post information about ourselves, each other, memorable threads, etc. There is no central moderator -- everyone can see what everyone else did and everyone moderates each other. The only thing admin(s) do is activate or deactivate accounts. Only members of the forum could have an account for the wiki.

If a certain member continually causes havoc, then their wiki account is removed. This may sound like a recipe for disaster, but it actually worked out wonderfully for an old video game community I was a part of years ago when I was a teenager. Even though some members didn't get along, everyone in our community more or less respected the wiki information and didn't mess with it. It was a great experiment for the leadership concept of "power WITH instead of power OVER", which is something I was reading about in Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch at the time. It helped a lot of members grow closer, work together, and preserve interesting and funny (to us) things that may had been forgotten with time. Many of these members I'm still friends with.

I think this could be a useful resource. We can link to forum threads that contain key information and collaborate on brand new pages about all sorts of topics. We could combine our knowledge on shared articles.

If anyone would like to see an example, please PM me and I'll send you a link to the old wiki I mentioned. I'd prefer this link to not be shared publicly, hence the PM.

Let me know what you think. I asked Steve about this first and he suggested I ask everyone what they think.

Edit: I just saw now that a member named Keith pitched a similar idea back in 2008. There was some concern about the amount of time needed for moderating it. That's a valid concern and something to consider, but I'd like to note that my experience doing it with a bunch of video game playing teenagers was very good, lol.

[bluedragon]

Good idea! I would be up for it and I would be glad to contribute with what I can.

As for the recipe, isn't that pretty much what Wikipedia does? I know there are moderators there, but there, anyone can write or change stuff, so the danger is also much higher. I think this would work.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by bluedragon

As for the recipe, isn't that pretty much what Wikipedia does?

Not exactly. Wikipedia lets anonymous people make edits, but they have moderators as well. Some people are unable to make useful edits to some pages, because the moderators don't like it. It's very much a power OVER kind of thing, with some moderator groups being quite hard to work with (so I've heard).

With new wikis, some people wonder "where to start?" On the wiki I had, everyone started with their member profiles. I started with a template and some others copied my style, while others developed their own. We'd share information about ourselves and filled out a member list. Some people shared more than others. Some posted pictures, some posted drawings, some posted no images.

After that, a section called "Memorable Threads" was made, and everyone started posting links to major threads that we didn't want to see forgotten.

It worked very well for our membership. We had thousands of members, but less than 50 "very active" members.

[joyfulgrowth]

I'd keep in mind that personal development might be a more controversial topic than video gaming.

That is, I would put special attention on supporting people to understand the concept of power with, co-creating etc. before they can post.

In the wikis I know that "work", people's focus really is on contributing to something bigger than themselves.

In the ones where it doesn't work so well, it seems to be about being right, proving that I am right, informing the world about what really is the truth about subject X. That's energy-draining and frustrating for all.

[bright]

I don't really see a point in this.

[Daffy Duck]

Hi Bright,

I explained some possible benefits in the original post. You're a new member... imagine if there was a place where you could see what other members recommended to read on the forum. Of course, there could just be a sticky topic for that...

The wiki worked out very well for another community so I'm pitching the idea here. It might not be a good fit for this forum, but I don't know, so that's why I'm asking for feedback.

It's also something that crosses my mind every so often. Now that I have it written down here, I can get it out of my head!!

[brendannz]

Sounds a fun idea

[Daffy Duck]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I don't think I'll further pursue this idea for now, as it seems there isn't a strong interest. When I envision it in my head, it is a great resource for the forum. Steve mentioned that future versions of the vBulletin forum have a wiki built-in, so maybe the idea will take off then. Or maybe not.

[James81]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I don't think I'll further pursue this idea for now, as it seems there isn't a strong interest. When I envision it in my head, it is a great resource for the forum. Steve mentioned that future versions of the vBulletin forum have a wiki built-in, so maybe the idea will take off then. Or maybe not.

We should talk him into buying the blog add-on for vbulletin. That would be pretty cool in a forum like this methinks.

[yoopersmith]

I would contribute to /read a wiki...I like wiki's because you tap into many more points of view and organically come to a creative collective consenus.

[jendoe]

Daffy Duck -

I've been thinking about this (read it earlier today).

I don't know if I'd be interested in a wiki, it feels a bit removed from the forums to me. It feels weird to set up a place to talk about the forums (as opposed to just doing things here, for example.)

BUT! This and another post I saw sparked an idea...

What about phone meetings?

I *think* there may be places to get free (?) conference call type numbers on line. People who are interested in a Steve-ish-topic (*cough* POWER! *cough!*) could call in and do a big old meet and chat.

Maybe?

I'd love the chance to actually *talk* to people, but it may be a bit random, disorganized, or difficult to get a word in depending on the size/makeup of the crowd.

I don't know, it's not really what you were asking about... but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

There's some part of me that thinks it would be really cool - since we're all far away and can't just meet up at the local coffee shop - to get together and actually TALK rather than type

???

[Melchior]

I'm not so sure what a wiki page would do for these things. after all, everyone here generally has their own opinions on the various topics at hand which would then lead to sparse static content, or at least, many pages would find themselves holding a controversial disclaimer. I think joyfulgrowth makes a good point in this respect.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by jendoe

Daffy Duck -

What about phone meetings?

I don't know, it's not really what you were asking about... but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

There's some part of me that thinks it would be really cool - since we're all far away and can't just meet up at the local coffee shop - to get together and actually TALK rather than type

It's definitely a good idea. I think we could use the free TinyChat.com as a simple way to talk over voice and/or video. Skype also works.

Now all it takes is for someone to create the room(s), set a date and time, and tell everyone to be there.

[seeker5]

If this is something you guys are interested, maybe you guys can do it on another site?

I haven't talked to Steve about it, so I have no idea of what his interest in this is, but my guess is that he isn't going to want to spend time on managing something like this and dealing with any of these issues if it became an official part of this site.

So if he's not open to this, why not build a parallel site that links to threads in this forum? I don't think that's against the rules or against the spirit of what Steve wants here, and it could be quite helpful.

[Daffy Duck]

Originally Posted by seeker5

So if he's not open to this, why not build a parallel site that links to threads in this forum? I don't think that's against the rules or against the spirit of what Steve wants here, and it could be quite helpful.

I've already talked to Steve about it. I was actually never imagining it as being a part of the official site, or under Steve's responsibility to take care of. I could have handled the technical aspect of it.

The more I've thought about it, the more I think it wouldn't work very well for a community like this, so (at least for now) I've lost interest in pursuing the wiki idea. God knows I have enough other projects I'm working on anyway.

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by Daffy Duck

I've already talked to Steve about it. I was actually never imagining it as being a part of the official site, or under Steve's responsibility to take care of. I could have handled the technical aspect of it.

Oh, what did Steve say about it?

[Daffy Duck]

He said, "Feel free to discuss it to see what people think."

[Brutha]

How about simply starting a wiki about personal development yourself? It doesn't have to be a Steve wiki

[Daffy Duck]

A personal development wiki is a nice idea in general. I wonder if a popular one already exists? Google doesn't seem to imply so.

But anyway, I wasn't interested in creating a PD wiki. I was interested in possibly bringing the whole community to another level, so to speak. I know the old wiki I mentioned did just that. It gave everyone a common goal to work on besides conversation. So it's a benefit for the community, not really for anonymous people.

[Angela]

Daffy, I wonder if it might be fun to do some Google Waves -- you know, "meetings" on particular subjects, where people who are interested can come together in real time and work on:

Resolving a personal issue for one participant;

Brainstorming a solution on a world issue;

Meet up and share photos & more personal conversation, like a ice-cream social;

etc.

I think it would be fun to play with that technology with the people here.

[Brutha]

Yes, google wave is really a good tool for such a purpose.
Just choose a tag and get going.