TONMO.com Wiki

Joined
Apr 19, 2010
Messages
478
So it was brought up by TONMO that we should have a wiki.

I thought I'd take it upon myself to start a discussion thread about it.

Possible topics:
- Octopus biology subsection
- Sections for commonly-kept octopuses
- Sections for stuff you need, including cost and sources and product reviews
- Cephalopod paleontology subsection
- Ethical views on keeping cephalopods
- Octopus conservation
- Octopus researchers and publicly-involved aquarists

This should be used to collect the information we've already got (and curate it into comprehensive articles rather than just pointing people to threads, which is a little awkward). If we have a database of information, we can free up forum space for talking about new things. Staffers can make decisions about what belongs in the wiki and doesn't, with input from forum members.

For an example, here's a putative outline for a catchall page for commonly-kept octopuses, and an outline for an article on Octopus bimaculoides:


Commonly Kept Octopuses
- Blurb about why these octopuses are commonly kept, how they're caught
- List of species

Octopus bimaculoides
- Species-specific biology - range, lifespan
- Identifying features (especially how to tell it apart from Octopus bimaculatus)
- How to acquire one
- Behaviors and things to watch out for
- Breeding bimacs (since they are large-egged)
- List of forum journal threads about people's bimacs
 
One of the things I find a little awkward is how the articles are configured - they exist on the website, but they're a little off-to-the side and a little less organized than is optimal for people to locate, plus they might be a little obsolete.

A wiki would enable continued maintenance using the most recent information.
 
No question, we need to refine site navigation and info access on TONMO. That's a broader topic / bigger initiative -- I intend to take it on in my "spare time" - hopefully by end of year I'll have a revised format that is more accessible.
 
I'm new to tonmo, so as far as that goes I wouldn't know, however I run my own website/forum for my business based off of testing video games for bungie.

When we decided to have a wiki page it instantly gave us the most amazing access to info and videos I completely forgot about. It also gave us amazing control when it came to adding and correcting information quickly. Probably one of the best steps we took when improving our site.
 
Hey wlyon, can you PM me and tell me how you went about it? As capt points out, I looked into it and didn't like what I saw, but I'm still interested in a solution if one is viable.

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Wow, Wikia is really powerful, I had no idea. I'll play with it - there may be a way for me to offer decent integration with TONMO, so that it's a fairly seamless experience... I'll have a look - thanks NB!
 
After re-reading your first post, and checking out Wikia, I've decided that I'd rather have all the content hosted on TONMO (instead of encouraging community content to be posted on a 3rd party site).

I will soon be creating a TONMO Wiki section on this site for this purpose. TONMO Supporters will be able to edit / contribute; everyone will be able to read it.
 
Well, here's a start, easy enough to get things going... have at it and let me know any problems, questions, etc. by posting here. Thanks!

Mating Octopus (Abdopus-aculeatus)

The major feature that is lacking is a public display of edit history - so I'll ask that folks proactively manage that on their own by always denoting / footnoting edits. It can be dug up if necessary - and the added benefit of limiting it to Supporters is that I know everyone who has access!
 
Thanks for getting this started nb, it's a great start!

Folks should feel free to contribute to the articles and use some method to denote changes, which I'm sure we'll refine over time.

Sent via Tapatalk on Android
 
tonmo;183642 said:
Thanks for getting this started nb, it's a great start!

Folks should feel free to contribute to the articles and use some method to denote changes

One of the methods I suggested to the man I am currently quoting but felt it might help if the people who are posting the articles read is this.

On wiki sites one of the most recognizable ways that they work as efficiently as they do is have lots and lots of hyperlinks embed into the text of the articles. For instance if I'm writing an article on how to set up a saltwater aquarium for the first time if I use the word protein skimmer I'll have a hyper link embed into that word so they can simply click on the text "protein skimmer" and be taken to an article that defines skimmers in more depth. Doing this keeps all information very accessible and searchable . without people having to search through multiple articles to find something.

The other thing is to break down all articles. Having different sections for different parts of the article. Using the same example as above, I would have a section for lighting another for filtration etc... With a box at the top of the article that will list all the sub-articles and allow someone to click on what they want and taken dirrectly to that part of the article instead of scrolling down the page.

Just my 2¢ here, so far I think the tonmo wiki is up to a great start
 

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