Please provide feedback on this new idea for KMA?

[James]

While I was integrating a few KMA features back with phpBB 3 something occurred to me. I could actually create a little BBCode library that could be used entirely to markup a page that could then be translated to KMA. What that means is we could have a forum in which certain articles on KMA are offered as threads. A group of us (determined with a usergroup) would have moderator access to that forum, thus allowing us to edit any of the ‘article’ topic posts. The first post in an article would be published to KMA in real time, other posts could be left to discussion.

We could, for example, make an article on using KMA as a research source. Everyone in our forum who has access to this editor group could then update or add to that article as they please by editing the post, and those changes would in turn be published to KMA. This can also be done for various game guides and other such ideas.

What does everyone think?

I was so curious about the idea that between it, and it being 80 degrees indoors, I didn’t fall asleep until 2 AM. And I usually fall asleep right away.

[Mikhail]

I think it would a grand idea. Of course, it would need some sort of leash. Lets say some post-happy moderator decides one day that he's had enough of this website and decides to destroy any semblance of the article he works on. It's an extreme example, but one that still needs to be taken into account. However the idea itself is a great idea and it will keep articles updated without having to wait for you or any of the administrators to update it manually.

[James]

Well, the main idea is that it would expand KMA's potential beyond what I can do as a single person. An article can be so much more if a group of people are willing to contribute time to it than it can ever be if I'm the only person researching and making changes. Furthermore, when I'm the only person working we are limited by my knowledge and my resources. It takes even more time to get in touch with other people for other ideas and the transmission of that knowledge also takes time.

Everyone here knows how to make a post, though.

And yeah... we'll be choosy about who we add, and the tool will create occasional backups of articles.

[Mikhail]

Like I said, it's a great idea.

The only problem I see that might arise from it seems to be already covered by the strict selection process.

I was thinking, is this limited to Three Kingdoms material or will it encompass all that KMA/SoSZ has to offer? For example, the KOEI games or things like the greatest ancient civilization of all time, etc.

[James]

It would have to be something deliberately published to KMA.

I guess if we all saw value in it, and participation was up to snuff, we could have some community collaboration projects to make some great reference articles. KMA won't have a greatest empire of the x article, but if a group of people here wanted to get together and write one collectively such a section might offer the needed tools.

[Mikhail]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it just be (for the most part anyway) limited to the gaming sections? I mean, there's barely anything outside of games that could/seem to be edited. Unless you make some of the encyclopedia parts editable.

[James]

I hoped I would get more feedback on this... maybe I would have had better luck with a generic thread in the KMA forum rather than a global announcement.

I was actually thinking about novel and history pages originally. Certain types of introductory articles would be easier if assembled by the community. A section introducing all the different books would be as knowledge of each book is a bit more varied from one person to the next. A three kingdoms reading list could be created, for example. That might be a lot of fun and anyone could contribute to it.

One thing that would be nice for the game section would be game information listings. People could note changes and features easily just by editing a post. Also a game frequently asked question page would be a nice feature if people were able simply to share their thoughts through one of these posts. It seems to have quite a bit of potential to me.

I've thought many times about a good way to integrate community participation and this seems like a particularly good approach. It uses a medium people are already familiar with and actually encourages participation in the community too. These threads would also be used to discuss the topic and the topic material, perhaps just for information or to learn more, or to hash out the best way to present certain information.

[Mikhail]

I guess that makes sense. I never thought of the novel pages, but it works. I was wondering, would it work with the comprehensive bios?

I gotta ask, maybe it'll get people's attention, but will these "moderators" of sorts get a special title or will they still be Scholars, etc but with the moderator status (that is, for people who aren't currently mods)?

Maybe people are just busy right now. You shouldn't make this as an indicator of the interest that people have for this idea.

[James]

It won't be used for the actual biographies. Many of them are already stored in the KMA database and others are going to be imported. There's going to be a tool for that down the road so biography authors can edit their own biographies. That is probably something that will come after a new KMA theme, though, and that is a while down the road. Big project. This would be more for articles.

At most these 'moderators' may be displayed in a different color, and that would have a lot to do with practical purposes. They wouldn't get special rank and if they do it would be a general rank. It is worth noting that people who contribute a lot of information or involve themselves heavily in Kongming's Archives, and this project would be like the others, do get custom ranks as part of my thanks.

[Mikhail]

Ok, to both.

It's taken a few posts but I think I've finally understood the whole scheme. Like I said, it's a good plan. It'll encourage for greater participation (like you said) for some of the members here.

Of course, my opinions generally don't count since I'm just one person. There should really be more feedback for this plan, other than myself...