Zacks Wiki Info Page (v1.68)

Updates: 11/30/02

I gutted the The servers and admins are a' changin' section and made Server history & current events, Personal web page shite, and Why you shouldn't bitch too much about the recent server shuffling. That last one isn't new writing, it's what I didn't rewrite from the entry I made mince meat of. Reply

The new info there is mostly that the contents of nbtsc.org has been moved entirely off paradoxical, which means many things, including that in theory, personal web pages should be staying in one place now, as should where you log in to change them. Read on. Reply

I added another tidbit about signature pages, the new info is in italics at the moment. Reply

Ari says Show Changes is up again, I haven't tried it. Reply

How to keep up with what's happening.

Talk to Ari and other geeks, come on IRC and ask questions, e-mail people and pester them... But first, join the wiki-l listserv, and keep an eye on these wiki pages: Reply

HeyYouGuysInCharge, BugReports, and WikiBugs are good for checking what's all ready been thought of, and what problems have already been noted. Consider however, whether bugs have been documented thoroughly. If they haven't, add some more information. Also, date your posts. In fact, date all of your posts, but especially bug reports. (Of course, e-mailing Ari is really preferable to these pages anyway.) Reply

WikiInstructions has your basic info on formatting rules for wiki pages. Ari tweaks these a fair amount, so if you see the page updated, check what's new (and if wiki doesn't work the way that page says it should, kvetch to Ari, cause it should.) In the same vain, NewFeatures is the page to hear about knew shit on wiki, assuming Ari keeps it updated. Reply

WhoDoesWhat could be useful if you want to know who to ask about what. Could be more useful to if it had more info on it, perhaps a few more geeks will add some info on what they know/do. Reply

BulletinBoard tends to have announcements of various sorts, and CheckIn gets abused (yeah, I do it to) to make announcements, because people actually bother to check it. Reply

And of course, the obvious way to keep an eye on what's happening: RecentChanges. ;-) Reply

Also, for specific pages, keep an eye on revisions, sometimes people will leave comments there explaining their changes to that page. Reply

Server History & Current Events:

Nbtsc.org was started by Nick B-W years ago. The URL (the name nbtsc.org) was bought in Grace Llewellyn's name, but has been an unofficial camp site, with a very limited amount of official camp info listed on the main page. The site lived, until November, 2002, on Paradoxical, which is Nick B-W's server. Most of the admin work has been done by Nick B-W/Platypus/Pseudomammal, Ari/Aredridel/Arianna, and Justin/Pellik, and they've been helped out by damn near innumerable other geeks in our community. Reply

Recently, (fall 2002) things have been changing around a lot. Ari got a new server, named Polis, and Platypus needs Paradoxical to use for his new web design company, randomseed. Also, Platypus and Pellik are rather busy doing the whole college thing, and won't be nbtsc admins anymore. As of 11/29/02 nbtsc.org finished moving from Paradoxical to Polis. It's still nbtsc.org, but it now lives on a new computer, located in Ridgeway, Colorado. Reply

There are some changes in the URL going on as well. There where some problems with people somehow mistaking Wiki, etc, as official NBTSC information, endorced by Grace (mind you, this is a completely obsurd assumption, but the world is full of people who make those now and then, so we deal with it and grumble a lot). Because of that, everything that's not official camp stuff, is being moved to a subdomain — community.nbtsc.org. It's important to remember that the word "community" /replaces/ the "www". The full URL is http://community.nbtsc.org/ . Not everything has been moved to community.nbtsc.org, but very near everything that's been on www.nbtsc.org will be. Reply

http://www.nbtsc.org/ is going to be an official site for Not Back To School Camp. However: It's not an official site yet, and shouldn't be taken to be. It won't be until all the content has Grace Llewellyn's personal seal of approval. Actually right now it's a fairly embarrasing pile of old content, much of which still needs to be moved to community.nbtsc.org. Reply

So as of now... Reply

Platypus and Pellik aren't nbtsc.org admins anymore. No part of nbtsc.org is on Paradoxical anymore, it all lives on Ari's server, Polis. Ari (aredridel at nbtscdotorg) is the main admin.
Most of the content has been moving from http://www.nbtsc.org/ to http://community.nbtsc.org/ in preperation for making www.nbtsc.org an official site. (Same server, different address).

IRC has some changes because it's on polis now, with a new (and not really fully operational) IRC server. Some of the changes are because Platypus and Ari desided to set up the new IRC server a bit differently than the old one, if you don't like it, tell them, and give them reasons. Anyway, you still connect to castle.nbtsc.org, but that now connects to Polis, not Paradoxical.
Check Personal web page shite for info on where your home directory is, and what URL your web page will be displayed at.

Personal web page shite

There's been a good deal of confusion about where exactly home directories (the directory you stick stuff in to have it display on your web page) are exactly, and what URL they are displayed at. That's been because of the server switching, and because of a few fuckups where things got moved to the wrong place for a few days and then back again. Reply

Home directories are now all on polis. You shouldn't try to connect to paradoxical.nbtsc.org. Go to polis.nbtsc.org, or if that's wonky, try community.nbtsc.org. Paradoxical has nothing to do with nbtsc.org, as of yesterday. Also — For uploading and downloading files, it's prefferable to use a program called SCP, rather than FTP. It encrypts stuff and shit. See http://community.nbtsc.org/sitedir.html for more on downloading SCP (and fear not, there's a free version, it looks exactly like an FTP program, and it doesn't explode after a month like most of the free FTP programs). Reply

URLs are sort-of kind-of changing for personal web pages too. Some people have had addresses without a tilde (~) in them, those are going to be slowly phazed out. (Apparently they're an administrative pain in the ass, ask Ari for details). Other than that, you can keep your address the same, personal web pages will keep working at any subdomain except mail. In other words, http://anything.nbtsc.org/~yourusername/ should work, except mail. Ari is thinking about adding users.nbtsc.org, for people to reffer to their web pages as, since community is long. However, he's not planning to stop people from keeping http://www.nbtsc.org/~username , because personal web pages are so clearly not official nbtsc info. Reply

Here's what Ari told me about the tilde question: Reply

Not using the tilde is not going to be maintained, no new users will have that option, and as of now, it's a redirect to the 'correct' way. In a few months, it will become a redirect page, saying 'this site moved, go here'. In about a year, maybe a bit less, that way goes away totally. It's hell to maintain, and less maintenance means less that goes screwy in the future from things breaking unintentionally. Reply

And here's what Ari said about URLs of personal home pages: Reply

In theory, community.nbtsc.org should be the official home of all pages. I'm quite okay with keeping existing pages on www.nbtsc.org if someone so desires — user pages are quite recognizable as 'not official nbtsc content', and they're not linked from official pages, so there's little political flutzpah about it. It's a maintenance burden, but eh wot, I can deal. Not that bad, it doesn't break easily. Reply
"I think that community.nbtsc.org is going to piss some people off with the length. Maybe 'users.nbtsc.org' should be created? It'd be a nice compromise, obvious what it is, and perhaps make maintenance that much easier. It'd also give a definate servername to log into to update such things edit web pages — 'where do I log into?' 'users.nbtsc.org. Always.'" Reply

Why you shouldn't bitch too much about the recent server shuffling.

The moving around has been rather annoying in some ways, but thus is the internet. Shit changes. However, I think things are actually going to be quite nice/interesting. Nbtsc.org will be on Polis, and Ari has quite a few things in the works, including a RecentChanges page that can list updates outside of wiki, including anything you want from your personal web page, NBTSC Journals, and even Live Journals. I believe Nick/Platty has welcomed people to have e-mail and eccentric web projects based off paradoxical still, if they want (it just won't be directly/officially/at-all associated with NBTSC), and I've heard Rael and Joey both talking about some interesting projects with message boards, photo-directories, E2-like forrums, and potentially getting some server space with disturbingly fast internet connections. Personally, I hope all of this happens, and we end up with interesting stuff cropping up on three different servers. Three cheers for variety, eh? Reply

What to do when things fuck up.

E-mail Ari. Do it directly. He was bitching at me the other day that he never gets personal e-mails when things fuck up, he has to monitor webmasters at nbtscdotorg, which isn't really him, it's a list of a bunch of people, most of whome don't do maintanence on the site, especially not Wiki. Wiki is prettymuch all Ari. Ari makes it, Ari breaks it, Ari tweaks it, Ari improves it, etc. If something is broken on wiki, if there's some minor little bug on wiki, e-mail Ari, at aredridel at nbtscdotorg, and give the clearest, most detailed description you can. Make sure to mention what browser you're using, browsers are funny things and that's important. Reply

Also if you have ideas of what you'd like to see or really really wouldn't like to see, with wiki and with the server as a whole. E-mail Ari. Not everything is his deal, but I don't think forwarding you to the correct person is much of a neusance for him. Reply

This is what I've been doing for a couple years now, and I swear Ari hears more other people's complaints through me than directly, because y'all don't bother. There's various little things around wiki that were largely my freakin' idea. Why? becaues I bothered to mention them to Ari, and eventually they came to something. The point of wiki is to be this dreadfully useful thing for you guys, Ari's got lots of opinions about how it should be, and how it should be used, but it's here to get used, so Ari had best listen to the users. And in my experience he does. He argues the point when he thinks he's right, even when he's completely full of crap, but I've been rather impressed at how good natured he is about being told he's full of crap. And sometimes I even change his mind. Reply

I think a vital thing to remember is this: This server is not a democracy. Wiki is not a democracy. They never have been. They've never claimed to be. However, the geeks who've been involved over the years have put a hell of a lot of time, money, and effort into creating and maintaining this server and everything on it. And guess what, they're not doing it for themselves, they're doing it for the community. Reply

This server is a dictatorship, plain and simple, but I find it to be a rather benevolent one. That doesn't mean they will cater to your every whim if you bitch enough, it means if you actually have good reasons for wanting to see something change, you just might convince them, even if it takes 2 hours (or two years) of arguing. There's certainly a decent amount to grumble about with this server, frankly Ari's admin style pisses me off sometimes. But here's what I think... Reply

We live in a society where one goverment rules a swath of land thousands of miles wide, containing nearly 300,000,000 people, (and we're far from the most populous country on the planet). About the closest we're likely to get to our leader's ears is their secretary's secretary's secretary's answering machine which will probably tell you it's full. Same goes for the corporations that own things, like say, most of the webspace. Ever had a site on Geocities or Yahoo? Reply

You however, are lucky enough to be part of a chaotic yet tight-nit and small community. If you don't know any or all of the geeks that help with this site, including the ones who own the hardware and maintain most of the (free non-advertising) services, honestly it's for lack of trying on your part; they're easy to get to know. Reply

You're part of a community where you either know the people running shit, or could easily, and even if you don't know them, you know their names, and they know yours. If you send them an e-mail they'll read it. So honestly, stop shouting juvinile dictator crap, you aren't voiceless and powerless in this community unless you just assume yourself to be. Assume better. And you know, if Ari or another geek fucks up, and gives you some bullshit line about it, by all means, tell me and I'll harrass them to no end. I'm good at that sort of thing, and Ari's been thanking me for it recently. Reply

Of course, if you'd rather just bitch and pretend you're powerless, go for it, enjoy it... and don't mind me while I tell you to shut the fuck up. Reply

So you've got this neat idea...

I covered this partially in the above section, What to do when things fuck up, but there's more to say. If you've got an idea for wiki, or something else that's on the server, or should be on the server, etc., first and foremost, talk to people. Come on IRC and talk to geeks, (Ari, Platty, Vruba, Rael, Joey, Dysk, Box-Of-Rain, Noam or Rion, Pellik, and probably a few I'm forgetting), bring up your idea, see who would know how to do it, consider doing it yo' own damn self; most of those guys are pretty keen on helping people learn how to do stuff themselves, and a bit less keen on doing something cause you think it's a cool idea (though sometimes they'll do that too). For the most part, community.nbtsc.org is open to hosting any nifty little projects, but it's all volunteer, so you may just have to volunteer. Reply

If you've got an idea about wiki, talk to Ari, (aredridel at nbtscdotorg), he's got loads of stuff in the works already, and is pretty open to suggestions and ideas. Granted, he'll argue with you about the idea and think he's got a better one, but that doesn't mean he's not listening and considering. Also, if you're interested in what goes on with wiki, you might want to join the wiki listserv, which has for the most part been used to brainstorm about concepts for wiki. I can't get this to work right now, but in theory to join that listserv you go here: http://mail.nbtsc.org/cgi-bin/ecartisgate.cgi , log in, and choose wiki-l. Reply

Archiving Wiki Pages.

So there's a rather convenient way to archive Wiki pages now. It's still being tweaked though, so bare that in mind. You should see, in the row of links at the bottom of each page, one that says Add Tag and (sometimes) one that says Archives. So what you do, is you go to the page, you click on Add Tag and then you fill in the Tag you want, (You can call it anything you want, but the main idea is for specific Archives, ie, when you're going to delete a large amount of content from the current version of the page, for tidiness or organizational reasons, or what ever. When someone has tagged a page, that page will display an Archives link, which takes you to a page listing which Revisions of that page have been taged. Now, here's a really useful part: you can tag old Revisions. You can go to the revisions list for that page, open up any of the revisions, and tag it, retroactively. (Whee.) Anyway. So, This is somewhat in progress, I've talked to Ari about having Tags also apear in the Revisions page (redundant, but useful), and a couple other little things. Reply

I personally, would like to encourage people to (thoughtfully) archive pages. If a page has a lot of old and somewhat useless content, and is thus too bloated to be of much use, go through and either selectively clean up the page, or even clear cut it. But, just so you don't tweak people out, I would suggest that noting what you did at the top of the page would be good form. Not some long explanation, just add to the very top of the page Archived 11/27/02, see Archive1 for old content. or whatever makes sence... But for the love of god be concise. Reply

I think this could be a drastically good thing. If no content is lost, and there's even a clear, obvious link to where the old stuff is (however frivilous it may have been, just link to it, damnit), then there's no reason to get upset. The information isn't gone, and if someone else thinks some of it still is relevant, well, they can put it back. And if they do, don't blow up at them either, it's no big deal. Reply

Signatures link to pages. Take advantage of it.

(updated 11/30/02) Reply

If you type a signature in wiki, like this "—Zack" (that's two dashes followed by a name, with the first letter capitalized) it will glow as a link, or have a question mark next to it indicating that it could become a link. The URL for —Zack is http://community.nbtsc.org/wiki/Zack (simple, eh?) /To link to someone's page without a signature, you can type, for instance, Zack's Page. That links to the same place as —Zack./ Reply

You can make any word into a signature page, and anyone can still edit them. The idea though, is for each person (supposing they want to) to have a signature page, and to use that signature when they sign posts. That way if you say something interesting, someone who may not know you can click on your signature, and thus find out more about you. Reply

You can of course use the page for whatever you want. Unless it's already someone else's signature page, it would be my opinion that the page is yours to maintain as you see fit. Likely things to use it for would be general info about you, possibly journalish stuff, links to wiki pages, web sites, and whatever, that have something to do with you, or you just think are cool. Reply

Think of this as a standardized way for people to introduce themselves. Reply

A short note on a short note

When you edit a wiki page, there is an option below the main text edit box, that says A short note. Whatever you put in there will appear in revisions, under that exact edit of that page. If more people took advantage of these notes (especially when, for instance, doing minor tidying to pages that doesn't really warrent a Tag) and if everyone paid attention to them, it could clear up a lot of consternation of not knowing what got changed. Reply

Hopefully revisions will soon start also listing who made each edit (assuming they're logged in, and unless they click an anonymous post button), but for now, just signing your name in the a short note box can make things clearer. Reply

Also, I'm going to make a personal policy for this page, that when I delete questions or comments, I'll make a note of it in a short note. For instance, edit 1.35 was Rachel H posting right at the top of this page, thanking me for making it. Flattering, nice to hear, and not at all helpful for other people to have to sift through to get to the useful bits of this page. So, edit 1.36 doesn't have her comment anymore... but if she checks the revisions, she'll see a note from me saying you're welcome, Rachel H. Reply