Wiki anyone?

[Bezza]

Been loitering about this board for a while a made a few posts previously but lost my username and password....

Anyway, looking to get my first camper (Early Bay of course) over the coming months and been getting into all the details about what to buy, what to do etc and putting in all the leg work but noticed there is no single concise document out there that kinda covers everything off. Books are good but have to be unbiased so can't always provide links to websites etc and are also static in nature.

So I thought about writing my own little guide on buying a camper plus all the bits that go with it (e.g. how to go about lowering a van, fitting a leisure battery, installing a new interior, basic maintenance, trouble-shootinh etc) but then though perhaps a wiki would be a better idea as so many people have good ideas out there. What do you guys think? Would you contribute?

Main concern is that it would detract slightly from the forum here but then at the same time, I'm not sure it would - after all, it would be a bit like the technical guide section. Perhaps EarlyBay.com would like to set one up - I'm happy to help out with hosting/wiki implementation if needed?

Feel free to shoot me down but think it would be a good thing to give a go. And I wouldn't want to do anything in "competition" with this forum so if people here say nay (especially the guys with their names in colour) then that's the end of it.

 

[Graham L]

Hi its a good idea but I think a lot of this already exists either in the technical or the reference section. I think the best person to talk to about this would be Araon one of the mods with his name in colour as he tends to be the technbical guru and might have some views on a Wiki.

In the past the only thing I've found is that information can get corrected by people who think they are right and its not always correct so the danger is people get misled by wrong information. I think you would need an old hand to check the info first to make sure its correct.

As I say Araon is probably the person to direct this too,

 

[mjknight71]

http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11706" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
8)

 

[Araon]

Graham I aint no guru ( maybe a sex god but no tech guru )....

nice idea but Id hate to be the guy to sit a wade through all the various tech shit out there and produce something of value and really useful, personally I like places like Ratwell etc... been going for years and an absolute font

 

[Bezza]

There's an answer for everything on EarlyBay... :lol:

I do see the concerns people might have but at the same time, I wonder if you're getting a bit bogged down in the technical detail. The idea of a wiki is that everyone contributes their own thoughts so that general consensus reaches an answer and you shouldn't need any overall moderation save for a deliberate attempt to sabotage (although I guess the FBI won't be interested...). I don't think any document has to be particularly technical - in fact I can't immediately think of a situation when it would need to be technical at all - I'm not thinking we re-write the Haynes manual here!

Take the topic of purchasing a van as an example. A wiki would probably cover general things like:

- What to look out for in terms of rust, filler, previous repairs etc
- Places to look for vans to buy
- Tips on how to go about buying vans, e.g. attend shows, get an idea on what interior you want etc
- Info on importing bays (which countries are good to get imports from and pros and cons of these, info on the weirder import countries like Thailand etc)
- Info on what an import company might do, guarantees offered etc

I can see people like Graham L, Scott Wilson etc wanting to contribute to something like that.

Didn't know about Ratwells. Perhaps that is the answer in any case....

 

[froggy]

Your on the best place for technical questions / answers.
Usually a quick search throws up the answers

 

[mjknight71]

Your on the best place for technical questions / answers.
Usually a quick search throws up the answers

you said it .....a wiki is they way to go 8) .....

......one answer....not pages of the same discussion.....imagine one page on twin carbs not 125........one on fitting a servo not 200....one on disc conversions not 90.......a body of knowledge......how many times does the same question appear :roll: ......

main problem with wikis is people don't know anything about them...as wetpaint advertise the paint is never dry....knowledge grows and forms........it isnt linear........for something like tech tips they would be far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far far better than a discussion forum, which is limeted by it linear nature

:mrgreen:

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