Talk:Wiki

Newbies
The following were added (as formatted) by two new users.

Practical English http://practicalenglish.pbwiki.com

Classroom Braids http://classroombraids.wikispaces.com

CAE WIki

http://caewords.wikispaces.com/home

(Teachers Lounge) http://teacherslounge.editme.com/ (The Sandbox) http://thesandbox.pbwiki.com/

I have cut them to this talk page as I'm not sure we really want them. The wikis look (to me) as though they are presently dead so there would seem to be little point in referencing them. Any thoughts?--Bob M 14:33, 11 November 2012 (CST)
 * I'm not sure why, but we seem to have some contributors who have decided that we would benefit by linking to various other ELT wikis. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that most wikis - ELT or not - fail.  As a consequence these links tend to be to dead wikis. (Where "dead" means no action in the last two years.)
 * I'm considering writing something to the effect that most wikis fail and using these links to illustrate the point. Thoughts?--Bob M 14:47, 18 November 2012 (CST)


 * Hi Bob. It is good to see newbies trying. Each mistake they make is a learning opportunity for them as learners and for us as teachers. The first edits I remember making on a wiki were mistakes on Wikivoyage.org[1] where I tried to put a map that I found on another website up on the Wikivoyage.org/Hangzhou page. My newbie contribution was a copyright violation and duly deleted by a member who was friendly, welcoming and explained how we were carefully following copyright requirements so that we could legally share free content and license it with a legally defensible free sharing license, the CC BY-SA license. By being friendly and simply explaining to me things he knew but I didn't yet, he earned my respect and I learned how to contribute usefully to Wikivoyage. Contributing usefully to a wiki is fun, but there is definitely a learning curve. It is up to those of us who know the ropes to teach them to the newcomers, hopefully in a welcoming and encouraging manner. Copyright violations must be deleted but a friendly word of explanation, encouragement and some tips can be left on the contributing user's talk page at the same time. Link contributions can also be either deleted, or if appropriate molded into something on topic and useful and put into proper wiki markup, again while leaving words of welcome, encouragement, a brief explanation and tips on the contributing user's talk page. Probably most first time contributors will not ever come back here. But they will meed another wiki down the road of like and will be more familiar with it because of their experience with us. Some of those that do return may just appreciate what we are doing, if we do it nicely, and catch the wiki bug and with our help learn how to wiki with us. Go for it! :-)


 * [1] At that time it was Wikitravel but that was sold to a for profit corporation which the community lost faith in over time; so we forked our work to Wikivoyage.org which is now a Wikimedia Foundation owned project.


 * Having said all that, I feel the two examples at By Teachers For Students are probably best deleted. They are examples of detritus that free wiki mills generate by the tens of thousands. Linking to inactive wikis that do not contain useful material is like grave digging without filling in the dirt later. The purpose and value of those wikis was probably in the doing. Now that they are done and that purpose complete, they probably would better be deleted. I don't think linking to them does anyone justice. So I support deleting the links, but I will leave that, and the brief community building work on the contributor's talk pages that you are so good at, to you. --Roger 19:25, 18 November 2012 (CST)
 * OK. I've cut them here to keep a record.
 * Examples:
 * uccke10113a
 * uccke-eng
 * If somebody makes a case we can put them back in.--Bob M 05:29, 19 November 2012 (CST)