A BSAC WIKI? (Diving Dictionary) [Archive]

Andy Wade

18-11-2005, 11:45

:) What next - well what would you like?

And, more importantly, what would you like to do to help us do it? :D

Glad to see everyone is enjoying the new forums and working out how to use them. If there is anything you think is missing or there is something you can't work out how to do then drop one of the admins a PM or stick a post on the feedback forum to let us know.

Cheers,
Tristan

Well, you asked....
I'd like a comprehensive online diving dictionary/encyclopaedia.
I'd like the BSAC web site to be the place to go for information about absolutely anything and everything about diving. Past, present and future.
I and several others started something with the Dive Instruct web site in 2001, and IMO that could be just a start.
An online dive dictionary isn't a new idea, but I think it's a good one. It could be huge.
There are several people who contribute to these forums who know an awful lot about diving, (yes folks, they are that old :D ) and their combined knowledge and experience could be channelled into producing something very worthwhile indeed, and as it would be an ongoing project with no end as diving continues to change, we could start small and help it grow over time. And IMO we wouldn't have to produce a finished item right from day one as it will never finish anyway. So I don't think it's as daunting as it sounds.
Just my thoughts.
Well, you did ask.
And of course I'd like to help with it too. :eek: What am I saying?

Adrian Kelland

18-11-2005, 12:46

Well, you asked....
I'd like a comprehensive online diving dictionary/encyclopaedia.
I'd like the BSAC web site to be the place to go for information about absolutely anything and everything about diving. Past, present and future.
I and several others started something with the Dive Instruct web site in 2001, and IMO that could be just a start.
An online dive dictionary isn't a new idea, but I think it's a good one. It could be huge.
There are several people who contribute to these forums who know an awful lot about diving, (yes folks, they are that old :D ) and their combined knowledge and experience could be channelled into producing something very worthwhile indeed, and as it would be an ongoing project with no end as diving continues to change, we could start small and help it grow over time. And IMO we wouldn't have to produce a finished item right from day one as it will never finish anyway. So I don't think it's as daunting as it sounds.
Just my thoughts.
Well, you did ask.
And of course I'd like to help with it too. :eek: What am I saying?
This sounds like a job for a WIKI Andy.

Adrian

Ben Thompson

18-11-2005, 18:10

This sounds like a job for a WIKI Andy.

Adrian

Sounds like a very good idea to me! There's a bunch of stuff on wikipedia already, but how about a specific BSAC one?

Andy Wade

18-11-2005, 19:50

Sounds like a very good idea to me! There's a bunch of stuff on wikipedia already, but how about a specific BSAC one?

I think it's a good idea too, I hadn't thought about a WIKI at all. Would it be run within the BSAC web site?
I just want this website to be the fount of all diving knowledge, then when we've got 'em interested, sting 'em hard for their subs....:D

Keith Lawrence

18-11-2005, 20:12

OK - timeout on this one guys. We may even have a WIKI system on the new box, if not I know it's something that Vic has suggested in the past and there's no reason why we can't run one as far as I know. I'm going to grab the 'interested parties' from here and email you all, let's see whether it's feasible to get one set up. I've never used one so I don't have a clue (or the time!) to get involved, but more than happy to give you a blank WIKI to play with on a "be our guest - see what you come up with" basis. If you recon you can do it then we'll have an offical BSAC WIKI site :)

Keith L

Adrian Kelland

18-11-2005, 20:19

One thing against WIKI's is the potential for vandalism. It would be useful to tie in write permissions from our member db. Although nothing is lost and easy to correct back.

Something for us to try.

Keith Lawrence

18-11-2005, 20:48

I've split this one out to a new thread as I feel that it deserves one! Adrian - let's have a look at it, see if it's possible, see what we can do. I'm sure you guys can come up with something.

Keith L

Vic

19-11-2005, 02:18

Andy Wade

19-11-2005, 10:14

For your perusal...

There's a new wiki at http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/wiki - that's just a temporary location for it. It will move once a few other things are in place, at which time someone will announce where it's going.

Feel free to use it. It's a members' resource - treat it accordingly. The usual expectations of decency exist - remember that if you post things other people don't like, someone *will* change it.

Errr - that's about it. Have fun!

Vic.

Gosh I'm so impressed Vic!
http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/forums/images/icons/icon14.gif
It seems to be working OK.
I'm having some difficulty working out exactly how to add new pages, but maybe that's because I'm thick.:D

NickPheas

19-11-2005, 10:46

One thing the the Wiki approach might be very useful for would be the various links pages scattered across the BSAC pages. I know of at least two lists of branches/branch web sites. They're quite utterly inconsistent and none of my emails asking for our club's links to be altered have got any reposnse. In a wiki world each branch would be able to maintain their own links and there'd be rather more chance of the pages being accurate.

Of course the flip side is, as ever, wiki vandelism. There's be an awful temptation to go and muck up the rival club's pages. Really one needs something that forces a sign on and makes each page the 'property' of the person who created it, so that if I create my club's page I'd at least get a 'Club X has been changed' email whenever changes happen.

Andy Wade

19-11-2005, 10:54

For your perusal...

There's a new wiki at http://www.bsacforum.co.uk/wiki - that's just a temporary location for it. It will move once a few other things are in place, at which time someone will announce where it's going.

Feel free to use it. It's a members' resource - treat it accordingly. The usual expectations of decency exist - remember that if you post things other people don't like, someone *will* change it.

Errr - that's about it. Have fun!
Vic.

Wayhaaaay!
it works!

http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Ear_Clearing_Methods

Now all I have to do is find the 'any' key on my keyboard and I'm ready to go...
:D

Vic

19-11-2005, 12:25

Of course the flip side is, as ever, wiki vandelism. There's be an awful temptation to go and muck up the rival club's pages. Really one needs something that forces a sign on and makes each page the 'property' of the person who created it, so that if I create my club's page I'd at least get a 'Club X has been changed' email whenever changes happen.

Don't worry too much about vandalism; *everything* is logged in a database, so it's a piece of cake to restore pages if you don't like what someone's done.

People can only edit pages once they're logged in, so we can find out who did what if anything untoward goes on. I hope it will never come to this, but there are steps that can be taken against persistent idiots.

As for "property" - there's no such thiing on a Wiki :-) If you don't want people to be able to edit your text, don't WIki it. But if you want to be notified when a page changes - that's implemented. There's a "watch" function, which keeps you up-to-date with what's going on to a certain page.

HTH

Vic.

Philip Smith

20-11-2005, 11:38

Don't worry too much about vandalism; *everything* is logged in a database, so it's a piece of cake to restore pages if you don't like what someone's done.

Vandalism is one issue; accuracy of information is another. Given that we are talking about the web site of the national governing body for the sport, there is a higher responsibility for avoiding publishing erroneous or misleading information, which could be safety-critical, than other web sites. I suspect there are plenty of well-meaning potential contributors who think they know more than they do. I would think something like this would need editorial control by Council or the NDC, possibly through a sub-committee of experts in various fields. If that is against the spirit of a WIKI, I would have serious doubts about the appropriateness of a WIKI on the BSAC web site.

Philip Smith

Keith Lawrence

20-11-2005, 12:09

Vandalism is one issue; accuracy of information is another.

Could not agree more Philip! The Wiki is at a prototype/experimental stage, we don't know whether it is appropriate for BSAC information yet, we wont know until we try. I've given the guys using it complete authority to experiment, set up a few prototypes, come back with recomendations about just the type of thing you're concerned about. It might work, it might not, but let's at least try it.

Here's a question for the guys using the Wiki - do you want your own forum yet? We could make it public joinable so that anybody is welcome, we could use it to discuss and hammer out issues such as this, I'll try and pull in somebody from Council/NDC/HQ to add their input.

I hope that answers some of your concerns Philip, I have exactly the same concerns (as do others), I've already expressed them to the Wiki group. But I'm seeing that as something to sort out rather than as something that will put a stop to the experiment, let's see if we can do it, then at least we'll have tried.

HTH

Keith L

NickPheas

20-11-2005, 12:19

Don't worry too much about vandalism; *everything* is logged in a database, so it's a piece of cake to restore pages if you don't like what someone's done.

People can only edit pages once they're logged in, so we can find out who did what if anything untoward goes on. I hope it will never come to this, but there are steps that can be taken against persistent idiots.

As for "property" - there's no such thiing on a Wiki :-) If you don't want people to be able to edit your text, don't WIki it. But if you want to be notified when a page changes - that's implemented. There's a "watch" function, which keeps you up-to-date with what's going on to a certain page.

HTH

Vic.

Appreciate that one can always revert back to a previous version, and if the vadalism is serious then this will be spotted and corrected quite quickly.

Good to hear that edits are only possibloe when someone's logegd in, this is not the case on Wikipedia, which is my only readl experience of the form.

Subtle vandelism though can go unspotted for quite some time. Suppose a page was setting out a club's mission statement - go in, change the phone numbers by one digit. Hey presto, potential new members can't get in touch, they go somewhere else instead. Very hard to spot unless the page is being watched like a hawk.

Andy Wade

20-11-2005, 15:00

Could not agree more Philip! The Wiki is at a prototype/experimental stage, we don't know whether it is appropriate for BSAC information yet, we wont know until we try. I've given the guys using it complete authority to experiment, set up a few prototypes, come back with recomendations about just the type of thing you're concerned about. It might work, it might not, but let's at least try it.

Here's a question for the guys using the Wiki - do you want your own forum yet? We could make it public joinable so that anybody is welcome, we could use it to discuss and hammer out issues such as this, I'll try and pull in somebody from Council/NDC/HQ to add their input.

I hope that answers some of your concerns Philip, I have exactly the same concerns (as do others), I've already expressed them to the Wiki group. But I'm seeing that as something to sort out rather than as something that will put a stop to the experiment, let's see if we can do it, then at least we'll have tried.

HTH

Keith L

Good point, all my pages (11 in total - so far) are now watched, so I'll know if they've been altered.
I reckon we need about three or four people (maybe more?) to monitor this encyclopaedia/dictionary. Perhaps we should split it into different sections in a similar way that the forums are done. Medical, Equipment, Boats etc etc.
I fully agree with Philips concerns, but I'm sure we can overcome it with a few safeguards in place.
The other way is to host it off site and just link to it, then it's not actually BSAC's responsibilty (tongue in cheek ;) ).
The Dive Instruct site is currently linked from BSAC's web site, and all they say is that 'The BSAC is not responsible for the content of external websites'
And we have some (and will have more) disclaimers everywhere anyway.
That way anyone will be able to see that they should learn from a qualified instructor and not rely on printed material alone to learn to dive.
I think the end result will justify the means.

Vic

20-11-2005, 15:10

Subtle vandelism though can go unspotted for quite some time. Suppose a page was setting out a club's mission statement - go in, change the phone numbers by one digit. Hey presto, potential new members can't get in touch, they go somewhere else instead. Very hard to spot unless the page is being watched like a hawk.

Again, I'm not worried about that; firstly, all changes are noted in the "recent changes" page ( http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges ), so just because one page has only been changed a bit, that doesn't for one moment mean that the change is invisible. Secondly, any member can take it upon themselves to "watch" any page - this means that if the page gets modified in any way, that member will receive an email detailing the changes. So if you write a page describing the contact details for your club, and put it in your "watch list", you'll get emailed the moment anyone tries to change it.

There are further mechanisms we cat put in place to prevent such changes, but they tend to be more draconian in nature, so it'd be better if we left those until/unless they're necessary...

Vic.

Vic

20-11-2005, 15:23

Vandalism is one issue; accuracy of information is another. Given that we are talking about the web site of the national governing body for the sport, there is a higher responsibility for avoiding publishing erroneous or misleading information, which could be safety-critical, than other web sites. I suspect there are plenty of well-meaning potential contributors who think they know more than they do. I would think something like this would need editorial control by Council or the NDC, possibly through a sub-committee of experts in various fields. If that is against the spirit of a WIKI, I would have serious doubts about the appropriateness of a WIKI on the BSAC web site.

There are all sorts of ways to deal with that situation - the most effective being sheer weight of opinion. If one person takes it upon himself to put incorrect information into the wiki, that can very quickly be put right if we've got enough people reading & contributing.

Next up, we've got easy methods of marking pages as contentious, disputed, or just plain wrong. Even if we don't know how to put something right, it's the work of a moment to mark a page as not being trustworthy.

Another string to our bow is the concept of "patrolled edits", where someone of sufficient privilege (i.e. someone in a position of responsiblity) can mark a page as being correct.

And all that's before we go anywhere near the subject of access contol.

One of the nice aspects of using software as mature as this is that all these problems have been addressed and solved by someone else :-)

On your idea of sub-committees acting as editors, though, I have to disagree. The purpose of a wiki is to deliver accessibility. If we have to approve every edit, it just won't happen. Council are quite busy enough already - they won't have the effort available to hand-hold everyone through every tiny syntactical change.

In closing - I understand your concerns, but this idea is not as naive as you might imagine; wikis *do* work, they are used widely. There's no reason for us to encounter any problem for the first time. My suggestion - try it. You might like it.

Vic.

Vic

20-11-2005, 15:38

I reckon we need about three or four people (maybe more?) to monitor this encyclopaedia/dictionary.

The more people we have using it, the less any one individual can slew the message there. There's no need to appoint any particular "moderator" status - just leave people to put the right things in.

Perhaps we should split it into different sections in a similar way that the forums are done. Medical, Equipment, Boats etc etc.

If you want it - do it! You seem to have gotten the hang of editing wikis by now :-)

I'd be a little wary of too much imposed structure at this stage, though - we don't want more infrastructure than content. If there is an obvious need to start partitioning things, then we can do so.

There's also a mechanism (which we haven't used yet) to categorise each page; this means that you can subset the wiki into a group of pages that all pertain to one subject (e.g. your Medical, Equipment, etc.). This allows the wiki to be used as a flat structure or as a segmented structure, according to what each user wants to do. Once we've got a few more pages, I'll start adding a few categories to show how it's done, then I'm sure you'll run with it :-)

I fully agree with Philips concerns, but I'm sure we can overcome it with a few safeguards in place.

I have no doubt we can. Philip's concerns are exactly the same as mine were when I first discovered Wikis. It just seems wrong not to be trying to hang onto control all the time. But once you try it, you realise that there are enough reasonable people around to avert the problems posed by miscreants and well-meaning fools. It just works...

The other way is to host it off site and just link to it, then it's not actually BSAC's responsibilty.
The Dive Instruct site is currently linked from BSAC's web site, and all they say is that 'The BSAC is not responsible for the content of external websites'

That would be pretty pointless, wouldn't it? It's not a BSAC wiki if it's hosted elsewhere and BSAC has little or nothing to do with it; we might as well just add a bit to Wikipedia and link to it.

I think the end result will justify the means.

I think most people will stop worrying about it once they've actually used it.

Vic.

Andy Wade

20-11-2005, 15:56

The more people we have using it, the less any one individual can slew the message there. There's no need to appoint any particular "moderator" status - just leave people to put the right things in.

If you want it - do it! You seem to have gotten the hang of editing wikis by now :-)

I'd be a little wary of too much imposed structure at this stage, though - we don't want more infrastructure than content. If there is an obvious need to start partitioning things, then we can do so.

There's also a mechanism (which we haven't used yet) to categorise each page; this means that you can subset the wiki into a group of pages that all pertain to one subject (e.g. your Medical, Equipment, etc.). This allows the wiki to be used as a flat structure or as a segmented structure, according to what each user wants to do. Once we've got a few more pages, I'll start adding a few categories to show how it's done, then I'm sure you'll run with it :-)

I have no doubt we can. Philip's concerns are exactly the same as mine were when I first discovered Wikis. It just seems wrong not to be trying to hang onto control all the time. But once you try it, you realise that there are enough reasonable people around to avert the problems posed by miscreants and well-meaning fools. It just works...

That would be pretty pointless, wouldn't it? It's not a BSAC wiki if it's hosted elsewhere and BSAC has little or nothing to do with it; we might as well just add a bit to Wikipedia and link to it.

I think most people will stop worrying about it once they've actually used it.

Vic.

Yeah, the 'hosted elsewhere' was a bit tongue in cheek, I'm just being mischievious, I know, it's out of character for me...:D

I like to hark back to the comments of English philosopher Edmund Burke who said, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’

Hmmm... I notice in this edit screen, that when I quote you after you've just quoted me, my original bits aren't there, so it makes it look as if you're talking to yourself...

Philip Smith

20-11-2005, 21:13

In closing - I understand your concerns, but this idea is not as naive as you might imagine; wikis *do* work, they are used widely.

Vic, Andy, Keith: I'm glad to see that these concerns are being taken seriously. I am not familiar with wikis and maybe I am worrying unduly. Do other responsible bodies use them to generate authoritative sources?

I can see the advantages of harnessing contributions from many people and I understand that there are various safeguards, but it seems that most of them operate after potential misinformation has already been published. It seems worriesome for a national governing body to take responsibility for information on that basis. I like the idea that pages can be marked as draft, provisional, or just plain wrong, but if someone is taking it on themselves to do that, is it much more onerous to vet contributions before they are published?

Phil.

Vic

20-11-2005, 22:05

is it much more onerous to vet contributions before they are published?

The Wiki was started at 00:43 yesterday (Sat 19 November). In less than 45 hours, it's had 242 edits - and there are only 4 people making changes at the moment...

Vic.

Yazzyfooty

20-11-2005, 23:12

PSSSSSSSSSSSST whats a wiki??

Adrian Kelland

20-11-2005, 23:36

PSSSSSSSSSSSST whats a wiki??
http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Andy Wade

21-11-2005, 01:02

The Wiki was started at 00:43 yesterday (Sat 19 November). In less than 45 hours, it's had 242 edits - and there are only 4 people making changes at the moment...

Vic.

I know, it's making my head swim...:D

Alwassia

21-11-2005, 09:19

I entered my id & password from this forum and it did not work. DO i need to register again on the WIKI site?

Khaled

Adrian Kelland

21-11-2005, 09:28

I entered my id & password from this forum and it did not work. DO i need to register again on the WIKI site?

Khaled
Yes Khaled.

This is a trial, no work has ben done to combine the password systems.

Adrian

Neil R

24-11-2005, 13:37

Had a look , very impressed , but how do you add links to other pages ?

Thought links like this might be usefull for anyone doing Search and Recovery , Boat Handeling and Diver Cox SDC's .

http://www.animatedknots.com/
http://www.layhands.com/Knots/Knots_SingleLoops.htm
http://www.layhands.com/Knots/Index.htm
http://www.42brghtn.mistral.co.uk/knots/42ktmenu.html

Comments

:cool:

Vic

24-11-2005, 13:43

Had a look , very impressed , but how do you add links to other pages ?

Just edit the page where you want the link to appear.

If you want to link to another Wiki page (i.e. an internal link), just enclose the name within double square brackets :

[[Page Name Here]]

Alternatively, if you want the link to appear with different text, try :

[[Page Name Here | Alternative text that you want to appear]]

If the link is external, use single square brackets:

[http://someurl.example.com/]

And if you want alternative text there, use a slightly different syntax from how it was done with the internal link:

[http://someurl.example.com/ Page title here]

HTH

Vic.

Edit: I should have mentioned that you can make an internal link to a page that doesn't exist yet. This is perfectly fine - it's one of the ways of creating a new page.

As a final P.S. : please feel free to make changes as you like (so long as they fit in with our usual principles of decency etc.). Everything you edit is recorded, and it's the work of a moment for anyone to undo any accidental mistakes. If you get really stuck, edit something into my Talk page at http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=User_talk:Vic - this sends me a message when I log in next.

cold_water

08-05-2006, 02:19

It would seem your group, around the same time as ours, has decided to start a scuba diving wiki. I have just seen your wiki for the first time. Our wiki is hosted at http://www.wikiscuba.com

That I know of, there are actually 4 different scuba diving wikis right now. Aside from the BSAC wiki and the one mentionned above, there is one which is only in swedish (I believe) and another one in the english language, but no substantial changes have been made in over 6 weeks.

I don't necessarily want to deter people from contributing to your (BSAC) wiki, but it seems to me that if they serve a similar purpose, then maybe they should be integrated. I will check this thread to see how members of this forum view this.

I have read this thread and it occured to me that it might be preferable to have the "ultimate scuba diving encyclopedia" be called by a name that doesn't refer to BSAC. That might address some of the problems your members have raised about the information contained having to be 100% accurate.

I'm just pitching ideas at this point. Input is obviously welcome.

Charles

Vic

08-05-2006, 09:32

I don't necessarily want to deter people from contributing to your (BSAC) wiki, but it seems to me that if they serve a similar purpose, then maybe they should be integrated.

You have 30 registered users of your wiki. You're not exactly mainstream; do you not think it would have been polite at least to have introduced yourself before using your first post to this forum to recommend we shut our Wiki down?

I have read this thread and it occured to me that it might be preferable to have the "ultimate scuba diving encyclopedia" be called by a name that doesn't refer to BSAC.

Given that the BSAC Wiki was set up in direct response to BSAC members asking for a Wiki of their own, I see it as a benefit that we do refer to BSAC.

If we just wanted a generic Wiki, we already had access to Wikipedia.

That might address some of the problems your members have raised about the information contained having to be 100% accurate.

Cobblers. The worries raised in this thread were about the *nature* of a Wiki. Moving our data into your database does nothing whatsoever to allay these fears.

Vic.

cold_water

08-05-2006, 16:45

Point taken.

My name is Charles, I'm originally from Canada, although I now live in the american midwest (temporarily, mind you, this lack of water is driving me insane). I'm a rather young diver, 30 dives, PADI AOW, working on their nitrox certification (again, the lack of water around draws the process to incredibly long proportions).

I apologize if I came out as somewhat of a bully. The main point of my post was not to suggest that you shut down your wiki. The main point of the post was to inform the people using this forum and this thread that, around the same time, other people have taken a similar initiative. If the goal of both wikis are the same, then I see this as somewhat of a shame to have two parallel projects doing the same thing.

On the topic of "mainstream":
I realized, while reading your post, that I assumed all 109 registered members on your wiki were BSAC members. I should not have assumed that necessarily, as there was no indication of this. Also note that we don't restrict modification of the wiki to registered users, so we've had contributions from anonymous users. All of our registered users are not from a single identifiable group. You could look at the number of pages as another indicator of how developped a wiki is. In that respect, we have more than you do. All this said, I think it's futile to have a debate as to which wiki is more "mainstream" than the other.

Were I to possibly propose to merge the two projects, I feel like there are two advantages to using the name wikiscuba. One is that it is recognizable for divers around the world (everyone knows about scuba, not everyone knows what BSAC is and it is in line with the naming "convention" of other larger wikis; Wikipedia, Wikitravel, Wikiscuba). The second one was an issue raised on this thread that any information linked directly to BSAC should be correct, since people view BSAC as an authoritative source of information. This cannot be ensured, at least in the beginning of the project. Having a name that doesn't involve BSAC (any name in this case, not necessarily wikiscuba) gives the wiki project a life of it's own and dissociates it from your organization. This was my original thought, but, as I said, it was only an idea, not my firm and immovable position. I was simply trying to start a discussion. I should have started the discussion with a question really. That would have probably been a more positive attitude. So here is my question:

It appears to me that both of our projects have the same goal, do you think it's better to have only one or two different wikis on this topic?

Again, I apologize if I was disrespecful.
Charles

Alison Boler

08-05-2006, 18:52

Charles
Thanks for that! Sometimes the ease of tapping in a forum post quite overshadows either what we mean or equally the tone we meant to use! I have been equally guilty at times of getting off on the wrong foot and forgetting/being unaware of forum etiquette in my enthusiasm for a topic.

Shall we start again then? Welcome to the BSAC forum and thanks for introducing yourself.

I'm not entirely sure about wikis in general. I've been an I.T. person all my life and 50% of me goes "yeah!!! Great! Give the readers the access and let em get on with it. Less work for me." The other half of me goes "Awww... no... chaos.... rubbish.... GIGO..."

Where are you diving in the midwest?? We used to live near Chicago and managed to find lots of lake diving - some small, some Great!!! Sorry, couldn't quite resist that.... :)

All the best

Allie

cold_water

18-05-2006, 23:18

Allie,

I had been somewhat unobservant of forum etiquette and regret it now. I also don't use forums that often, so I probably don't have quite the reflexes needed (as you can judge by this late reply, sorry about that too). I share some of your concerns about wikis, although in this case, I think that wikis about scuba diving and scuba diving destinations are probably a good idea. Between your reply and mine, someone pointed me to www.wannadive.net, which, it seems to me, is as close a "normal" website (if there's such a thing) could get to a wiki. It seems to me the fact that several different people and groups have come up with the idea of creating a scuba diving wiki around the same period shows a need for such a medium. (I'm not sure when wannadive.net started, so I shouldn't include it in this category readily. I may also be unaware of previous scuba diving wiki attempts that may have failed)

As for diving, I don't dive in Chicago right now. My studies have taken me to a much smaller town, much further away from Lake Michigan (and any other body of water for that matter). The semester just ended (another reason for the late reply) and I finally bought a decent car, so in the next few weeks, I'll drive to chicago at every possible occasion to see some of the small and great diving opportunities in that area.

Regards,
Charles

Alan Ewart

18-05-2006, 23:30

Alison Boler

19-05-2006, 10:25

Hi Charles
We used to live about 40 miles west of Chicago in a small town on the Fox River, St Charles.
Quite apart from the Great Lakes, there were some much smaller lakes around that were quite good for a quick "wet". One that sticks in my mind was called Crystal Lake. There was a dive shop on the shore plus they'd sunk all sorts of interesting objects into the lake - plane, bus, cars etc etc. It reminded us very much of an infamous inland site in the UK :) except Crystal Lake had really nice little beaches all around it, bbq pits at regular intervals and you could park right on the shoreline. Anyway, it was great for a casual dive.

We also dived Lake Geneva which is just across the border towards Milwaukee. Much bigger lake and also great.

Anyway, keep dropping in and let us know where you're diving.

Allie

MattDuke

19-05-2006, 11:30

Hi Charles, the "Swedish" one is actually Norwegian. (unless there is also one there)

We use it to post descriptions of dive sites (Dive guides) and it has been a great success.

Some of these are actually in English too, so "Foreginers" can use some of the resource too. :)

DIN wiki:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/

Some English guides:

Parat:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/index.php/Parat

DS Spring:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/index.php/D/S_Spring

Helga Ferdinand:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/index.php/Helga_Ferdinand

Frankenwald:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/index.php/Frankenwald

***************

Anyway, the point it, DIN chose wiki as it allows our members to do the hard work of updating the sites, and we are working on opening the database up with a few other wiki users, so we can share data. We also liked that we can sort sites based on location, skill level and type. very nice!

Wiki is a great tool!

Matt

Vic

19-05-2006, 12:11

the "Swedish" one is actually Norwegian. (unless there is also one there)

...and *very* good it is, too. Well done, Matt.

DIN wiki:

http://www.diving-in-norway.com/dykkeguide/

This is now in the interwiki capability of the BSAC Wiki - so if you want to link to DIN, you can just use an internal link of the form :

[[:din:Helga_Ferdinand]]

Anyway, the point it, DIN chose wiki as it allows our members to do the hard work of updating the sites, and we are working on opening the database up with a few other wiki users, so we can share data. We also liked that we can sort sites based on location, skill level and type. very nice!

I was rather hoping that something similar would happen for the BSAC Wiki as well - people have been moaning about not being able to influence the BSAC site for long enough - here's your chance.

A few things I would draw to everyone's attention :-

- We have a list of BSAC branches. You can find your area from this page (http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=BSAC_Branches)
- We have a list of Charter Boats. Start at the Charter Boat page (http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Charter_Boats_in_the_UK)
- There's also a list of Air and Gas suppliers (http://bsacforum.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Air_and_Gas_suppliers_in_the_UK). This is turning into something of a dive-shop list.

Feel free to add your own branch/boat/shop to the above list - but be warned that anything overly-verbose or even slightly spammy will be dealt with accordingly...

Wiki is a great tool!

I completely agree. We actually run most of the company on it in $DAYJOB. All we need to do now is to overcome people's fear of it - there's been far more traffic on this forum about how worried people are about Wiki than we've had users actually trying it :-(

Vic.