Happy New Year! (Wiki README)

[Ron Hale-Evans <rwhe@...>]

Happy New Year!

Please read the following important information if you are a user of
the Piecepack Wiki <http://www.ludism.org/ppwiki/> or might want to
be.

This morning, 1 January 2004, I upgraded the MoinMoin software that
drives the wiki from version 1.0 to version 1.1.  Here are some of the
changes that users of the wiki may notice:

* Lots of new pages, especially help pages.  (I recommend starting with
  the new WikiCourse page if you want to learn more about wikis.)

* The ability to create PowerPoint-style slide shows.  (The WikiCourse
  is a slide show.)

* Improved support for usernames and passwords.  Now you can really
  log in to the wiki, and you won't have to have the wiki email you a
  link to let you log in, unless you forget your password.

* Random quotes.  If you edit the FortuneCookies page, you can add
  random quotes that will pop up in different places on the wiki.  See
  the RecentChanges page for an example.  Copy the code at the top of
  the RecentChanges page anywhere you would like to have a random
  quote appear, such as your home page.

* You can force "fancy links" to open in new windows by prepending
  a caret ('^'). Example:

  [^http://ron.ludism.org/ Ron's Info Closet]

* New "fancy diffs" for when you want to see the difference between
  versions of a page.

* Several bugfixes.

Unfortunately, the feature I most wanted to see in this upgrade, an
RSS feed for RecentChanges, is broken with the current version of the
software.  I have communicated with several MoinMoin developers, and
they are not sure what the problem is.  They are working on it,
though, and we're not the only users to experience it.  I have
disabled the RSS feed until someone finds a solution.  If you are not
familiar with RSS feeds, here is a great introduction:

  http://archive.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2003/12/04/rss/

There is one other potential change I would like to talk to users of
the wiki about.  With the current version of MoinMoin, it is possible
to display something like the following text when a user is editing a
page:

  By hitting Save Changes you put your changes under the
  GnuFreeDocumentationLicense. If you don't want that, hit Cancel to
  cancel your changes.

If you click on "GnuFreeDocumentationLicense", it should take you to
the text for the license, which can also be read here:

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt

I have already implemented this on my new Glass Bead Game Wiki, so
feel free to play around in the sandbox there to see this feature in
action. Please don't add any pages that are not related to the subject
of the Glass Bead Game Wiki, of course!

  http://www.ludism.org/gbgwiki/WikiSandBox

The terms on the licensing page of the GBG Wiki read,

  All data on this wiki entered on or after 01 January 2004 is
  copyrighted by its author in the year it was entered, and permission
  is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify it under the terms of
  the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version
  published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
  Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
  version 1.2 of this license is included below.

In other words, users "own" the copyright to their own text and
images, but they make it freely available to the community.  This is a
standard "free" license that is used widely, not least for most
piecepack games.  I would like to add this feature to the Piecepack
Wiki, but I don't want to do so until there has been a discussion of
the issue.  I will give users on this list until 1 February 2004 to
ask questions, give opinions, and raise objections.  If there are no
serious objections by 1 February, I will implement this feature on the
wiki.  I hope there are no serious objections; in my opinion, it is
important to have a license like this for the data on the wiki because
of the freedom-of-information ethic that prevails in the piecepack
community, not to mention the wider community of wiki users.

Again, my best wishes for everyone reading this in 2004!

Piece,

Ron Hale-Evans
wiki admin

-- 
    Ron Hale-Evans ... rwhe@... ... http://ron.ludism.org/
	 Center for Ludic Synergy, Seattle Cosmic Game Night,
Kennexions Glass Bead Game & Positive Revolution FAQ: http://www.ludism.org/