This post is to sketch out some ideas on how to exapt the features of Discourse to run a project like the WBA.
Wikified topic starters as entries, replies as the “talk page”
Witnesspedia entries are topic-starting posts. When you create one, make it a wiki by clicking on the wrench icon below the post, then on “Make wiki”.
When editing an entry, always add your reason for editing, so as to have a more informative revision history. To do this, click on the i icon next to the author’s name. This makes a text field appear, in which you should type the reason for your editing.
To comment on an entry without editing, hit the reply button and write your comment.
Tags as flags
Wikimedia has the idea of “flags”, that appear on entries to signal a request to make changes.
A similar function on Witnesspedia could be played by discourse tags. The first step is to make an ontology of Witnesspedia-related discourse tags:
-
#wp-reconcilefor inconsistencies. -
#wp-expandfor stubs or sketchy entries. -
#wp-economicsfor entries that need some screw-tightening in their economics.
The next step is to attach these tags to entries. This is done by clicking on the pencil icon next to the title:
Users trust levels and permissions
Trust levels regulate what users can and can not do in Discourse. In Edgeryders, new users enter at Level 1, and that means they can already create their own wikis. To edit other people’s wikis, however, a user needs to be Level 2 or above. This might create a bottleneck, if people jump in and want to start contributing. @matthias, are you OK with me experimenting in lowering to 1 the minimum level required to edit wiki posts?
Discourse allows high-trust users to edit other user’s content, and that, I imagine, includes adding tags. However, there are not th
I think it will not create any issues on the site, as all five spam posts we got since switching to Discourse have been posts, not wiki edits. (Way different from our Drupal times. Without a captcha like now, we’d have 10 spam users and 20 spam posts and wiki edits every day.)