R.J. Steinert

Sorry to hear you guys are having troubles. It sounds like this is happening when you: 1. Click "choose file" 2. Select the file from you harddrive 3. Click Save at the bottom of the Form.

Is that correct? It is safer to do the uploading of the file and the saving of the form in separate steps in case the server has a hiccup or your connection is momentarily slow. As a best practice I recommend uploading images using the following steps. 1. Click "choose file" 2. Select the file from you harddrive 3. Click the "Upload" button next to File you just selected on the Form. 4. Wait for the upload to finish. 5. Click Save at the bottom of the Form.

I just performed the first operation I described above on the Root Washer and everything went OK. I did however run into a new bug, if you edit the Root Washer's profile and click "Remove" on the current image, the whole form disappears!

As the list grows it will become far too time consuming to find anything.

For some examples of types of search, check out Section 9, "How will users find information?", in my We believe in sharing document. I think the answer as far as searching goes is giving users a whole array of options. Hopefully we will grow to the point where we need Full Text Search, as they say "a problem we would like to have," but if we implemented it right now it would lead users to a whole bunch of searches with "No results found".

Perhaps one way to help implement this would be to allow the tool’s creator and editors to add tags to the tool’s profile which can then be used as the basis for the search

I'm into this idea. We've spent time trying to see into the future and predict how Tools will be categorized, and I like what we have so far, but perhaps now it's time to let users start "freetagging" in a Keywords category on Tools. A tag cloud will show what keywords are the most popular and if we start to seem some category trends in the Keywords vocabulary then we may have a candidate for a new category on Tools. Converting a bunch of content with a set of Keywords into a new category takes a little leg work but it's definitely a problem we'd like to have.

Perhaps there can also be some sort of dropdown menu which will allow users to select how they wish the tools to be sorted.

At the moment you can sort on the Stage, Type, and Last Tool Wiki Update columns. I think I can turn that sorting into a dropdown menu fairly easily as well.

...tools which are receiving a large amount of community support will appear at the top of the list.

I'd love to see this as well and it's high on my priorities for implementation. See the usage metrics I mentioned below in response to Dorn's comment.

If you go to a user's page, there is now a "contact" tab. See http://www.farmhack.net/user/8

The problem is we're not linking to user pages from anywhere right now. It's going to take a little leg work to modify all the templates that spit out a user's name.

"It would be nice to be able to see who was the last editor without going into the revision history..." Also agreed. Perhaps something near the top of a Wiki that says:

Posted by [username] on [post-date]. Last edited by [username] on [last-edit-date].

Proposal for new forum structure and using the "Forum-Wiki bundle" functionality for everything

I'm not revving to go on my proposal yet because of the reason I mentioned above, " if decide something is not a Tool, we don't lose the Forum and Wiki page when we delete the Tool," but my proposal is one idea on how we might structure things in the future.

I'm loving the discussion here. I'm all for using the tools we have and using outside tools at the same time. There are two concepts I want to throw out there for funding open source research and development.

In open source lingo, a bounty is sum of money offered for completing a development task that will be open sourced. In my experience this often starts as someone saying in a projects issue queue (a project issue queue is equivalent to a Tool's Forum) saying, "Hey! I need this thing done real bad," and then another person saying, "Ya! Me too but I don't know how to get it done," and then maybe some other people echoing the desire. The folks with the need then get together and dedicate some funds to complete it (or services or whatever) for someone to do it. Because they are talking about it in that project's issue queue, someone who knows how to complete that task and also has an interest in doing so eventually comes along and they strike a deal. w00t! The key here being the proximity of those who need something done and those who can complete the task, a network effect of saying, "Hey we need this, here's some funds," and someone close by saying, "I can do that."

Before there was Kickstarter, there was Reverse Bounty. A developer wants to get something done so they say, "Hey world! If you also want to get this thing done then pay me x number of dollars and I'll be able to do that!" The only thing Kickstarter added was a deadline for funding, and boy does that work! I've seen reverse bounties take YEARS.. unfortunately. The deadline creates a sense of urgency, but it also gives folks a sense that they are allocating a certain amount of funds in a specific time period and that matters in the real world where a tool is worth something to you in the next 60 days but might not be worth anything to you a year from now.

So if someone creates a Reverse Bounty (Kickstarter)/Bounty to do a production run of a Tool and they mention it on that Tool's Wiki page or Forum, they get that network effect of people with the same needs being close by jumping in.

Cool! Marking as fixed.

Thanks for explaining further Louis. I see there is still an issue with that way of making links at the moment so I'll try to work the kinks out right now.

Ah, you just found a bug. I think I fixed it, go ahead and try that link again.

Hi you two. Ya, I set the upload limit incorrectly. There was also a file upload but no image upload on comments and an image upload but no file upload on Forum topics. All should be fixed now.

My first shot at a definition of a Tool Wiki:

A Tool's Wiki is collaborative document that represents the collective knowledge of a tool that bubbles up from the Tool's Forum.

I like that answer because it describes our collaborative process using Forums and Wikis but it lacks insight on exactly WHAT should bubble up from the Forum to the Wiki.

Before we set any strict guidelines I think we should see what happens, and in doing so, see what works and what doesn't, and I have a feeling that "What a Tool Wiki should be" will depend on the Tool. But, we may be able to start setting a few guidelines as to "What Tool Wiki pages are not." Wikipedia uses a list of "What Wikipedia is not" to help describe what Wikipedia Articles on Wikipedia are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not.

It's worth mentioning that the use of Instructables embedded directly on a Tool Wiki as opposed to just a link to an Instructable is at odds with the definition I suggested above. Specifically, an Instructable in not the "collective knowledge of a tool that bubbles up from the Tool's Forum". The Instructable is on another site and the owner of the Instructable may be unaware that there is a forum about their tool on Farm Hack where new information is coming to light. An Instructable is also not a "collaborative document" because only the original author of that Instructable can edit it. I make this sound worse than it it really is :P. In my opinion Instructables should ABSOLUTELY be listed on our Tool Wiki pages but displaying it in a way that makes it look like it's part of our site is confusing as to the nature of that documentation. So for Instructables, I think a simple link would to the Instructable suffices.

This leads me to my first suggestion of what Tool Wiki pages are not:

A Tool wiki should not contain other embedded websites but may contain links to other websites.

Ok, I removed the "Add wiki page" link until we find a solid need for it.