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We have a Wiki?

NullSmurf

NullSmurf

Das Bruce
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
7,858
Location
Aurora, CO USA
Welcome CigarWiki.info!​

We done did it! Contained in 8 years of CP posts is the wealth of cigar wisdom and information. If you search correctly, you can find out how to tell a fake from a genuine cigar, how to season a humidor, how to tell if it's leaking, or how to repair one. You all know what is buried here. However, those diamonds are buried in the rubble created by all of us post whores. Search here is primitive at its best.

A few of our wordsmiths have already entered some of the work already done on CP. Much of the infrastructure has het to be completed, however, comma, the help files work fine. :thumbs: See

http://cigarwiki.info

That said, we take this new resource very seriously. Wiki, by its design, is an open database. The data it contains can be put there by anyone on the Internet. It is possible for some asshat to post the merits of the authentic glasstop Cohibas. So, it's up to us to keep it accurate and keep the shenanigans to a minimum. If you have something to post, register as a member. Any member can add, edit, or even delete.

As with all Wikis, ANYONE can add or edit, so there will likely be asshats. Wiki can be, but doesn't have to be a free for all. To keep it civilized, we CP members will be the editing committee. If you'd like to volunteer for that, please post here. You need not be an authority on ISOMs or be an expert taster. We will be forming a committee of editors charged with the responsibility of keeping Cigarwiki as accurate as we can. If you'd like to volunteer, or have comments or suggestions, please post here.

We also need volunteers with some graphics experience to spiff up some of the posts. There are also some 'how to' and other types of articles whose original contributors haven't the time that need to be transferred over, edited, and illustrated with their original pictures.
 
I hope this catches on. It can be a valuable resource as a "sister site" for Cigar Pass. I'll do my best to continue to contribute.

:thumbs:
 
Many thanks to those of you willing to share your vast knowledge. Because of you all, I will be on the internet more, Thanks!
 
Question, though. Is there any reason why you folks don't want to contribute to Wikipedia instead of making your own wiki? For instance, there's a nice entry on Tatuaje:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatuaje

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatuaje_Havana_VI

...seems like it might make sense to contribute to Wikipedia?

Wikis are all about no one owning the particular information, but rather a collective group effort. As such I'd really suggest you not fracture your efforts, and instead coordinate working on contributing to Wikipedia.
 
Moki and I posted at the same time.

Why host our own Wiki when there is a perfectly good one in wikipedia.org. There are already some good articles posted there. First thing that popped into my head was ownership and vanity. These are valid reasons, and not necessarily negative. There are plenty of examples of wikis out there that are topic specific. What do you think?
 
I don't really have strong feelings about having a specific Wiki. I was actually fine with just posting articles here at Cigar Pass.

I think Rod had a great idea in assembling the knowledge from CP and I'm willing to help out however I can no matter where it's posted.

:)
 
NullSmurf said:
Moki and I posted at the same time.

Why host our own Wiki when there is a perfectly good one in wikipedia.org. There are already some good articles posted there. First thing that popped into my head was ownership and vanity. These are valid reasons, and not necessarily negative. There are plenty of examples of wikis out there that are topic specific. What do you think?
Click to expand...

I'd suggest doing some searching of Wikipedia... you might be surprised by how well various cigar topics are covered. For example:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohiba_(cigar_brand)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar
 
There is a ton of info at CP, in which a lot of it is hidden in the posts. The goal was initially to pull out some of the information, and create a "guide to cigars" on CP. Then the idea of a wiki was suggested - makes more sense since everyone can contribute that way. The goal is to harness the information contained within CigarPass and expand upon it.

Wikipedia is a great site that I go to often, though its primary focus is not cigars. CigarWiki.info is geared towards cigar related information only. Main goal is to transform some of the very useful information at CP and place it over onto cigarwiki. Of course no one owns this information; it's a group effort much like everything else we do at CP.

Hope that better explains the purpose of cigarwiki.
 
LilBastage said:
I don't really have strong feelings about having a specific Wiki. I was actually fine with just posting articles here at Cigar Pass.

I think Rod had a great idea in assembling the knowledge from CP and I'm willing to help out however I can no matter where it's posted.

:)
Click to expand...

That's the other thing... CigarPass really is a wiki in a way... the only difference being that only the original poster can edit their entry. But since what has been proposed is an editing committee anyway, the wiki you're thinking of making isn't really a wiki anymore.

Wikis are really about anyone being able to edit/contribute to anything.

It seems to me that working to make the Wikipedia entries better, or working to build up the "pinned" posts on CigarPass and thus keep things more cohesive here would be a better way to do things.
 
moki said:
Wikis are really about anyone being able to edit/contribute to anything.
Click to expand...

I agree. Why require registration to contribute? The Wiki philosophy is that anyone should be able to edit anything. I'd take more ownership of something I wrote if I knew any asshat come along and edit it away. If I knew only registered users could do it, and we could track them down, confront/ban 'em, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Controlled chaos... let it work. :D

I don't have an opinon on the Wikipedia versus Roll-Your-Own debate... either one can link to the other, so what's the big deal?

---John Holmes...
 
JHolmes763 said:
I agree. Why require registration to contribute? The Wiki philosophy is that anyone should be able to edit anything. I'd take more ownership of something I wrote if I knew any asshat come along and edit it away. If I knew only registered users could do it, and we could track them down, confront/ban 'em, I wouldn't be too worried about it.
Click to expand...

Of course, what ends up happening is rampant wiki "vandalization" -- so you need people who will revert back any damaged entries.

I don't have an opinon on the Wikipedia versus Roll-Your-Own debate... either one can link to the other, so what's the big deal?

---John Holmes...
Click to expand...

Well, the point is that Wikipedia already has much of the info you might want to put into a cigar wiki... and it is what people doing a Google search are most likely to find. It might make sense to jump on the bandwagon, rather than try to splinter off.

If the point is to bring together information that is on CigarPass in various threads, that's a slightly different matter. But I wonder what the advantage of having it in a separate "walled off" wiki would be, as opposed to people spending the time to consolidate things into sticked posts here on CP.

I just get the feeling that the wiki will not be seen by most people (it would be much more visible inline as sticky posts on CP), and after an enthusiastic start, will likely atrophy.
 
moki said:
Well, the point is that Wikipedia already has much of the info you might want to put into a cigar wiki... and it is what people doing a Google search are most likely to find. It might make sense to jump on the bandwagon, rather than try to splinter off.

If the point is to bring together information that is on CigarPass in various threads, that's a slightly different matter. But I wonder what the advantage of having it in a separate "walled off" wiki would be, as opposed to people spending the time to consolidate things into sticked posts here on CP.

I just get the feeling that the wiki will not be seen by most people (it would be much more visible inline as sticky posts on CP), and after an enthusiastic start, will likely atrophy.
Click to expand...
I'm afraid I have to agree with Andrew on this one. For a number of good reasons, I do not believe an independent cigar wiki will thrive or that it is the best way to represent the knowledge and experience contained in this community. In my opinion, it would be superfluous.

The information developed and presented here in the forum capitalizes on two key factors to make it so relevant. First, it is managed by the originator, typically the person with the most invested in its presentation and most likely to continue improving and refining it. There is pride in "ownership" and that would be lost in a wiki format. Although the original post is not editable by the general populace, the thread provides something valuable: a running history of the dialogue centering on the information of interest. Second, the lively community in which this information is embedded puts in in the immediate context of the environment we "live in." We are here, our friends and antagonists are here, our knowledge is here and it is all bound by the minds and voices that give the information and the poster all the scrutiny it needs.

As far as the forum in concerned, we have all the tools to reference information in house. We have search, we have linking, we have PMs for private and posting for public communications. We have stickies and we have people sufficiently motivated to author. Before embarking on this effort, perhaps we should really ask ourselves what we need, why we need it, and how we will achieve this. That is a dialogue that I would feel is productive to engage in.

Wilkey
 
If its a byline you need, the Wiki route most likely won't suit you. As Andrew points out, wiki promotes a collaborative community. It is very easy to add, update, or access information. Wiki is hypertext database that is light years ahead of anything ANY community board software currently uses. Is a replacement for CP - certainly not! However, it offers a way to organize and present information simply not possible on the board.

We could undertake an effort to supplement what there is on Wikipedia, but for me, using CigarWiki satisfies a sense of ownership. This information is the best of CP. I just don't want it to be lost in the million or so articles already posted on Wikipedia. I did go over and do some searches. I found some really cool stuff. I could easily read for hours. However, I found some significant holes. I didn't do well searching for information on humidification beads. I did learn something about anal beads, though.
 
NullSmurf said:
I did learn something about anal beads, though.
Click to expand...

Next time you come over here, bring me a new keyboard. You owe me that at least.


Most of the people chiming in on this subject are knowledgable members of CP. We know how to extract the info contained within CP, if we need it. I would like to hear from some of the new guys, both to CP and Cigars in general. What is the guy who is most likely to be doing the research looking for?

As for Google results for Cigarwiki vs. Wikipedia, who cares. The site can be linked from any page on CP easilly enough. The primary goal should be to educate CP members and visitors, not the search community in general. Word will spread, other sites will link to it and it will climb the google ratings ladder.
 
Personally I'd like to see this continue. Cigarwiki offers a chance to maintain a database for all things Gars. As Bruce pointed out, Wikipedia has it's faults. I've learned the hard way you can't quote it in college papers either :0

GarWik would allow someone, like myself who doesn't always have the time and certainly sometimes the interest, to avoid reading all the personal anecdotes that go along with the sharing of the knowledge we are looking to obtain. Sure, CP has a word search, but we are still going to turn up posts about the subject (maybe) rather than articles that are straight forward and informative.

Bottom line here is, I'd use it. I'm with ya Papa Smurf.
 
I'd prefer cigarwiki over wikipedia as it would most likely be found by people looking for this information and passionate about cigars, which would probably lead to less random edits and easier upkeep. The search functions are good but do have their faults. It would be much easier to look first to cigarwiki to find the info all in one place rather than sifting through 10 threads and 100 posts. I've never used a wiki before, but if we go wiki I would prefer cigarwiki over wikipedia. If we are going for volume of vistors wikipedia would be the way to go, however if we are looking for a community resourse then I think cigarwiki is the better choice.
 
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