I noticed that Trust Level 3 (Regular) forum members can create wiki posts, but as far as I can see from the Badges page nobody on this forum has hit TL3 yet. I think wiki posts would be good to have for some topics so that newer users searching for FAQs can get to the most current info right away rather than having to read the full discussion in case corrections have been posted later. For some topics, the original post gets edited with updates, but that puts all the work onto one person plus I think there are some limits on how long you can edit a post for.
What does everyone else think? Would wiki posts be useful?
@willowflat_warrior@kahikateatree@dave_e you’ve all started some active how-to topics that I’ve seen, would you have found it useful to be able to create an initial post that both you and the community can then edit/update over time as best practices are updated?
I believe that only forum users who have been granted the “Basic” trust level can edit wiki posts, i.e. not brand new users or casual spammers! I don’t often see malicious edits on Wikipedia, so hopefully wouldn’t be an issue here either - we all have the same goal of removing pests even if we sometimes disagree about methods
I’m not a huge fan of editing long-ago posts because it destroys the timeline, pretty much all online forums show you new posts since the last time you logged on so you can scan through any new stuff, but if earlier posts can be edited it means you have to look in various different locations for updates. Reddit is a extreme example of that, months-old threads and posts will suddenly pop up as new again because someone edited a typo somewhere. That’s just a personal preference though, not based on any sound technical premise.
Hi Christina
this reply might get a bit long but will explain where I’m coming from. It may come across as a bit arrogant but not intended that way.
I have been working in animal pest control and species work for over 20 years and have an engineering background which helps with problem solving
What I have found is a lack of good practical knowledge to help people and people crying out for better ways to do things like trapping, or in some cases just how to do it. Unfortunatly the likes of DOC Predator Free and Manufacturers are just not pulling their weight.
I reduced some of my other conservation work to try and find solutions to problems people had. The user friendly Sentinel is a good example and Philproof now manufacture my Baffle systems which took six months and 50,000 videos to develop.
I have a small group of very experienced people to call on for second opinions etc so what I post is well thought out and field tested mostly over a couple of years, ( the Camo Tape is an exception )
I tried for a couple of years to get Predator Free to make a section on how to do stuff all peer reviewed so it wasn’t just one persons view. The idea there was “living documents” so as say good stoat bait came along that that actually was proven it got added to the list, That never happened so I turned to Trap NZ.
I requested that Trap NZ started the Tips and Tricks section. The idea was that only proven peer reviewed work should go there. Basically a take it or leave it situation, but obviously there are no controls over who can post there and add comments.
Yesterday I posted the extensions to DOC box that we are introducing to a project after a few Kiwi deaths. There is a heap more simple practical stuff that can go there it is a matter of sorting out what the average person needs.
So far I think the Tips and Tricks section is working well and not bogged down with long threads but people still have the right to add a comment
The possum Trapping paper is a good example of what I was trying to do in giving people a basic knowledge as a starting point from which they can grow as they get experience, that went to four very experienced people as a draft before being released.
So I guess where I stand is people are welcome to comment and add their experiences but if people start to have the right to edit my work, I’m out.
Amusing enough I don’t even use the trap app, spreadsheets and paper maps are the way I go
have a good day
Good point @kahikateatree, it would be annoying if old posts kept showing up due to small edits! Likewise significant edits not being flagged as new. I don’t know how Discourse-based forums handle that issue.
@dave_e, this is what I thought the wiki posts might be good for. Everyone’s normal posts stay non-editable just as they are now, but TL3 users have an additional option to create editable posts for exactly the sort of situation you mention of ‘lure recommendations’, where the information is always changing as old brands go out of production and new brands start up.
I don’t know whether the “private lounge area” that Regular users apparently get access to would facilitate peer-reviewing - I’d been wondering what it was supposed to be used for, and maybe that’s the answer! Again, all still hypothetical as we don’t currently have any Regular/TL3 users, but maybe we will in the future.
I don’t think the private lounge, or in fact anything that’s non-public, is a good idea for posting general information because the people who need it most can’t see it. Some sort of Wiki would be a good idea, depending on whether the Trap.nz software supports it - if it’s a case of flipping a switch that seems pretty easy, if it’d require a lot of setup work then probably less so.
In terms of people editing my contributions to a Wiki, I’d welcome that, if I’m wrong or there’s a better way to do something I want to know about it. I can understand @dave_e 's comments about someone editing a peer-reviewed technical document, that’s going to turn into a huge mess when you can no longer tell which part was the original carefully-reviewed doc and which was a random edit, but a Wiki isn’t that, it’s a collaboration that’s designed to have multiple contributors. So if you want to included original text from a technical document you can just use the Wikipedia practice of quoting it with a citation, and no-one will touch that particular part of it.
As a random afterthought, members-only areas in other forums tend to be (a) little-used and (b) mostly a dumping ground for random personal stuff that isn’t terribly appropriate in the public areas, “does anyone know how to get a three-year-old to eat their veges?” on an electrical engineering board for example.
As far as I can see the wiki function is tied to existing forum settings, which come from Discourse, and anyone who reaches Trust Level 3 can create a wiki. According to this post on trust levels:
Trust Level 3 – Regular
Regulars are the backbone of your community, the most active readers and reliable contributors over a period of months, even years. Because they’re always around, they can be further trusted to help tidy up and organize the community.
To get to trust level 3, in the last 100 days…
Must have visited at least 50% of days
Must have replied to at least 10 different non-PM topics
Of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 25% (capped at 500)
Of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 25% (capped at 20k)
Must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.*
Must not have received more than 5 spam or offensive flags (with unique posts and unique users for each, confirmed by a moderator)
Must not have been suspended or silenced in the last 6 months
‘*’ These likes must be across a minimum number of different users (1/5 the number), across a minimum number of different days (1/4 the number). Likes cannot be from PMs.
I’m pretty sure we’d have a lot of people who match the description of a “regular” and who are hitting the visiting and reading targets, so my guess is that the defaults for number of replies and number of likes are probably why we aren’t seeing anyone reaching TL3, and therefore why wiki functions haven’t appeared yet. The settings and permissions look to be customisable for individual forums, so I presume the TrapNZ admins could adjust either the requirements of TL3 or the trust level needed to create wikis, if there is enough interest from the TrapNZ community in using those functions.
Good to know that members-only areas are prone to off-topic posts, the community guidelines might need to address that if the “private lounge” functionality switches on in the future!
For TL3 you need to be a pretty active and regular contributor to active discussions, which is fine for sites talking about Trump or Ukraine or whatever but doesn’t really work for a site where people exchange suggestions on the best position for a Timms. So I think it’d be more a case of the admins deciding to turn a worthwhile post into a Wiki article.
I think members-only areas are a sort of implied sink for off-topic posts, it’s stuff that’s not really appropriate for (on-topic) public forums, I don’t know how much action is necessary there. I’ve just looked in the members lounge for another board and it’s mostly just comments about problem users and site issues, with the odd kid-eating-their-veges sort of post. There’s also not much activity compared to the rest of the site, this is a site that averages 500 posts and 0.5M views a day.
And looking at some of the other stats, there are many users there whose total online time, so cumulative hours, amounts to years and who average ten or more posts a day. So definitely TL3 folks there (probably even TL072 come to think of it).
Hi
I may not have explained properly when I say the papers I write are peer reviewed, that is independent of Trap NZ, just a group of very experienced people contractors etc that all have over 20 years in the field and I trust their opinions,
One of the reasons for wanting the tips and tricks was that good stuff gets lost in a pile of posts.
Compared to other forums which I have basically given up on I think Trap NZ works fairly well and I don’t see much in the way of waste of time posts, people seem to be fairly respectful
have a good day
Im not sure what a forum post is, but this forum has some real gold in it, some of which is aging out.
The following post inactive for over a year, but contained so much knowledge - would a wiki forum post version of this be worthwhile ?
