Using the Iron Giant section of the forum
leiger wrote on 21 Aug 2009 11:54
Thread title
Please title your thread with the URL of the template. For example: personal-template.wikidot.com
Thread content
Iron Giant projects can be marked with one of the following tags:
- _irongiant-notready — The template is still being developed and is not ready for deployment
- _irongiant-ready — The template is ready, but is waiting to be made available to people to use it
- _irongiant-deployed — The template has been deployed, and can be used (first post should contain instructions)
Please add the tag _irongiant-notready to your thread after you have created it.
This is done using the following code on the thread:_template page:
[!-- Begin IRON GIANT tags --]
[[iftags _irongiant-notready]][[size 130%]]##green|This Iron Giant site is **not ready for deployment**##[[/size]][[/iftags]]
[[iftags _irongiant-ready]][[size 130%]]##green|This Iron Giant site is **ready for deployment**##[[/size]][[/iftags]]
[[iftags _irongiant-deployed]][[size 130%]]##green|This Iron Giant site **has been deployed**##[[/size]][[/iftags]]
[!-- End IRON GIANT tags --]
What to do next
You should also add your new template to the following site: http://irongiant.wikidot.com/
Comments: 10
page revision: 7, last edited: 19 Oct 2009 14:32
Shane, nice idea, but don't you think this categorisation should happen on the irongiant site itself?
Portfolio
Suppose so… but then what is this forum for?
Having just one page on irongiant.wikidot.com seems like a waste to me… or is that website going to eventually allow people to use the templates automatically, instead of having to request a clone?
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
In my view, the iron giant site is the definitive summary of all the projects currently on the go, and therefore a very good place to identify their current status. It is the place to go when you wish to copy a template for a new site, so it is the best place to see whether that template is indeed ready to be copied.
I see the forum as the place to discuss the issues/direction of each project during its development process, etc. So, I expect most conversations to be about unfinished projects.
Well, that's how I see the functional split working between these two sites.
Having just said that, you don't get that sense from the comments under the section headings. They all read something like "Come to this section to report problems, or ask questions about using…". This sounds like the kind of thing that could be covered in the community forum, in which case, why duplicate the effort here?
I would suggest that here is the place to report problems while a template is being developed, but not necessarily once it has been rolled out. I assumed from the title "Wikidot Projects Forum" that it was for on-going project related discussion during the development phase, since there was nowhere else provided for this type of communication before now.
Of course, it is not my project, so my take on this could be worth diddly squat!
You're probably right. Though I imagined this as a version of the community forums designed just for the different types of ongoing projects.
Even after a project has been completed, it is still ongoing. Suggestions can be made and it can be improved.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
We could add an issue tracker to irongiant.wikidot.com. But we actually need one on themes.wikidot.com and handbook.wikidot.com and packages.wikidot.com as well. And we need a place for announcements. And to discuss ideas such as "I'd like to make X change to all template sites".
The community forums mainly focus on wikidot.com and perhaps snippets, but these projects are layered on top of that, interest a more specialized audience, and have their own life cycles.
Portfolio
So, using the sand vs. stone metaphor, this site is for sand, and the project sites are for stone.
Shane, I've copied your personal-template information here - http://irongiant.wikidot.com/project:personal-template
We can start to formalize the irongiant site to categorize the templates. There are a bunch more I want to make…
Portfolio
Which I never understood! :)
I think I know what you mean, I'll knock up something quick now.
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)
Ah, grasshopper. Most of what we write and say is like writing in sand on the beach, it has sense for a short time and then becomes meaningless, forgotten, and this is right. A perfect memory is a curse. 90% of content on Wikidot is writing in the sand, and part of the joy of Wikidot is how easy it is to do this. But 10% of what we write is carved in stone, solid knowledge that we want to transmit to later generations.
For young people this is less obvious because they either treat all their work as sand, or as stone. But a successful creator always separates the chatter from the end result.
It is a standard 'failure pattern' to mix these without thought. E.g. using email as stone, or PDFs as sand.
We develop better patterns, such as comments (sand) on pages (stone). Or, wiki section (sand) beside a design section (stone). Or, forum wiki (sand) and irongiant wiki (stone).
Portfolio
All of those examples in the last paragraph are making my head spin… but I believe I understand it now :)
~ Leiger - Wikidot Community Admin - Volunteer
Wikidot: Official Documentation | Wikidot Discord server | NEW: Wikiroo, backup tool (in development)