[gmx-users] GROMACS Wiki

[Erik Lindahl]

Hi Dallas/Mark,

Actually, we can give it a try - I'll see if I have time to set  
something up this week(end) and then assign all of you guys as  
editors/admins too :-)

A wiki is most probably better than a forum, too. The main reason we  
passed on the forum idea was that many users would only enter the  
forum to post their own question and there would only be a small  
number of people actively reading the forum to answer other posts on  
a daily basis.

The advantage of a wiki is that it encourages adding to discussions  
and making longer answers.

Cheers,

Erik

On May 2, 2007, at 3:13 AM, Dallas B. Warren wrote:

>> It's a good idea, but I don't think it will help a great
>> deal. The main
>> problem with frequently-occurring questions is that the
>> askers haven't
>> read the manual, the man pages, the web page, the FAQ or searched the
>> mailing list archives. In context, a Wiki would just be one
>> more thing
>> for them not to read :-) I remember back in December 2005 I
>
> Yes, for sure.  And you see that in pretty much any community like  
> this,
> whether is is "professional", "academic" or "hobby".  They all  
> struggle
> with similar issues.
>
> Suggestion is to provide somewhere that information can be collected
> together by pretty much anyone, distributing the load off the  
> developers
> who have much more important things to be doing.  Like making the code
> faster :-)
>
>> That said, there are frequently occurring questions whose
>> answers are in
>> the above documentation sources, but not easy (or apparently easy) to
>> find. It would be nice to be able to say when someone couples ions to
>> temperature baths independently "see
>> http://www.gromacs.org/wiki/should_i_couple_a_few_ions_to_a_he
>> at_bath".
>> Also being able to put one's mailing list answer up there straight
> away
>> would be useful.
>
> Yes, that is what I was thinking it would help out with.  Common
> question is asked on the emailing list, one of the people who respond,
> writes up a response which can then be added to the wiki, arranged  
> in an
> easy to find location.  Material is easily updated in the future, more
> details added, links to things etc.
>
> No idea if it would help, but it is a good option out there available.
> There are then all the issues with abuse of the wiki and all those  
> admin
> related things.  But there are ways to fix things like that.
>
>> It does require someone to take some charge of the organisation of  
>> the
> data on it, however.
>
> Certainly does.  Notice the hand up offering to give back to the  
> GROMACS
> community right here :-)
>
> Catch ya,
>
> Dr. Dallas Warren
> Lecturer
> Department of Pharmaceutical Biology and Pharmacology
> Victorian College of Pharmacy, Monash University
> 381 Royal Parade, Parkville VIC 3010
> dallas.warren at vcp.monash.edu.au
> +61 3 9903 9524
> ---------------------------------
> When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to  
> resemble
> a nail.
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