Making a Wiki was a rather interesting process.. I have never created a Wiki or added to a Wiki site, so obviously I was very nervous when I heard that we would be creating one. When I met with Nick, both of us had no idea on what our Wiki should be. I feel like I’m not really an expertise in anything. We both talked about what we liked doing, and a common interest was going out. We then decided to do a BufWiki on the local bar Third Base on Main Street since it’s a popular college kid’s bar.
We used Facebook in order to communicate with each other. I think using Facebook is very efficient since I am always logged on, and if I am not logged on then I receive instant notifications via text messages when I do receive a message on Facebook. It’s quick and easier than an email. (Well at least for me anyways, because I rarely check my email)
I think this group project has definitely been easier than past projects. Since everything can be done online it’s easy. We didn’t have to set up a time we could both meet and work on it (since everyone’s schedules are so hectic, this would be rather difficult) instead we used Facebook. This also made it easier to share file information. We could just send it through a message rather than having to put it on a flash drive or anything to that sort.
I liked doing this project more than any other project because we didn’t have to worry about meeting before or after class because everything was online! If I added something to the Wiki page and Nick thought it needed a little revising then he would just go to the page and fix it, vice versa. It was much easier than finding time when we could both meet, because as expected we both have different schedules.
We decided in class who would do what section of the article. After I found all my information and wrote it out, I just messaged it to him on Facebook. This way he could make sure our information didn’t overlap and anything he thought I was missing he could tell me and I could research more on that topic.
Before actually creating the Wiki page itself I wanted to learn more about the Wiki neighborhood. I found an interesting page which had a lot of facts about Wiki. For example, there are over 75,000 “hot authors” which are people who constantly add and update information on the site. Wikipedia also contains about 684 million viewers every year. It’s interesting how many people actual use Wikipedia verses how many people actually add to the site.
Making a Wiki is really not as easy as it sounds, and honestly I’m not so sure if I will ever make one again. I must have read the create a Wiki page a million times. Luckily in class we went over it, which made it a little bit easier to understand, that is until I went in and tried to add information to our page.
As I was adding information to our page, I noticed everything was moving around, and I thought I did this by error (since I was unsure of what I was doing as it was) so I just copied the information I had and moved it back to the way I wanted it. This happened a few times, I didn’t understand how I kept switching it around. I was getting frustrated. Then I went to click the edit button for the millionth time and an error occurred. Mr. Wiki Man (my made up name for him- whoever he may be) LOCKED my page!! Apparently, I kept undoing what he was fixing. I didn’t know! I thought I was accidently moving everything around! That was really annoying. So it took about 20 minutes before he decided to let me back in to edit our page. If that was not annoying enough he decided to take out some of my information. I was very mad at him.
After all the confusion was over with I learned that making a BufWiki was not really that hard, as long as you stick to Mr. Wiki Man’s rules. [WARNING : DO NOT TRY TO MESS WITH THE TEMPLATE] It took me back to the days of MySpace. I was one of those crazy girls that constantly had to change her background and font size and color so doing it on here kind of brought back memories.
The next day I decided to log back on and see if anything was changed on our page. I logged onto Buffwiki and looked at my creation and I had one file contribution. When I looked on the page I realized they just moved our photo from the bottom to the top right, but it still seemed exciting knowing that someone took the time to look at the page and change the page that we created!
All together, I would have to say that it was a project that I actually learned from. I feel like with a lot of past projects I have done I do it and that’s it. I don’t really take anything with me. This project gave me experience and it’s something that could actually be used again in my lifetime. For example, if I know someone that opens a restaurant, a bar, a club, or anything in Buffalo I could create them a Wiki page so that it could become publicized. I think it is very useful information to have. I also think that with this experience I can add information to a Wiki. I am not sure I will ever make a Wiki again (unless like I stated before I know someone who needs help or something like that) but I do think that if I am using the Wiki neighborhood I should add information here and there. If I know something on a topic that isn’t on the Wiki page yet I will add to it. I feel more comfortable doing this now since I actually know how to and because I have already added a site to the neighborhood.
Yes, like you mentioned on my blog, I also cannot helping referring to Wikis since it always comes first before any other websties. I mean, it is certainly up to one if he/she really wants to read Wiki, even though it is said that Wiki pages are not realiable at all since anybody can go there and mess it up instead of editing correctly--I am sure Wiki pages are neat and nice most of the time except when something like Michael Jackson's death happened for example...
ReplyDeleteI remember sitting next to you guys when your page got locked. It surprised me that there was actually someone with enough time on their hands to monitor the pages and change stuff, and then to lock your page when he didn't like what you were doing.
ReplyDeleteI also remember the myspace age and constantly changing things. Which is something I think was actually good. We as a generation already know more about HTML than we thought. Most of us figured out the basics of HTML when we were changing out Myspaces. We learned where to put colors, and fonts, and change the titles of things, and we were all young. I think that this actually set us up for a good future in computers. And maybe those who changed their Myspace often were those who are going to be the best at computer programming! haha
I completely agree with you on the whole not making a wiki page again. Its not something I think I would ever put so much time into again just for something to do. Since I don't really use Wiki I certainly don't feel obligated to contribute. Some people have more time on their hands than others and between work and school that's the last thing I am thinking about. The template was absolutely a pain in the a$$ and it was not a very fun project. Even though I think all of our pages came out great I am glad the project is done and over with!
ReplyDeleteGood work partner, glad we got the whole locked page thing figured out and were able to make third base a pretty nice Wiki page so now all of Buffalo knows more about Third Base, hopefully if we work together again you won't screw it up ;) just kidding it was fun working together
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