Well, they sound like very interesting ideas. I was also very pleased to see an immediate and strong response to the call for help. I checked out the link to TWiki, looked at their FAQ page a bit, and it seems quite robust. Though it would take some getting used to. The Tavi format we are using now was pretty easy to pick up and I'm used to it. I'd like to hear how others feel on this.

On the idea of how to move all the info, now that is scary. Sure, organizing the StrongBadEmail pages was big, but we all knew what we had to do. Create, copy, delete, and re-link. All point and click kind of stuff. But I'm not sure everyone would be able to do that kind of mass migration and I'd be worried things would get lost. I also would not want the burden to be completely on Joey's shoulders. Once again, I'd like to hear what others think.

And the forum idea sounds good. It is always kind of hard to mix and separate the info and the comments. Someone may have a comment for a particular area, but then it is talked about elsewhere, and so forth. Not bad an idea at all.

-- Tom

forum idea good. me like.
but seriously, i don't think the move would be that hard, i mean, we had nearly 100 members last time i checked. -JamesGecko


Are you sure that there's no way to convert the database except by hand? Because I think that getting a better Wiki system would be great, but to have to convert the entire Wiki by hand (1074 entries according to RecentChanges) would be a chore I don't know anyone would be up to.

I like the forum idea though, I think that a lot of chat on actual information pages really clutters things up.

-- Gemini


I would have to look at the database structures. I'd like to get the new hosting account running and install Twiki to play with it a bit. There may be a way to migrate most of the data, and we may be able to convert most of the text formatting too. 1074 documents does sound like a bit much. Keep in mind, though, that a lot of that is WikiChat and UserSpaces. The UserSpaces would just get moved by their owners, and the WikiChat doesn't necessarily need to be moved (unless we want to copy it to the forum, but I don't think that would be necessary). The real content is the transcripts, easter eggs, character bios, etc.

Does anyone have expertise with MySQL? and/or regular expressions? I know how to use phpMyAdmin pretty well, but I don't know much else about data migration. I'll see what I can do (hopefully with some help) to move as much of it as possible, but there still may be work to do. --JoeyDay


Joey, I'm pretty good with MySQL? and if you'd allow me read access to the database (or even if you could send me a .SQL of the table structure and a hundred or so rows) I could see if there's anything in my realm of experience that could be done. I'm afraid that rebuilding the pages in a new format by hand would be a nightmare, even with everybody putting in a couple hours a day, so I think we'd have to figure out a scripted solution. I'm not too good with Regex, but I'd like to take a look at it at least. Even if migrating the formatting stuff turns out to be trivial, if the way links are represented in the database turns out to be radically different, we might hit a brick wall. -- InterruptorJones


What should the domain name be? I've been looking up available domains down at Go Daddy (maybe there's a better registrar somewhere that you guys know about?) and the following are available:


I'm torn between the last two, although I think a case can be made for the first one even though it is long. They are all good.

All of these are available with ".org" extensions as well. Which should wo do? We aren't a commercial endeavor, so I think a ".org" extension would be appropriate. However, people generally try the ".com" extension before anything else.

What does everyone think? --JoeyDay

If I was going to choose from the three listed, I would have to go with www.hrwiki.com. And if it was going to be with an .org, that would be cool too. -- Tom

This has been added to the WikiPolls for further voting... --JoeyDay

PrincessofStrongBadia: Please don't be offended that I removed your vote over on the WikiPolls. I highly value everyone's opinion. Unfortunately, www.hrwiki.joeyday.com will no longer be an option once we move to our new domain host. In order to keep the current name I would have to move my entire site to the new location, which I don't really want to do. I would like to host the wiki in a separate place in order to give it as much room to expand and grow as possible. This is kindof unfortunate, since it will require spending an additional $10/year for a domain name, but I think it's worth it. Please feel free to add additional ideas for a domain name, but be sure to check them for availability first using a whois database. --JoeyDay

The best one in my opinion would be hsrwiki.com, because most people when guessing a website in the address bar would put the .com extension, and hsrwiki because homestarrunnerwiki is too long, and hrwiki.com doesn't really show that it is about Homestar Runner, but most people would know that hsr stands for Homestar Runner. ~Rainer~

No, hsrwiki looks ugly. hrwiki works fine. -- Gemini

Actually, I think "hsrwiki" is quite a valid name. I could lean either way, but let's let the polls decide. If anyone wants to change their vote, feel free to do so. --JoeyDay

Why .org? this isnt very much of a referance site, only to homestar - hehehomestar


I've found [Go Daddy] to be an excellent registrar with good support, customer relations, and a very useful customer admin area. -- InterruptorJones

Yeah, I've got four domains registered there, and have recommended them to four or five friends who now have domains from them. They are the best registrar I've found. I have only found one registrar that had better prices, and, after a few minutes of research, discovered they were a fraud. I would trust Go Daddy with my life. They've been that good to me. My question is: can we find a better hosting package? I've hosted with OnSmart? before and they were very good. I wouldn't have left if it weren't for the hosting company my bro-in-law and I set up. The deal they are running right now is the best I've ever seen. Wasn't there another good one you showed me, Jones? They set you up with a free year or something? --JoeyDay

The host I mentioned to you was http://www.1and1.com/ .. they had a promotion at the beginning of the year where they gave away 3 years of free hosting to anyone who signed up (and no discernable catch). Sadly, the promotion is now over. I can't really speak about their reliability or service, however, since I haven't yet had a chance to host a real web site there (so far I'm just using it for auxilliary storage and that counter on my userpage). Their prices look good, though, and you might be able to turn up some testimonials on Epinions or elsewhere.

Concerning the Forum, I think it's a good idea. WikiChat is nice, but without a way to automagically organize topics and posts chronologically, etc., it gets out of hand quickly. And WikiChat is centered around opinions rather than fact, so I don't think we'll miss the ability to edit what's been said before.

P.S. Any further thoughts on switching Wiki software?
-- InterruptorJones

COPPA. Anyone under 13 can't use the forum, due to restrictions by law. We should at least keep WikiChat -- JestersOfTheMoon

That's not accurate. Anyone under 13 can't do so without a parent's permission, and the law applies to WikiChat, too. -- InterruptorJones

Ugh. Do not make it a forum. The entire point of this being a wiki is so anyone can add their info to any page. If we change it to a forum, then only the original poster, mods and admins can change a post. Plus forum searches almost never give you what you want. As for a domain name, I like www.homestarrunnerwiki.com, because it's better for search engines. Or .org. --Dark Grapefruit

But they're only talking about changing the WikiChat to a forum, not the whole site. I don't really want to change other people's personal comments, and I hope no one wants to change mine, so I think the forum structure for WikiChat -- where everything is personal comments -- makes sense. --DungeonGirl

I agree with the idea of seperating the wiki and wiki chat. In my mind, the wiki is a database of knowledge. It's a place where you can go to find out information on the individual emails/toons/whatever, without having to dig through mounds of opinions. However, it is nice to have a place to express your opinion on a subject (I just don't feel that it belongs in the wiki, other then places like WikiChat). Plus, as DungeonGirl says, there really isn't any reason that you need to have the wiki structure in a forum. You don't really need to change others comments, and you hope that people won't change yours. So that's how I feel, for what it's worth.
-Stu

Remember, most forum packages come with poll functionality, so we could relegate the mess that is WikiPolls to a more structured (and less vulnerable-to-mucking-about-with) setting. -- InterruptorJones

I just want to reiterate that this fan site will always be a wiki, no matter where we move or what happens. The wiki format is by far the best way to keep a knowledge-base of information that is: (1) collaborative, (2) organized, and (3) free. If we add a forum, it will always be secondary to the wiki, and will only be used (as has been mentioned here already) to facilitate chat and polls. --JoeyDay

Why does the domain name have to change? I like it just the way it is. -da princess

JoeyDay already answered this question above. -- InterruptorJones

Oh.........<:D

The forum is great and seems to be working out quite well. There are places, however, where I feel it might be advantageous to keep the original WikiChat. I'm thinking particularly of quasi-informational parts such as the getting to know you section, where information about wiki users is collected. This is hard to do in the forum because old posts start to get, well... old. It's excellent for current conversations but annoying to go through long strings of posts if you happen to become curious about a particular user's age or location. I noticed that the WikiChat hasn't been DELETED yet and some people are still using it through the RecentChanges even though there is no longer a link to it from the main page. How would you feel about keeping it, or perhaps creating a "getting to know you" section of the wiki just for user information?

--Fishie McGee