Wiki Announcement (2019-01-10)

Huh?

Template:JfanoteBy Greg FullerTemplate:Jfanote-end

JusticeforAnimals.org is being converted to a Wiki, running on the same platform as Wikipedia. You are looking at the new site in an early stage of conversion. After the conversion is completed, the site will be moved from wiki.justiceforanimals.org to justiceforanimals.org, replacing the current site. We will provide URL redirection for most of the posts on the current site, so that bookmarks and other links will not break.

Template:Jfanote Feel free to look around. Template:Jfanote-end

Background

Last year a friend put the bug in my ear about using Wiki software for justiceforanimals.org. I let the thought simmer but it kept popping up in my head. I looked at the features of MediaWiki—the software that Wikipedia uses—and did a few edits on Wikipedia to familiarize myself with how things work on a Wiki site. I didn't much care for the aesthetics, but I was surprised about how capable and well suited the software seemed to be for justiceforanimals.org, even without considering the possibilities for a wider collaborative effort.

So I set up an instance and started experimenting, still somewhat skeptical. But the more I learned the more convinced I became. I'm still in the process of rapid discovery, learning about footnotes, table of contents, tables, infoboxes, edit approvals, versioning, user permissions, etc. This immersive experience of beginning the conversion from the old site is allowing me to set up the overall structure for the site and the structure for various types of individual posts.

Take a Look

You can learn about the site by reading the Main Page, which is Wiki talk for home page. The greatest opportunity for outside contributions will be in two new Sections—Fact Sheets and Summaries. Visit the other Section Pages in the Sidebar Menu to see the kinds of entries in each section. See an example of a post that's been converted here.

Considerations

Cross-Linking. One consideration is the strong capabilities for cross-linking the information between posts and the sections, something that is much easier on with MediaWiki. I'm still somewhat in awe about how easy it is. With two new sections, this becomes even more important.

Collaboration. The ability to engage other contributors in a more collaborative effort will result in more content more quickly. Many possibilities exist for how this can be managed, and decisions surrounding this are under consideration. Among the possibilities:

• Allow anonymous users to edit pages and possibly create pages.
• Allow all registered users with verified emails to create and edit pages.
• Contribution by invitation. This would result in having a team of contributors, and the team could be large.

This kind and degree of participation would be very difficult with the current platform.

Copy Editing. Currently, all articles are copyedited by a professional copy editor, Isaac Nickerson. This has resulted in high-quality content. As more contributors get involved, it will be difficult to maintain this standard for all articles.

The platform supports flagging of content based on quality. We will use this feature, combined with an approval process, to make it clear to the user where an article stands in this regard. The goal is to have all foundational articles copy edited.

Richer Presentation. The Wiki platform has

Programming

Only two of the plugin programs that I wrote will have to be rewritten: One for the copy to clipboard functionality, and one to expand and collapse outline nodes.

I have not set up the Visual Editor yet, but I've used it on Wikipedia and it was one of my considerations in moving forward with a Wiki solution. Although Wiki markup notation is quickly learned, the Visual Editor will make it even more appealing. Even without the Visual Editor, ease of editing is orders of magnitude better than the current platform. The ability to edit small portions of a post quickly is a godsend.

A lot of work and thought went into this decision. All the factors would take too long to explain, but I'm confident this is a good move for the site, and for the site's mission.

Productivity

I have not been as productive in my writing as I had hoped for. Although the previous platform cannot be blamed for that, I have little doubt that this Wiki platform, once fully implemented, will help things go faster.

Moving Forward

There's lots to be done, some of which is on the To Do page. This includes improving the aesthetics, which I've already worked on quite a bit. I will be changing the fonts and other parts of the design before GoLive.

I'm excited about the current and future possibilities of being on a Wiki platform.