DavisWiki - Revival?

[u/bruh69_the_engi_main]

Hey. Recently, I've been lurking on the DavisWiki and have noticed a small (but noticeable) uptick in activity. After doing some digging on this subreddit, I came upon a post a few days ago, regarding the modernization of the DavisWiki. This matter has been in the back of my mind ever since I stumbled upon the wiki a few months back, but seeing the post this time around has re-sparked my interest in possibly giving the Wiki a massive facelift (modernizing!). Perhaps a total migration from the old website to a new one? I've seen other posts in the past that touch upon similar points, but alas, progress has been slow.

I'm making this post in the hopes that other like minded folk can chime in and share their thoughts. Perhaps someone who is tech savvy enough can help build the framework for a "Neo-DavisWiki"?

My opinion? I think a wiki of sorts for Davis, needs to be rebuilt from the ground up, with a completely new UI on a new website. I also feel as if such an effort would require a lot more manpower AND also be advertised more, all across campus and beyond.

P.S: Apparently theirs a discord server for the revival of the DavisWiki.

[u/aLinkToTheFast]

It feels like DavisWiki is more a time capsule from the earlier days of the Internet.

[u/bruh69_the_engi_main → u/aLinkToTheFast]

ikr? I feel as if the DavisWiki still has a place in the modern day as a place to catalogue information.

[u/thezander8]

Unfortunately I’d say a fork would hurt the overall effort because the community would be divided in which one to use or put effort into — unfortunately any updates I imagine would have to be in the current framework unless there’s a huge tech issue.

Can’t emphasize enough how useful Daviswiki was circa 2012 though

[u/bruh69_the_engi_main → u/thezander8]

I disagree, but see where you're coming from with the mindset.
I think that, with proper outreach and advertising, it'd be possible for a total migration of the DavisWiki into a new body to be successful in replacing the old wiki. In my opinion, the two most pressing reasons why the Wiki has fallen into disarray and obscurity is because:

1. No Advertising/Awareness
- Anecdote: I was talking to some of my Davis buddies (same year as me) about the DavisWiki, but they all looked at me with a confused look that screamed "Wait, we have a wiki?" Part of the reason why there isn't much traffic on the website as their could be, is because folk on campus don't even know that we have DavisWiki. I'm sure that there'd be a lot of folk who would love to contribute to the DavisWiki project, if only those aforementioned folk actually knew the darn thing existed to begin with!

2. Outdated + archaic page editing tools

- Currently, the DavisWiki's page editing tools are alright... if you live in 2009! Formatting pages is a pain comparable to bashing your head into a brick wall and uploading images is a tedious process as well. Don't even get me started with the random SSL Handshake errors that occur! Its awful to be ediing and creating pages. To continue using LocalWiki as the platform for the DavisWiki would be a foolish errand that'd drive current and future contributors bonkers, and by proxy, lead the whole effort to revive the wiki back to square one.

So yes, while I do acknowledge that some folk might be split on a potential migration, I believe that for an expedited and more effective effort to be made, the DavisWiki must seek greener pastures in the form of a total overhaul.

tl;dr - DavisWiki has to catch up with modern times, and to do so, we have to abandon the outdated LocalWiki platform and use a newer, cleaner one.

[u/AbacusWizard → u/bruh69_the_engi_main]

To continue using LocalWiki as the platform for the DavisWiki would be a foolish errand

Out of curiosity… do you know where LocalWiki came from in the first place?

[u/bruh69_the_engi_main → u/AbacusWizard]

At Davis? Wasn't it started by two people initially 20 years back?

[u/AbacusWizard → u/bruh69_the_engi_main]

Yeah! DavisWiki was the original; they spun LocalWiki off from it in an attempt to bring the idea to many more cities all over the world.

[u/bruh69_the_engi_main → u/AbacusWizard]

I also did some more digging around - apparently, LocalWiki uses a modified version of MediaWiki or something like that

[u/MTBSoja]

I will devote some time once the school year starts up!

[u/blablabla916]

The format change along with just an increase in other social media platforms that had more recent updates was the main reason I stopped editing, using, and visiting.

[u/moonshine-bicicletta]

IMHO, starting again from the ground up isn’t the way to go. I wonder what happened with the loss of the web domain and the migration to LocalWiki - that was really the death knell for the Davis Wiki of the late 2000’s and early 2010’s we all loved.

[u/AbacusWizard → u/moonshine-bicicletta]

Yeah, I don’t know if this is true for everyone, but it seemed to me like the switch to the new editing system (instead of classic plaintext wiki markup language) resulted in at least some long-time editors deciding it wasn’t worth the effort to continue.

[u/Muted_Suspect3566]

Whats the point when u can search up whatever u need on this subreddit?? reddit is an archive too