MATRIXSYNTH: MATRIXSYNTH WIKI and Discusson List?


Wednesday, January 14, 2009

MATRIXSYNTH WIKI and Discusson List?

Update: I've decided to put this on hold. It turns out the Wiki site has a 100M limit which is a non starter for synth images, audio samples and the like. The votes on the list vs. forum below favor the forum and I do not want run both as it would just dilute information further. So.. for now things will remain as is. Thanks for taking the time out to vote and provide feedback everyone.

NOTE: this would have zero impact on the blog. This would mainly be for your use, not mine.

I've been toying around with the idea of a WIKI and Discussion/Email List.

Here's why:
WIKI
A number of people have suggested I turn MATRIXSYNTH into a WIKI that everyone can contribute to. That obviously isn't going to happen. MATRIXSYNTH the blog is what it is, a blog and it will remain the same. I do see the value of a WIKI though. There's Wikipedia, but when it comes to "EVERYTHING SYNTH" it can be difficult to navigate. There are also other synth wiki's out there, but most are either centralized on a single synth/topic or they get lost in the shuffle. I'd like to think our WIKI will have a chance as I can make it a permanent link in the header above. Note a WIKI is only as good as those that contribute to it and with the blog I will have very little time myself. That said, it will probably be a slow process, but I like to think long term. In five to ten years from now it could be quite the resource. I created one here and I added the list of manufacturers from my labels. Note in our world manufacturers include one offs and people that design synths, not just businesses. Vote below on whether or not you think this is worth doing.



Discussion/Email List
We currently have the Forum, however there are two problems with it. One it's hosted on a paid server so as it grows the cost of hosting it will grow and should something happen to me it will go down. Two, you have to actually go to it to see what's new and if you are tight on time like me, you may not check often. There are questions there that go unanswered and honestly there hasn't been much traffic on it, so I'm thinking now might be the right time to move to a Discussion Group. With a list, you don't have to do anything. The emails come to you and you can decide to engage or not. You can organize everything that comes in on your end as you want it and everything will be archived online. The Analog Heaven, SDIY and Waldorf lists are amazing for this. But... Analog Heaven has a strict rule on analog only, SDIY is pretty much SDIY and Waldorf, Waldorf. There's a list called Digital Hell that is supposed to compliment Analog Heaven for everything else, but it really doesn't get much traffic. The discussion list will be hosted here. Note that although the UI isn't great, most activity will be via email. The site will just serve as a searchabe archive. Another thing worth noting is that with the old forum you had to create a new separate account. The WIKI and the Discussion List are hosted by Google, so you can use a gmail account for them as well as comments here on the blog. Vote below on whether or not you think this is worth doing.



NOTE: for those voting no, feel free to comment why and/or email me directly with why. You can find my contact info on the bottom right of the site.

10 comments:

  1. Not sure you remember this one, but It's something that I think had it's inception in the Matrixsynth forum a while back.

    http://www.boxoftextures.com/synthwiki/tiki-index.php

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Matrix!

    Your Blog is great, has always been great and will be even greater in the future.

    Please keep on focusing your Blog if you think that's what you can do best!

    HAHA my word verification is MULTS!

    ReplyDelete
  3. My main concern is that the Blog remain unchanged. It's so great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My thought is: choose someone else's wiki, and link to it heavily.

    Push traffic to it and let your readers post items to it. They ought to be encouraged to help on a volunteer basis, in return for all the massive effort you obviously expend on this blog.

    It works for Wikipedia (in spite of the often poor quality of the results).

    I could link to it from metasonix.com and deviant synth. But you choose which one is deserving.

    ReplyDelete
  5. im with metasonix and Robbie!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This would have ZERO impact on the blog. I wouldn't spend much time on it if any. I'd just be a member as everyone else, only I'd have admin access of course.

    ReplyDelete
  7. While not a wiki, if we were looking for a big existing database of synth info as a starting point what about vintagesynth.com? If they could be persuaded to collaborate it would eliminate a lot of duplicate work on writing up the popular gear.

    ReplyDelete
  8. There's an electronic music wiki at:

    http://electronicmusic.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

    which I found abandoned about six months ago. I've since added about 250 entries to it, mainly on technical topics. I suggest that we either use this, or find a way to port the material over. It would be a big head start.

    I like the idea of a mailing list. There are a lot of other forums around, but, as Matrix pointed out, the two major mailing lists, AH and Synth-DIY, have restricted scopes.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Cornutt, I definitely want it to be synth centric first. As for the list, I'd most likely freeze the forum and switch over to it. What are your thoughts on that?

    ReplyDelete

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