FIRST FRC wiki
 

Because I was frustrated with trying to piece together all the information on all the various pieces of FRC hardware and software I am working in a wiki and I thought I would share it with you all. Feel free to add edit etc...

Temporary link

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/fo...c&daysprune=-1

The first FIRSTWiki died last year.

I would recommend adding your new information to the WPI Think Tank if you wan't your work to end up in a stable and mature project.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

It looks like the project has died... http://www.firstwiki.net/

I searched far and wide and could find nothing like it so I made it. :D

how do what is the wip think tank and how do I add it?

so after actually looking I made an account and will be doing an article on it

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

What would it take to resurrect this one? I'd love to see a wiki owned and supported by the entire FIRST community. It would be a great companion to ChiefDelphi. Plus, it's a great URL.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I myself have tried many times to get help to try to revive it (http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=95338), but not enough support was shown. It seems like now, the site is down completely. I have PM-ed Brandon Martus asking what happened to it, but have so far not received any response. As of late, spam was consuming the site, and not enough people showed that they cared about it.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Spam is a huge problem with Wiki's...we had one set up just for our team and it would continually get over-run with spam. I'm sure there are methods to reduce or prevent it, but it's tricky. Also, until recently, MediaWiki hasn't been very user-friendly (and it has a long ways to go) which tends to curb adoption.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

If there is enough interest I would be willing to host the wiki on my server I am not sure who currently owns the domain or if a copy of the original wiki exists.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

The spam was HUGE on firstwiki. The 'text' table crashed a couple weeks ago and the CD server wasn't big enough to repair the table (there's that much spam). I'm going to pull it off to a local machine, repair and re-upload, but that may take a while.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Brandon, we don't pay you enough.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Completely agreed. Thanks a lot, Brandon.

I'm glad to see this increased support for the wiki. Hopefully with this new dedication, we will finally be able to restore it to its past, and deserved, glory. I know I'm up for the challenge.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I know the idea of a wiki is that just anyone can edit it.

However, unlike Wikipedia, our community is decidely smaller. I'd also wager that almost everyone who contributes to the First wiki has a CD account.

I wonder if it's time to tie the ability to edit the wiki to having a CD account (if that's even possible).

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

That sounds like a great idea. I don't know if that will be able to be implemented, but if it can, it should definitely be done. I'll look into it.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extens...rs_Integration

That might be a start

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

It is possible (we've done it with the VEX Forum & the VEX Wiki) but I'd have to see if the two software versions are compatible.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

If that's the case, then it may help cut down on the spam. Maybe having one or two more extensions for spam control could help keep it down to a minimum. I'd also be willing to help out as an admin/moderator.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Besides for myself, we only had two or three other dedicated admins to help rid the wiki of spam. It would be great to get more admins on the site to help out.

If Brandon is able to connect editing the wiki with having an account on Chief Delphi, then we hopefully wouldn't have to worry about new spam being created, but rather just deleting all of the old spam pages and accounts. After that is completed, we can finally focus on adding additional content to current and new pages.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I'm up for moderating, especially to help with the initial clean-out.

Is this where we should be volunteering?

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Siri,

Here is fine. I believe that the last time I checked, I was one of the highest ranked (if not the highest ranked, next to Brandon of course) members of the wiki, so once it gets back on line, I'll recheck here, and I'll promote all of those who volunteered for moderating to admins.

-Ryan

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

If you ever need help, I would definitly help, and maybe try to ask the rest of my team.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Somehow that doesn't surprise me at all. Spam was being added at a rate of roughly 10-20 new pages per minute, so the crash was inevitable.


I wouldn't mind seeing the FIRSTwiki started up again, either from a restored version (even if it was just select, useful pages) or fresh, but something would have to be done to handle the spam...

Linking accounts to ChiefDelphi would be an ideal way to combat spam, from what I've seen (though Brandon may correct me on this), ChiefDelphi seems to have much fewer instances of incoming spam, plus the added step of having to register here first would virtually eliminate any bots trying to post on the wiki since bots typically aren't smart enough to register on one website in order to post on a different one.

I'm still up for helping moderate and contribute like before, if and when there is a wiki up and running again. :)

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

We'd love to have you help out again.

So far, those interested in Moderating:
1. synth3tk
2. Siri
3. Herbblood
4. cbale2000
5. Littleboy
6. coalhot

And you meant when the wiki is up and running again, not if ;).

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I'll help moderate it. I've moderated a few forums, IRC channels, and minecraft servers, so it's up my alley.

Edit: I remember adding info about my team. Would be cool to finish it...

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I could probably help administrate to some extent. (The equivalent to a vBulletin "moderator" on MediaWiki would probably be an "administrator". I suspect you can create custom permissions, if you want to keep the terminology consistent—but since the forum moderators aren't necessarily the wiki moderators, it may be best to leave it alone.)

Also, if you plan on integrating vBulletin and MediaWiki, check the code of that extension to make sure it passes login credentials in a secure way. We wouldn't want plain text passwords or anything like that. (I bring this up because that extension says: "Here is some base code for authenticating. This is not a working example, it is only a starting point.")

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Just a thought about some of the content that could be added in eventually, I also wasn't here for the FIRSTwiki in the first place. But, could there be a Section in the descriptions of each game for the bots of this year, organised by team number then having a photo, multiple photos and maybe a description of the reasoning behind design, submitted by each team that would want it there?

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

The original FIRSTwiki was setup to allow this for teams. Essentially every team could have a main "team page" and then several "team year pages" which highlighted robots and accomplishments for different years. The main problem of course is though the format was there, very few teams took the time to populate these pages with information.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I jumped on the revival train a few times in the past, and am still up for it again this time.

Last I checked I held bureaucrat status with Hallry when the site was still live. I can't add much content to the wiki mainly because I'm not involved in the meat-and-potatoes of FIRST anymore, but I'll still be willing to actively moderate and help out with the technical side of things.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I'm looking forward to the return of the wiki! I've set up wiki's before and I was immediately alarmed by the insurmountable amount of spam that they get clogged with. Locking down the wiki to approved CD users only should go a long way in keeping it clean and functional.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Exactly.

I made sure that I added plenty of info for my own team (1676). If you want to see some quick examples...
Here is a chached page of our main team wiki page: firstwiki.net.1676
Here is a cached page of the page about our team in 2010: firstwiki.net/1676 in 2010

Although I didn't write anything about the ideas regarding the design of the robot, that doesn't mean others can't. People are encouraged to write as much as possible. The more information, the better! =)

One thing I also definitely wanted to see more of was more general technical and mechanical pages for teams to read for advice and knowledge, as well as pages like this, which were basically a record of past events, saying who won what awards, and in some cases, a full list of teams that attended as well.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Interesting, Web Archive has snapshots from 2011:

Web Archive Link

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

For some reason Web Archive wasn't working for me this morning (which is why I used Google caches for my previous post), but it seems to work fine now.

But yes, that is what the main page used to look like (although the pictures aren't working on mine). The formatting was different though, with all of the templates and such operational.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I was looking through, there is definitly somethings that can be used! Alot of the stuff would need to be updated but it should be a start! ::rtm::

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I might be willing to continue moderating the FIRSTwiki again. I would definitely be interested in helping with the expansion of the wiki's informational pages, as those definitely had the right idea going, just not the right information for the time.

As for the spam issue, if integrating the wiki accounts with CD doesn't work (and that will not be simple), you could simply install any of the Captcha extensions for MediaWiki. FRC 2473 is hosting a wiki, with which we've had spam problems for quite a while until we added the captcha and added a manually confirmed user group. I think the captcha did the job though - no spam bots have registered since we installed that extension. Here's MediaWiki's listing of anti-spam extensions: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Catego...ent_extensions

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I helped (I think) a while back. I don't remember being a moderator, but maybe I was. SPAM flooding was the major problem and the wiki software was way back leveled, as I recall. captcha registration is a must-have for reduction of 'bot postings.

I would be most effective in FLL topics.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I would definitely be willing to help. I love the FIRST program and I feel like a FIRST wiki would not only help people involved in the FIRST program, but also it would be an amazing opportunity to promote FIRST to people that have never heard of it. I have no idea how to start anything like that, but if someone does and PMs me, I would totally help! :]

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I know it's the end of build season, but I was wondering where we stood on this project.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Is there still support from the FIRST Community for this project?

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

*raises hand*

As much as I can help...

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Yes, I'm ready to help, provided we can get it set up and running. IIRC, the last attempt at reviving it stalled because Brandon and/or others were to busy to do the administrative work to get it running.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I'm still happy to help out as well, provided the new wiki has security measures to avoid the spam problem the last one had (otherwise there is really no point).

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I would be willing to do some writing for the site if it gets up and running. I can't offer any web expertise but would love to be a part of documenting FRC as it continues to evolve and grow.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Hey again Nathan. Funny, my teammates and I were actually just talking about this last night. The last I heard from Brandon was:

"One of tables got corrupted and there is insufficient disk space on the CD server to repair it. The 'text' table is HUGE .. probably all full of spam posts.

I completely forgot I was going to pull it onto a server at work, repair, and replace. I will see what I can do in the next couple weeks to get that back online."

Of course, that was back in November...I'll PM him now to see if he can give me an update.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

Perhaps editing the wiki could linked to having a Chief Delphi account.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

How large is the database?

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

If you look through this thread, linking up with Chief Delphi accounts has already been discussed a good amount. Brandon Martus said it might be possible depending on if the softwares versions for CD and the wiki are compatible.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I'm happy to help wherever I can be of use. Feel free to PM me.

Re: FIRST FRC wiki
 

I know this thread is dead, but if you're interested in contributing to a resurrection of FIRSTwiki check out this thread.