ShopBot wiki

[bill.young]

Although the ShopBot forum is a great resource, forums in general are not always the easiest or quickest way to get the answer to a question. To make it easier to find information we've been putting together a wiki at http://www.shopbotwiki.com to cover using a ShopBot and making things with it. We think it will be a great way to both archive useful info from the forum and to add new information. Basically it's a ShopBot reference that is ShopBotter created and ShopBotter refined.

Anyone can read the entries in the wiki, but wikis only grow if people add to them and edit the existing information. The process is pretty simple...all you need to do is to register and confirm by email. You can find info on working with the ShopBot wiki in the Community Portal (http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=Shopbot_Wiki:Community_Portal) and in the Help page (http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=Help:Contents), and there's even a Sandbox (http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=Test_Sandbox) to try things out in.

There's a little bit of info in the wiki so far but lots of empty sections so please help fill in those spots by moving things over from the forum or adding original content. And remember that a wiki is ALWAYS a work in progress so don't be surprised if things change a little between visits and don't get upset if something you worked on has been moved or changed...it's nothing personal!

FYI, along with this project the Tech Support guys are working on setting up a wiki with a diagnostic tree for support issues called DrShopbot. It's not online quite yet but hopefully will be soon.

Bill

[dray]

Fantastic!

WIKI's are all about "real world" information fast and at your fingertips.

Glad to see shopbot coming into this new genre of unstuffyness! (is that a word?)

Kool!

[mmccue29]

That is a great idea. Thanks Bill

[randy]

<sarcasm>
Just what I need. Something else to keep me at the computer and out of the shop.
</sarcasm>

Great idea!

[scottcox]

Looks good, Bill.

Basic info like that is going to be a God-Send to new shopbotters. With a little time and effort, everyone will benefit.

[bill.young]

Some quick wiki tips:

*) To find out what's new in the wiki, click the "Recent Changes" link in the left sidebar and you'll see...well, what do you expect...the most recent changes. If you do it this morning you'll see that Scott has just added some information on manually creating indexer files.

*) The "Special Pages" link in that sidebar has links to a lot of information, including a list of users. You can add some information about yourself if you want by clicking your user name and then editing to add text. Click my name for an example

*) A couple of pages like the Start page are Protected and can't be edited, to try to keep the navigation system from getting too confusing. If you want to add something to a page and find it's protected, let me know or send an email to support(at)shopbotwiki(dot)com and I'll see what I can do.

Bill

[henrik_o]

I should have figured something was in the works for the assembly process, since that wasn't included in the main tree, so, anyway, what is this "Dr Shopbot"?

[henrik_o]

Bill,

Nevermind, I got your email after posting the above, and can't edit it.

[bill.young]

Hey Henrik,

I should have been clearer about the 2 wikis and what areas each will cover...sorry about that. At this point at least our idea is that the ShopBotWiki will cover information on using a ShopBot and making things with it...the kind of information that the forum is so good for. It's also information that can have many right answers and, in theory at least, shouldn't go out of date over time.

The other wiki, Dr ShopBot, will be used for resolving issues with assembling or running a ShopBot...things that are more tool-specific and have to be more up-to-date. It is being setup as a diagnostic tree that will lead you toward the solution by answering a series of questions to narrow things down. Because of this Dr ShopBot will not be as openly-editable as the ShopBotWiki...it could pretty quickly lose it's "flow". We're working on ways to easily and painlessly incorporate feedback on improvements and changes without enabling wide-open editing...it's a challenge.

This is all pretty new to us and we're not sure how it will eventually end up, but this is our current strategy. We're hoping to have a test version of Dr ShopBot online in the next couple of weeks so that everyone can get a better idea of how the 2 wikis will work together.

Hope this helps,
Bill

[bill.young]

Hi Henrik,

You can see how long it takes ME to put sentences together...I was working on this reply so long I missed your last post



Bill

[bill.young]

Hey guys,

FYI, Paco has been adding information to the wiki in both the Business and Marketing section and also the Design Software section. Check it out.

Bill

[bill.young]

Paco and I are discussing re-organizing the main categories of the Design software page. If you're interested, go to the Design software main page http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=DesignSoftwareMain and click the Discussion tab to read what we're thinking about. If you have opinions or suggestions, click the Edit tab to add to the conversation.

If you add something to the discussion, use a horizontal line (it's one of the editing toolbar buttons) to seperate your comments from the rest to make things easier to follow.

Bill

[henrik_o]

Bill,

I don't have much to add other than that both the wiki and the Dr Shopbot project is awesome. As a newbie, I am out of my depth as regards contributions, but it's great to know it's there and being worked on and in time maybe I can start giving back to the community.

Major thumbs up to Bill Young and Paco (et al, whomever you are) for being on top of this.

(As a total aside, Paco, if you click my profile you might like the t-shirt I'm wearing in my pic.
)

[paco]

6907

[harryball]

I finally had some free time so check out the Wiki and edit/add your insurance tips (one good insurance tip was already there and was incorporated)

I also started a list of must read books, make sure you add your own too.

Bill, Paco, it's looking good.

Robert

[bill.young]

Thanks guys...if we all work on it I think it was the potential to be a great resource

[bill.young]

Paul Zank has written a great tutorial for the wiki on his technique for creating inlays using VCarvePro. Here's the direct link...

http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=VCarveProInlay

Thanks Paul

[bill.young]

Hey,

I'm working on a new navigation system for the wiki which unfortunately means renaming a lot of pages. It should be transparent for wiki users and not cause any problems but there are (and will be for a while) a ton of items on the "Recent Changes" page...just wanted to let you know why.

You can check out a preview of what I'm working on if you go to the start page www.shopbotwiki.com (http://www.shopbotwiki.com) and look on the right side of the page. There's a box with a collapsible navigation tree on that page that will show you what I've gotten done so far. The ones that start with "Category:" are section headers, and clicking them opens a new page with a different view of that Category. As you dig down in the tree, the ones that are in italics are actual page links. There are more Categories than pages right now but things are getting added to the tree all the time so it'll be kind of a moving target for a little while. I think it will make it easier to find things when it's all done, though.

The other addition is the ability to embed videos from YouTube, Google Video, and a couple of other online services in a wiki page. It's a test at the moment but you can see a sample at the bottom of the ZZeroing page at http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=ZZeroMain

Finally, we've been tracking the wiki for 2 weeks now with Google Analytics and are overwhelmed with data and statistics! Some of the more interesting ones are that in that time we've had visitors from 29 countries, the average visitor reads 10.66 pages, and they stay an average of 3 minutes and 45 seconds...we're feeling pretty good about that.

Bill

[rhfurniture]

How about somebody (I am NOT volenteering) going through the forum and pulling out all the most straightforward and instructive posts and putting them in the wiki? I would be delighted for any of my posts being used in this way.
BTW, if you fundamentally disagree with any of the content (ie wrong fact, not just opinion difference) and do not want to start an "on wiki" flame war, what is the proceedure?

[bill.young]

Hey Ralph,

That's exactly what we have in mind...that it will be a place to both archive information from the forum and put new information that doesn't work well in the forum format. I've moved a little bit of the information from the forum over already but haven't had the time to do much of it. Fortunately the advantage to the wiki format is that ANY registered user can add to it so the work load is spread out. Feel free to give it a shot, and email me if you have any questions.

As for your second question, there are a couple of ways to deal with information that you think is wrong. If you think it's dangerous and someone can get hurt by following it, please change it immediately. Or if it's a factual change...a mis-labeled picture or the wrong company name for a product... go ahead and make the change. If it's something that you think could be controversial or will cause a problem, there's a "Discussion" tab for every page where you could post your reasons for making a change and ask for opinions. If nobody responds in a reasonable time, make the change.

Since everyone here has a stake in making the wiki more complete, I don't think we'll have problems with flaming and such, and the wiki format allows everyone to track all the changes that have been made to a page, so it's all in the open. Hopefully this openness will keep us from having any problems that can't be peacefully resolved!


FYI, there are a few tips for working with the wiki in the "Community Portal" page at http://shopbotwiki.com/index.php?title=Shopbot_Wiki:Community_Portal


So feel free to jump in...there are still lots of holes in the wiki and any help will be greatly appreciated and will benefit everyone.

Bill

[brucehiggins]

My used PRS 48x48 arrives Monday and my head is reeling with project ideas. This forum is incredible, but the wiki is going to be the really valuable tool for people like me once it's fleshed out a bit. I hate to ask questions that have been asked a hundred times before but it can get very time-consuming searching through posts. For instance, I want to know recommended bits and speeds for cutting various materials and would love to see a chart listing that. I'm going to be presumptive enough to suggest that we come up with some kind of organized way of getting the wiki updated. Something like a committee that would brainstorm, prioritize and solicit via the forum topics and information to be added. They can also help keep it structured and easy-to-use. My two cents. I volunteer to help.
Bruce

[paco]

Bruce,

until it's done, try the following.

-Get the Onsrud cutting tools catalog (online PDF). This will give you a very good idea of how varied bit geometry can be. This catalog is organized so it'll help you figured some of the general types an their (intended) usages.

-Get a good assortment of standard carbide tipped router bits; that is with various cutting diameter and length. Start with that for most wood products. You could get a 1/4" CED (cutting edge diameter) spiral up and spiral down to play with.

-Don't try to get the whole thing all at once. There so (too) many types and so many that you may just never use. Start with what you need right now and search, ask and try with what you have at hand.

I have probably close to 750 dollars worth of tool bits that I don't use. Even if a such list would have been available to me, I'm not sure it would have help much... depends on the source it first came from. There's nothing like asking fellow botters for their opinions and actually make tests on you own.

Some swear for compression tools when it come to laminated sheet good while standard carbide tipped sometime (often) do the job very well (and for fifth of the price). Most will recommend O-flute for any plastics bit I remember having acceptable results from straight edge carbide tipped in acrylics when I was able to use 1/4" CED tools and up.

My points are that there already some good source to learn about bit geometries and their (intended) usages, that you don't necessarily need many of the types available to do many of your projects and that cut quality as a part of it which is pretty subjective. And there's still a combination of other factor to account for when it come to making a nice cut...

[brucehiggins]

Thanks for the info Paco. That's the kind of information that would be nice to have on the wiki. It's really going to be a great resource when it's developed a bit more. Is there any interest in getting a dialogue going about how to accelerate the development of the wiki?
Bruce

[bill.young]

Hey Bruce,

Good thoughts on the wiki...I agree 100%. I'm willing to do whatever I can on the admin end to make the wiki easier to use and contribute to. The current layout is really just a start, pretty much based on the way that Paco and I guessed it might work! Another option might be sort of a hybrid wiki/FAQ format... a categorized list of questions that anyone can add to or answer. That may be a little easier to work with and to navigate around in? And there may be wiki software that's easier to use...I only picked Mediawiki because it's the software that wikipedia runs on, but wonder if learning their wiki syntax is holding people back from contributing?

You're absolutely right that the wiki really needs to be built by the ShopBotter community in order to grow...anybody else have suggestions or thoughts? I'll do whatever I can to make the growth process easier...just let me know.

Bill

FYI, the current stats on the wiki from Google Analytics shows that the average person views 11.97 pages and stays for 4:26 minutes... I feel pretty good about that.

[brucehiggins]

Bill, that's a great idea to have at least part of it be a FAQ. I think mediawiki is the right one to use. The whole concept of wiki's is intimidating to some people. One option would be to allow members to submit topics via e-mail and have an administrator/administrators do the updating. We could come up with a list of frequently asked questions and ask for volunteers to take one question and do the research and submit the answer/content. Then, of course, others could expand on the answers as they see fit.

[bill.young]

ShopBot wiki update:

It looks like the wiki spammers have found the ShopBot wiki and have started to upload pages that are completely unrelated...mostly just random pages with links to sites selling World of Warcraft stuff inserted throughout, but there's the occasional page with 100 links to info on traveling to Tibet!

Because of this I've had to shut down the ability to create your own account automatically. You can still view pages and read all the info even if you aren't registered, but if you haven't registered already and want to add or edit content (and I really hope you all do!), send me an email with your desired username and I'll manually create the account for you and email you a temporary password.

It's a shame that it has to come to this, but I guess it's just the price we pay for having an open internet...

Bill

[harryball]

Those guys are a real pain. I think there should be a new acceptable defense for assault "But judge, he's a spammer". "Oh, case dismissed, and throw that bum in jail."


/RB

[acb]

Wikis can be tricky that way... if you don't get a wisdom-of-crowds mass of active contributors large enough to dilute and ultimately cancel out spam and vandalism, they seem to tip back to a conventional publishing mode pretty quickly, at which point the openness of the wiki form becomes more of a liability than an asset.