User talk:Becket Bowes

I moved this from a votes-fordeletion discussion DJ Clayworth 19:37, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

The intent of putting the Living Bill of Rights, the Living U.S. Constitution, and the Living Declaration of Independence up is to create pages where the open editing process of wiki can be applied to these documents in a way that is both original to the Wikipedia and allows the original documents to maintain their integrity on the Wikipedia. I see this as a perfect forum for a uniquely democratic form for discussing government, and would like to see the entry evolve.

I would be interested discussing whether or not this is acceptable for Wikipedia. If this is not the correct forum for that discussion please let me know here.

Many thanks. --Becket Bowes 19:27, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

That's an admirable aim, but it's got nothing to do with encyclopedias. Let's continue this discussion at your talk page. DJ Clayworth 19:34, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

To be more explicit, there is nothing to stop you creating such a project. In fact it would be a great idea. However Wikipedia is specifically devoted to creating an encyclopedia. The MediaWiki software is freely available, so you can download it and set up your own prject; if you don't have a webiste that you can use to start this there are several sites that will host one for free. DJ Clayworth 19:37, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Point taken. My web server won't do the wiki, or i'm not quite adept enough to make it work. I put it up on infoAnarchywiki, but a, you need to log in to make changes, and b, that site currently has a bunch of porn links spammed onto it's homepage. Do you know of a more reliable place to put it up? It may be a web-extension for an art exhibition that's comming up, and i'd like it to be as user friendly as possible (i.e. not having to log in). Or: could you give me an estimate on how much time it would take an idiot (me) to install a wiki server on the gallery website, and set up those pages? Would that even make sense? Is there a simpler html or java protocol for simply changing text on a site?

Apologies for the idiocy and thanks for your patience.--Becket Bowes 20:09, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't know of a suitable site, but Wikipedia:Village pump will get the full combined powers of the brains of Wikipedia onto the question. Good luck. DJ Clayworth 20:45, 9 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I was just thinking about this recently. My hometown is undergoing a major revision of its City Charter, but many of us think there is not enough citizen participation in the writing of the new language. I look at Wikipedia, which does an excellent job of producing quality complex documents out of a collaborative process. Which is counterintuitive, given most of my experience with group writing. I think this kind of thing is a really worthwhile experiment--unfortunately I don't know where the right place is, since you not only need some place technically to host it, but more importantly, you'd want the same kind of experienced collaborators that congregate on WP. I agree with Wikipedia:Village pump is the best bet. Demi 21:57, 2005 Mar 9 (UTC)