The next 'big' online community. Your thoughts?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by mousepod

When I said "favorite geeks," I meant that we could spread the password to various knowledgable message boards. If people can play nice, I'd change the password less frequently or be done with it entirely. Since I'm asking for factual information, especially historical stuff, I don't want to spend hours a week removing incorrect (but well-meaning) "facts".

I think that some of the concern here can be self-correcting. I'm thinking of when misinformation is posted on a messageboard, other more knowledgeable geeks come to the rescue, posting corrections. If you did indeed keep editing ability among those with real info, especially for the first few months, it wouldn't be a problem.

Or, you could assign research on a specific ride to specific people, and then allow changes as they become obviously needed.

This just popped into my head. Just say I were assigned to design a page on the Haunted Mansion. I'd pull out all the books I could find and set that up. Then, once posted, instead of allowing any joe schmoe to touch it, you could have a message board style thread attached to it. If people had an issue with something that was or wasn't there, they could post about it, and the person assigned could check facts and make updates as needed. If we each had just one ride to set up, it would mean a lot less work for all.

Of course you guys are working privately, which is cool, I'm just thinking out loud.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

say I were assigned to design a page on the Haunted Mansion.

Pssst! Hey Mousepod, looks like we have our first draftie!

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Of course you guys are working privately, which is cool, I'm just thinking out loud.

I can't speak for MP, but I plan to keep 99% of this process right here for now. The only "private" thing I can think of right now would be the technical details of linking servers to form a mega-wiki.

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

I can't speak for MP, but I plan to keep 99% of this process right here for now. The only "private" thing I can think of right now would be the technical details of linking servers to form a mega-wiki.

I'm with you. We should connect privately for the technical junk. The LoT is the perfect place to work out the rest of the details.

[Moonliner]

Initial thoughts on an "attraction" object:

History button - Link to MP's place
(do you plan to include the attraction backstories?)

Main photo that is a link to more photos

Tips - ie The goat trick

Special experiences - Potc ride with 20 people in floral prints...

101/Rehab info

News - The snake is working, for the moment...

General comments.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Just say I were assigned to design a page on the Haunted Mansion. I'd pull out all the books I could find and set that up. Then, once posted, instead of allowing any joe schmoe to touch it, you could have a message board style thread attached to it. If people had an issue with something that was or wasn't there, they could post about it, and the person assigned could check facts and make updates as needed. If we each had just one ride to set up, it would mean a lot less work for all.

Let's run with that... Given the freedom to do so, how would you design a HM page? What type of info would you put on the page? What features would you like? I'm thinking that a seperate message thread for each attraction would be overkill.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Disclaimer - I know very little about Wikis, and my ideas are based more on the capabilities of the imdb and blogs.

Originally Posted by Moonliner

I'm thinking that a seperate message thread for each attraction would be overkill.

What I"m thinking regarding "message threads" is much like imdb. At the bottom of each movie page there's a mini-message board. It features the top few threads on the topic. If you want older threads, you click a link to see the full message board. It doesn't have to be as full featured as a board like this - it could be just for notes and corrections, for perusal by the Attraction Administrator.

Originally Posted by Moonliner

History button - Link to MP's place

Ok, so if I get this right, you mean that mousepod would have a seperate site with his historical attraction info? The basic credits for an attraction really wouldn't take up a huge amount of space (at least, the classic ones - I'm sure we can get much more info on who did what for the newer attractions). But I can see the need to link to more detailed info. Don't know where the info should be hosted, but I'm definitely thinking imdb style.

I'm thinking - list of Imagineers involved and a one-liner of what they contributed, ie, Rolly Crump - Conceptual Artwork. "Rolly Crump" would be a link to the Rolly Crump page, listing all the stuff he did for Disney with links to their pages, as well as photos and a bio. "Conceptual Artwork" would link you to pictures of the artwork plus perhaps a pic of him working on it. A short blurb (or perhaps a long one) could talk about his contributions to the Mansion project, where you can see his influence in the attraction, what wasn't included and why. If we have dates and such, include them.

(do you plan to include the attraction backstories?)

I would. They can get quite detailed, so definitely a link, with perhaps a one-liner visible on the page. I'm thinking of Lost Boy's Jungle Cruise info from a while ago...whew, quite a read!

Main photo that is a link to more photos

Cool. That's another thing that would need to be maintained. Updates when the attraction is changed (happens more often than one might think), archives for older pictures chronicling changes. Users could supply pics of other angles etc, but that'd have to be watched, since we don't want ridiculous amounts of pics for users to wade through.

Tips - ie The goat trick

This is something I hadn't thought of. Cool concept. This, I woudn't mind opening up for user interface, ala hiddenmickeys.org. We could even have a rating system for it like hiddenmickeys kinda does with it's "Confirmed" set-up. If a suggestion sucks, perhaps enough bad ratings could make it disappear?

Special experiences - Potc ride with 20 people in floral prints...

A special trip report section would be fun, with it's own pics section perhaps. This could get quite lengthy. Do we want to concentrate on concise information or the community aspect? This is definitely more a community thing, which would be a cool thing to link to.

101/Rehab info

Definite must. I envision this near the top of the page: "Status: Open" or "Status: Under Rehab until 7/17/2005" or "Status: Closed Permanently as of 9/8/1998". This would also be a link to a calendar of future rehabs.

News - The snake is working, for the moment...

A quick, easy to update blog-style set-up so that the Attraction Admin can put up the latest news is a great idea.

I volunteer to help. I think you could easily get one person to sign up for each attraction, and if not, well hey, we'll see how tough the workload is and perhaps we could each take on a couple of them. I say start small for beta testing (just a few attractions at first) and grow it as you learn what the heck this will entail.