11 Feb
2018
11 Feb
'18
2:50 p.m.
Given that my article started this discussion, I should add my 2 cents
worth.
I?ll continue to do what I?m doing rather than putting this stuff on CHWiki.
Grant?s motivations and explanations for posting on his site are pretty
much the same as mine. I document these things largely for myself as an
?activity record?, but I hope others also find them useful and can learn
from what I have done. A personal style is
used,..usually narrative? and
articles usually contain reflections etc. Where some
advice is given, it
is something that has worked for me, and the text does not always cover all
options (or their pros and cons), or contain references.
I tend to share the link around the groups I belong to once the article is
complete in case it's relevant to someone. Not everyone will read it of
course but I figure that if there is a glaring omission, or something that
is just plain wrong, someone will comment and I'll amend the text. All the
articles allow comments, so people can add their own
thoughts/corrections/extensions if they want to.
If I had to go to that extent of writing it as a robust, referenced,
refereed, definitive technical article, I probably wouldn?t bother. I am
not at all diminishing the usefulness of such a document on some aspect of
vintage computing?that stuff is often gold and I applaud people for doing
it. It?s just I don?t have the time, motivation (or often the deep
expertise in the subject matter) to do it. For me, vintage computing is a
hobby, and these articles are a creative outlet. I do enough technical
writing in my real job as an academic in the agricultural sciences. Maybe
when I'm retired....
Maybe it's silly, but I view my site as somewhat of
it's own brand
(as minimal ~> non-existent as it may be) and I use it as my own reference.
It is not silly?and actually, that is quite an honest reflection. I like
to add articles to ?Tezza?s blog? when I complete an activity. It keeps
these articles together, people can see what I do, and the kind of things I
am interested it.
Google captures the pages, although it can take a few weeks for them to
appear in searches. I am confident most people could find them with
well-thought out search terms. The pages are easily linked and shared with
Facebook etc. Personally I never use wikis etc, when looking for
information. I always use a search engine. I usually find what I want. I
suspect 99% of people do this. Sometimes the search engine points me to a
wiki of course.
Posting under my own domain does allow a great deal of control, as opposed
to contributing to another site. It means you can change the style if you
want, add advertisements (I don?t intend to) and add bits and pieces which
may facilitate social media and sharing. A couple of years ago I revamped
the whole site so it would be mobile friendly.
Like Grant, I have no objection to anyone linking to the site or
amending/adding what I?ve done (with appropriate citation). We all stand
on the shoulders of others.
Terry (Tez)