new classiccmp.org service

As many of you have probably seen, the ClassicCmp KnowledgeBase has been announced in Evan's Computer Collector Newsletter. It is my sincere hope that this feature will be of use, not only for seasoned collectors but also for "newbies" just getting in to the hobby (or most wonderfully, maybe pushing a bystander to finally get into the hobby). The knowledgebase software that I chose has some great features, but it also has some bugs. Most notably the penchant for apostrophe's in articles to randomly be escaped as \'. The bugs will be worked out eventually. Note that I have been in contact with the author of the software, and an email interface IS on the schedule of todo's. It will likely be along the lines of sending an email to a special address with a body containing "show articles", and a list of articles with categories gets emailed back. Then you could email something like "show article xxxxx" and get that article is emailed back to you. You could also submit articles and comments via email in an automated fashion. There is no timetable for the email interface, but I wanted to let people know that it won't be forgotten. Of course, the web interface is already there :) This knowledgebase is NOT going to be a replacement for the ClassicCmp lists. Rather, it is meant to augment them as a repository of the somewhat frequent "golden nuggets of wisdom" that appear on the list in a form that is more usable than the archives. In addition, it is meant to keep certain subjects from being rehashed over and over again. When someone new brings up "how do I.....", we can point them to "see knowledge base article XXXX". I want to keep the knowledge base clean (and ensure it doesnt edge into competing with the list) by being quite rigorous about the editing/moderation of submitted articles. In the moderation process I want to make sure that the "comment" feature does not become "conversational". Think of it more as a reference guide, not a novel. It is my hope than when a wonderful tidbit of information appears on the list, that the person posting that will consider writing up a short article for the knowledge base as well. Bear in mind that articles do not need to be large multi-paragraph writeups (although it's great when they are). They can be as brief as a few sentences, or as long as many paragraphs. The topic can be extremely general, or very specific in focus. Feel free to comment (add-to) or submit new articles, even if a similar one is already there. Don't feel you have to be an electronics expert to submit an article. For example, we could use an article about storage of systems to keep mold/pests out. We could use an article on tips for building shelves for manuals, cable management, etc. And yes, we could use an article about basic switching mode power supply troubleshooting. There have been past posts to the list that I would be happy to write up for the knowledge base, however I'm slightly leary of doing that because I think the person who takes the time to write up the knowledge base article should get credit for it (their name as the poster). But of course I don't want to post an article of text that someone ELSE posted to the list and "take credit" for it. I'd just as soon see the person who posted the info to the list write up the knowledgebase article. But perhaps I will post things from the list with both names, the article writer and the information provider as an alternative. The knowledgebase feature grew out of my current task of rewriting the list FAQ. As I was going through it, it occured to me that the FAQ should really be about the list specifically, and not about classic computing in general- ie.. a list FAQ, not a computer FAQ. The old faq did have some good computer faq info, so instead of including that information in the list FAQ I created the knowledgebase and put that information there. Now that that is done, I can go back and revisit the written FAQ and make it specific to just the list which I feel is more appropriate. And yes, you can expect some other new features on the ClassicCmp.org website soon, there's quite a few more interesting things in the way of new services coming up there in the not to distant future. They are currently being worked on and will be announced when complete! They will also be simultaneously announced in the Computer Collector Newsletter. The ClassicCmp Knowledge base is currently available at http://www.classiccmp.org/kb but links will be added to it from the main page at some point soon. Kind regards... Jay West