From: "David Sabel" <david@sabels.org> Subject: [WikiEN-l] Introducing upto11.net - seeking advice
[snip]
We just launched upto11.net, a music recommendations and search community
that integrates articles about musical artists, albums and songs.
So far, I've added us to the Friends of Wikipedia page
Are there othere pages where links might be appropriate? We'd like get the
word out to the Wikipedia community, but do it in a way that is appropriate.
Thanks in advance,
David Sabel
1) THANKS FOR ASKING. Good move.
2) One very good approach would be to encourage _your_ user base to do useful work editing Wikipedia articles, create accounts, and _identify themselves as upto11.net members on their usage page._ You can... let me phrase this carefully so nobody will jump on me too hard... get away with a reasonable amount of promotion on user pages, which can be personal chatty diaries or pretty much whatever you want.
You can certainly create such a user page yourself. And Google does index Wikipedia user pages.
3) DO caution your user base _against_ inserting links to your site on any pages that are in the "main" name space--that is, in actual encyclopedia articles. This will raise hackles unless the link provides useful information that is very clearly pertinent to the article and is not easily found elsewhere.
4) I was just on your site. Jeez, I wish Wikipedia were as fast. (Wikipedia is having a bad day today... don't try to do anything with Wikipedia right now!)
Thanks for the quick reply. <snip>
- One very good approach would be to encourage _your_ user base to do
useful work editing Wikipedia articles, create accounts, and _identify themselves as upto11.net members on their usage page._ You can certainly create such a user page yourself. And Google does index Wikipedia user pages.
</snip>
1. Do you have an example of the type of user page you are suggesting? Is it something like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Dsupto11 in structure?
<snip>
- DO caution your user base _against_ inserting links to your site on any
pages that are in the "main" name space--that is, in actual encyclopedia articles. This will raise hackles unless the link provides useful information that is very clearly pertinent to the article and is not easily found elsewhere.
</snip>
2. We definitely will discourage folks from linking, within a Wikipedia article, to upto11.net, as that would be really confusing for users - the link might go to the page they are on! We want our users to add to the main encyclopedia articles, not promote upto11.
From our FAQ
Q. What is Wikipedia? A. It's an open-content encyclopedia that has been created by thousands of people. The project's aim is to create a free encyclopedia, in fact, the largest encylcopedia in history. Information about artists, albums and songs that is presented on upto11.net is provided, in part, from the Wikipedia. Q. What can I do to help make Wikipedia more successful?
A. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort that anyone can contribute to. Even you. All you need to know is how to edit a page, and have some encyclopedic knowledge you want to share. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page to learn more about how to contribute.
Q. What does the link "add to or edit this information" do? A. Upto11.net encourages its users to become active contributors to the Wikipedia project. If, in the course of your use of the upto11.net site, you encounter a page with little or no content about a band, album or song that you are familiar with, please click on the "add to or edit" link to share that knowledge. Over time, the encyclopedia will grow and become more useful to all users, especially to you, the music fan who enjoys using upto11.net.
Out of interest, are you able to add a notice about the GFDL to that FAQ? I'd hate your users to get pissed of that they didn't know about the GFDL!
TBSDY
From our FAQ
Q. What is Wikipedia? A. It's an open-content encyclopedia that has been created by thousands of people. The project's aim is to create a free encyclopedia, in fact, the largest encylcopedia in history. Information about artists, albums and songs that is presented on upto11.net is provided, in part, from the Wikipedia. Q. What can I do to help make Wikipedia more successful?
A. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort that anyone can contribute to. Even you. All you need to know is how to edit a page, and have some encyclopedic knowledge you want to share. Visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page to learn more about how to contribute.
Q. What does the link "add to or edit this information" do? A. Upto11.net encourages its users to become active contributors to the Wikipedia project. If, in the course of your use of the upto11.net site, you encounter a page with little or no content about a band, album or song that you are familiar with, please click on the "add to or edit" link to share that knowledge. Over time, the encyclopedia will grow and become more useful to all users, especially to you, the music fan who enjoys using upto11.net.