I would definitely help out if this idea goes through. I can easily host a wiki on Delphi3D.net if needed, but I’ve also mailed the opengl.org webmaster about this. To be continued…
I have noticed that most of the time people are answering questions that have either been asked before or there is a plethora of information available on those, either online, or in GL specification docs. This is a great redundancy in my humble opinion.
if people are either too lazy or too ignorant (or both) to search for their answers, what makes you think a wiki is going to help?
I’ve nothing against an alternative information source, mind you, but let’s not kid ourselves here. the people asking these questions are newbies, and they will proudly continue their time honored tradition, wiki or no.
Another thing worth considering could be (r/o) mirrors.
If this takes off there’s no dubt in my mind it’ll be a success. As such, people will probably start to depend on it. I think we all know how “fun” it is to try to access some info you want, only to find out a carrier has routing problems, or the site in question has technical difficulties - usually at the very time you really need to reference the info. 
My 0.02 about (master site) name:
wiki.opengl.org. Whether this is actually hosted by opengl.org or a DNS pointer somewhere else (f.ex. delphi3d) isn’t that important, but I think the name is. Would the opengl.org DNS maintainer see this as acceptable?
Oringinally posted by bonehead
[b]
if people are either too lazy or too ignorant (or both) to search for their answers, what makes you think a wiki is going to help?
I’ve nothing against an alternative information source, mind you, but let’s not kid ourselves here. the people asking these questions are newbies, and they will proudly continue their time honored tradition, wiki or no.
[/b]
The main reason for that is because the information is not centralized and googling will usually give you a wealth of other useless links. GL specs might be a bit too “technical” for some people to handle. A wiki would centralize a lot of information. Take the example of TBN basis question for example. I have seen this question a gazillion times in the one and half years i have been on this forum and each time i give reference to an old thread in which Eric Lengyl gives a good explanation of generating TBN space, alongwith very well written code. Now imagine, if that same post would have been up on a wiki! If the wiki gets large enough, even google will start returing search links from the it. Wikipedia is a good example, and a lot of people (including me) have started using it for general information on a lot of topics (i regularly use it for information on different topics on astrophysics).
There is no doubt in my mind that it will be beneficial, but it will definitely take some time and effort to set it up and get it going.
Originally posted by bonehead:
if people are either too lazy or too ignorant (or both) to search for their answers, what makes you think a wiki is going to help?
I’ve nothing against an alternative information source, mind you, but let’s not kid ourselves here. the people asking these questions are newbies, and they will proudly continue their time honored tradition, wiki or no.[/QB]
Have you ever searched the form? I know the information was there but I don’t find it. A wiki would be much better structured.
What about the license? They some like Wikipedia?
I can offer web space for a mirror too if it is needed. I think that a wiki could be a great thing for OpenGL users. Think in those little details that are only known after many hours of investigation that could be easily found in well-organized wiki 
One thing i’ve noticed about this search function on this forum…it’s incredibly slow and has a stupidly small limit on the search string.
It’s actually pretty useless at getting an answer to a specific question. General questions are no problem, “Tangent Binormal Normal” would just about fit into the search box, but would generate a huuuuuge number of search results.
wow, you guys are right, the search function has gone south for the winter. looks like you get a 36 character limit on the string and a limit of 200 on the results, starting from the year 2000. am i seeing things here? A new forum search function is definitely in order, or an immeasurably brisk tweaking.
It’s been that way since I started frequenting this place, so that’s at least 4 years. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, but they’ve never fixed it, or even acknowledged the problem. I really don’t think the opengl.org web masters ever read the contents of their forums.
So, the next time you tell someone to ‘use the freekin search button’, remember it’s actually a huge amount of work to find an answer to a specific question just because of the limit on keywords. I waited with baited breath when they ‘revamped’ the site a couple of years ago, but no…the search function remained unchanged. The single most important function on this website is sorely broken, and nobody seems to care.
Why don’t they just let google take over their search function?
I would be more interested in a catalog of problems.
“I ran my program that has this code on this video card with drivers XX and it has this issue. Here’s a code sample.”
Then someone else responds “I can confirm this”
Then months later… resolved, or maybe not.
It would serve a dual purpose. We learn of problems and maybe avoid them and save time.
When a new driver comes out, we test it. It would be like a public quality control.
Okay, here’s the deal.
OpenGL.org will be undergoing server migration in (probably) late November, and a Wiki was already on the list of things to add when this migration is complete (the current server, apparently, does not offer PHP/MySQL).
MediaWiki has already been installed on the new server, so that I can try to get things on a roll. I will try to work out a basic structure for the Wiki asap, and also integrate some content from the current FAQ page. If you have any opinions on how you think the Wiki should be organized, be sure to send them to me (tom@delphi3d.net). Public access to the Wiki will be provided after the server migration is complete.
Is the forum search function going to be improved?
I really think that’s more important than a wiki.
are just a few of the high profile contributors to this forum, and doubtless many more under alias’. [quote]Don’t forget Korval and knackered!
[/QUOTE]One day we shall uncover the high profile personality behind the knackered alias :-).
Originally posted by knackered:
Is the forum search function going to be improved?
I really think that’s more important than a wiki.
Yea searching is horribly broken. I’ve mentioned it to the webmaster before, but I don’t think it’s ever been as bad as it is now.
Is anything going to be done about those damn annoying drop down menus on the front page? I’m always making them pop down constantly when I don’t want them to. I hate those freakin’ menus. :mad: It would be better if they only came down when clicked, like a program’s menu.
-SirKnight
One day we shall uncover the high profile personality behind the knackered alias :-).
My name is not important.
And I’d get the sack if it were revealed that I insult people for a hobby.
One day we shall uncover the high profile personality behind the knackered alias
after studying the evidence ive come to the conclusion korval is a vulcan
live long and prosper
…or a turing test.
it almost convinced you, zed.
Hello,
I think the idea of an OpenGL-Wiki is very good.
I have collected a small list of subjects.
Not all of them have directly to do with OpenGL, f.e. some have more to do with mathematics or are (advanced) techniques independent from the graphic language, but i hope there could be perhaps found some pieces of code which implement a certain technique with OpenGL or OGSL (f.e. for bumpmapping). 
Here is the list : wikiopengl.xml
This list is not complete, but i hope that some of these themes could be found in the wiki.
dj3hut1
agree!