Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
Call for Wiki contributions
Fellow UA forum participants:
In celebration of 1 million posts on the UA forum, I am putting out a call requesting your assistance in contributing to the UA FlyerGuide wiki. We have such great information here on FT, but for newbies and veterans alike, it can be quite hard to find sometimes, especially when in a hurry or when the search function is on the fritz. The wiki is a great way to organize important info into one compact (yet extensive) resource.
The wiki is in no way a replacement for FT, but instead is a wonderful complement to it. It is a great resource for finding relevant information quickly and efficiently. It could be even greater, with your help.
Last year, I went through and overhauled a bunch of the (relatively few!) UA pages that were there. I scraped FT and Google to find the text of every UA S* profile I could, and posted them all to the wiki. I added all of the relevant "where to sit" information, organized by airframe, and information on traveling with pets on UA. mre5765 put together an impressive table listing and comparing elite benefits, while FBKsan added his excellent e-500 FAQ.
But... we can't do this alone. There is way too much information on FT for just 2 or 3 people to sift through, filter, and add to the wiki. With more eyeballs and fingertips contributing, we could make short work of this and make the wiki the definitive resource for information about UA and MP.
Editing a wiki page is just as easy as editing a post on FT... the syntax is a bit different than BBCode, but it's very similar and the editor includes buttons for ease of use, just like the editor on FT. I'd be happy to provide editing help, clean-up editing, and/or overall editing of other people's contributions - don't let "editophobia" be a hurdle to contributing!
If you would like to contribute information (say, additional or updated S* profile texts) but don't want to be "officially" associated with the wiki, that's fine, too - just PM me with the information you'd like to contribute and I'll ensure that it's posted with no link to you. Your anonymity will be as protected as you desire.
So... I implore you all: please, help out with the UA wiki. I, and anyone who ever needs to find some UA info, will thank you for it. Together, we can make the wiki the ultimate resource that it could, and should, be.
(And please, no pessimistic posts about UA's impending demise or merger.)
(N.B. I do believe this actually is post #1mil on the UA forum... assuming that earlier posts aren't merged, deleted, or moved.)
Bulletin boards are great for keeping current, but lousy for building a foundation of knowledge when you do not know anything about a subject. Even with search, it is hard to piece together the basic information and then find all the updates.6
Wikis (or straight websites) can present information in a more logical and complete manner but get out of date quickly and are not conducive for chat. Volunteers try to keep FAQs and wikis up-to-date but it is time consuming and much can be missed.
I think there should be a new button in the vBulletin system that can flag a post for inclusion in a wiki/FAQ. That way, folks who maintain FAQs and Wikis can be alerted to posts that represent a change that should be included in the wiki/FAQ.
Hang on, I need to go file a patent...
__________________
"..and that is why I prefer WN"
"Yea. Try flying WN to PVG."
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
Quote:
Originally Posted by FortFun
Great idea indeed.
Well, it's not my original idea; UnitedSkies suggested this a number of months ago, but it garnered little response (except for the work described in the OP). I am hoping this Call For Action will garner greater support.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FortFun
I suggest a page on new config rollouts, so we have a one-stop place to send the "is my flight the new config" posters.
Well, the new config should certainly be on the wiki, although it will eventually replace the existing config. That said, nothing will ever stop the barrage of "is my flight the new config" questions until every plane has the new config.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FortFun
In case you don't have a screenshot indicating this, I do.
I don't, but it's good to know there's proof. So... what do I win?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HaeMaker
I think there should be a new button in the vBulletin system that can flag a post for inclusion in a wiki/FAQ.
Certainly a good idea, though a group would need to be set up so that wiki updaters could subscribe to receive the notice, etc. On the other hand, since anyone can edit the wiki, there's not really need for this button... if you see a post that should be included in the wiki, then......... include it!
In all seriousness, that's really what this thread is all about - I am trying to get people to actively assist in contributing to and maintaining the wiki rather than just saying, "Wow, this is great info, it should be in the FAQ!" With a community-editable wiki, when someone happens upon a great piece of info, he/she can immediately put it on the wiki, thereby assisting in sharing that info rather than just hoping someone else does.
Ideally, the FAQ thread will actually go away and be entirely replaced by the Wiki. While the FAQ is nice, it gets updated too rarely (no offense to the OP or the mods, I know they're busy!). The wiki can be updated in realtime by anyone. There is at least one other forum (AA, I think) whose FAQ sticky is just a pointer to the wiki... IMHO, that's the route we should be going, too. I obviously will be spearheading this, and will help anyone who needs it, but there's a limit to how much 2 or 3 volunteers can do.
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
Quote:
Originally Posted by chitownflyer
Cepheid, I think the UA wiki can be a good complement and supplement to the UA FAQ.
It could be, sure, but right now I think the FAQ thread is really hard to parse. It is not easily searchable based on keywords, the primary post is incredibly long, it is not updated all that often (because only a few people can update it and they may not have time to do so very often), the links to individual threads are (IMHO) not labeled sufficiently, and in general it's just (IMHO) darn hard to read.
I think the wiki can and should eventually replace the FAQ, especially given as there can be a FAQ article in the Wiki. Because the wiki can be updated by anyone, it should (and hopefully will) get updated much more frequently than the FAQ thread, and by its nature, it's much easier to read because of formatting and the separating into individual articles. It's also easily searchable.
Right now, there is no substitute for the FAQ... but I think the wiki can and should be that replacement.
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
BTW, the AA FlyerGuide wiki just made it into TalkMail, with our wiki only getting "honorable mention" ... we can't let the dAArkside beat us, now can we?
One thing that might be helpful is if you (or someone with some super-powers) specifically assigned and culled out things that needed to be done. I know wikis are easy to rollback but they have a certain style that makes people loathe to just jump in to it. They think, maybe that's not where the editor wants to go with it...
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
I can tell you exactly what needs to be done. The articles in red on the main page need to be written, along with any other articles that I haven't thought of. There are other articles that need fleshing out, but it's more important to get those written first. Stylistic approach can be copied from other articles, but the main gist is fairly easy: outline format with main sections and subsections, titled as appropriate.
Unfortunately, there's just not enough there to warrant trying to assign editors. We have only 3 people who "regularly" contribute to the wiki anyway, so trying to assign things is a moot point at the moment. Once it takes off and becomes more fleshed, assigned editors would be a good idea.
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pooch
I hope to have something to contribute one day!
But you do have something to contribute! Proofreading and editing, if nothing else. Many of the older articles are badly formatted and require a rather drastic overhaul, both for style and verbiage. If you're willing, that's one task that pretty much anyone can do even if they don't have any specific knowledge of UA.
Additionally, you don't need to have special tips, tricks, or detailed inside knowledge about stuff to contribute. Many of the articles contain (or will contain) the same information that could be found on united.com, just in a more user-friendly and searchable format. Even if you only have a basic knowledge of a certain topic, by starting the article you may encourage others to contribute to it...
So, don't be shy! You have more to contribute than you might imagine!
Programs: UA 3P, US, AA, WN, TZ; HH, *W, MR, GP+ (non-elite on all)
Posts: 6,510
Lots of changes to UA policy lately and unfortunately I've been too swamped to keep up with the editing... so please consider this an August/September bump to the call for volunteers. We need some extra eyes and fingers!
For anyone editing the Wiki, please also note that there is a "Discussion" page attached to each article; if you have questions about the content, formatting, or anything else, just click the discussion page and enter your comments there. Please don't enter questions/comments within articles, though.
Again, editing the wiki is no harder than writing an FT post... there is a WYSIWYG editor and it's even more flexible since you can add HTML formatting - you are not tied to the Wiki format.
Finally, if you are updating articles, please make sure to link to the appropriate source for your information, whether it be an FT source, united.com, or whatever. If you are updating policy profiles and can't link for confidentiality reasons, please at least PM me so I know it's not a fake update by someone trying to spread disinformation...
Call for Wiki contributions
