Prius Wiki?

V8Cobrakid · 07-26-2004, 06:51 PM

I would advise against linking anything to a chat group. especialy yahoo. I don't use yahoo. It has problem with my pc. To see a page that links to yahoo.. and i try it.. discourages me to read on. I don't like to deal with problems of something not working.. and neither does anyone else. Priuschat.com and priusonline.com seem to work for anyone. At most, like to those. But if you have to log in, it's no longer "free" info. it's work. :mrgreen:

LeVautRien · 07-26-2004, 06:55 PM

Quite a valid point.

DaveinOlyWA · 07-27-2004, 01:35 AM

i agree with linking to yahoo. they are nice but too much BS...

id rather see something like John1701A's little "factoid" flyers he made up that has condensed info that is concise and to the point.

chat groups are nice, but even the best of em requires wading through a lot of BS to get to the meat of the subject.

it would be more work, but to take a subject, read the available info on it, then condense the important info into a report would be the ultimate. (i know, it sounds like your 8th grade history class)

also, i think what Danny has done with the FAQ's here is excellent. very concise and easy to follow.

LeVautRien · 07-27-2004, 01:50 AM

Also, there could be a condensed version, and then a link that brought the reader to a more broad version, catering to both kinds of readers. We don't have to compromise if there are enough people willing to make it happen.

And as for how to handle information from the yahoo groups, while it would take some good work, the useful snippets could be taken and placed into corresponding wiki entries, each entry having a page worth of comments from Yahoo group members. Some of this information would certainly be incorporated into the entry itself.

**TonyPSchaefer** · 07-27-2004, 09:54 AM

Geez, I have a degree in Computer Science and yet have to admit that I had to Google 'wiki'. and for those - like me - who are new to this concept, here's the definition I found and http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki:

""Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages on the fly.

Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself.

Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by non-technical users.""

This sounds fun and exciting to me. I design and develop technologically-based training and educational materials. I have been chomping at the bits to get my Prius so I can actually contribute something worth while to the discussion.

John1701A's materials are awesome. They are concise, easy to read, and well formatted. I think that with the joint effort of the members of this board, just about every question asked about a Prius can be answered in the same manner.

jkash · 07-27-2004, 10:44 AM

There already is a Prius article at the Wikipedia encyclopedia. It can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius

As with all Wikipedia articles, it can be added to.

I have added a link to PriusChat to the article this morning.

Jeff

LungCookie · 07-27-2004, 10:51 AM

A prime example is Wikipedia. It's an encyclopedia with over 300,000 articles built by its readers. Anyone can add to it or edit any article, no login required.

Here's the Prius article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prius

It already had a link to John's site -- I was about to add a link to this one and found that somebody just beat me to it.

EDIT: Ahh... didn't see your post in time, jkash.

john1701a · 07-27-2004, 11:42 AM

Hi all.

My approach has always been focused on data gathering. Then once I have enough, the hope is that a pattern will naturally emerge. The most important info basically rises to the top all by itself.

It's like not laying any sidewalks at a new park. Just let them establish themselves. Allow the people to walk where they please. Eventually, the wear pattern in the grass will reveal where the sidewalk should be. And it will obviously appeal to many, since that is the path they have beeen walking all along.

As for the website, it was blatantly obvious that people enjoy a variety of photos. So that's what I have strived to deliver. The "blog" phenomenon really caught me off guard. I had no idea so many would care about details like that. But they do. So I have done my best to fulfill that need too.

The INFO-SHEET and USER-GUIDE were my attempts to summarize, to take the best info our combined minds had come up with and put it into a pleasing format that could be used offline. That non-web (printout) format was very important. It is a tool we can you to stimulate interest, to draw people online... enough to get them to try out a discussion group like this!

I'm constantly filling a notebook with topics of hot items, things that require more attention than just an few updates. My latest effort was completely rewriting my misconceptions page. The week before, I finally did a large set of updates to the USER-GUIDE. Another on the way (eventually) is a brand new summary document, called OWNER-EXPECTATIONS. But the catch with this is lack of data. It takes a long time to gather enough... hence my approach.

I try to be as proactive as I can, to keep ahead of the need wave. So I really appreciate the assistance some offer toward that... like with alternate tires. The discussion here revealed the desire for a better choice. Now I am 1,701 miles into testing. As a result, a few others will likely try them later too. So by the time that data is requested by the masses, while'll have a bunch available.

If a new tool emerges that will help with that purpose, keep us informed. It may later be added as a resource... but not necessarily right away. I fought pretty hard against the PDF format back when version 3.0 was still ubiquitous. It had a number of technical problems that would have impaired our efforts. But then when the much improved 5.0 version finally became available, I jumped on board and took full advantage of PDF. And by the time 6.0 was released, I had already prepared to take advantage of it. The format had proven quite valuable.

In summary, I'm going with the flow, building upon what we come up to help solve our emission & consumption problem.

mshappe · 07-27-2004, 11:58 AM

John, I sincerely hope you do not take my interest in founding a PriusWiki for any sort of slight against your efforts. Quite the opposite -- I would love to see you participate and contribute information if we bring such a thing into being. I would also understand, however, if you were reluctant to do so, given the amount of effort you've put into building your own site!

I think there's a lot of good information out there -- much of it is on your site. I've been a Web junkie for long enough, however, that I've come to believe in the value of linking information together more actively.

That said, this post is just a strawman. I continue to welcome comments -- both from those who really like the idea, and those who think it's redundant. I have a little time and effort already invested in setting up a skeleton for such a service, but not so much that I'll be upset if the idea doesn't fly :-D

LeVautRien · 07-27-2004, 01:57 PM

Similarly, I should hope my interest wouldn't be taken as a slight against your site, John. I absolutely love your site, and I think it's the best Prius site out there. I'm simply interested in this wiki format and the large amounts of centralized information it can bring. No large quantity of contibuters will ever beat the quality of your site, though!

View Poll Results: Would you be interested in a PriusWiki?
Yes, and I can probably contribute information to it, as well!	46	41.07%
Yes.	51	45.54%
No.	15	13.39%
Voters: 112. You may not vote on this poll

07-27-2004, 01:35 AM	#13
DaveinOlyWA Opps !! I Did it Again!! Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: South Puget Sound, WA Posts: 9,661 My Car: 2006 Prius Package: #4 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	i agree with linking to yahoo. they are nice but too much BS... id rather see something like John1701A's little "factoid" flyers he made up that has condensed info that is concise and to the point. chat groups are nice, but even the best of em requires wading through a lot of BS to get to the meat of the subject. it would be more work, but to take a subject, read the available info on it, then condense the important info into a report would be the ultimate. (i know, it sounds like your 8th grade history class) also, i think what Danny has done with the FAQ's here is excellent. very concise and easy to follow. __________________ My 2006: Last tank 463.1 miles @49.2 pump (49.4 computer) 4.22 cpm winter mpg 50.70 summer mpg 54.59 lifetime: 33,038.3 miles 52.79 mpg pump (54.04 mpg computer) 5.74 cpm My 2007 Zenn Driven 5945 miles, 2.01 cpm/ 105 mpg (at $2.05/gal), 4.04 miles/ Kwh Savings over my Prius $302.66 The Corolla...573.26 The REAL SAVINGS from not driving Corolla 657.39 +Prius= 958.18 (excludes maintenance costs...would be unfair to ICE vehicles) My Plate: DUALPWR (Dual Power)

07-27-2004, 09:54 AM	#15
TonyPSchaefer Ruler of Omicron Persei 8 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Far-North Chicagoland Posts: 8,418 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: #9 Nominated 4 Times in 2 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 16	Geez, I have a degree in Computer Science and yet have to admit that I had to Google 'wiki'. and for those - like me - who are new to this concept, here's the definition I found and http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki: ""Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. Like many simple concepts, "open editing" has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by non-technical users."" This sounds fun and exciting to me. I design and develop technologically-based training and educational materials. I have been chomping at the bits to get my Prius so I can actually contribute something worth while to the discussion. John1701A's materials are awesome. They are concise, easy to read, and well formatted. I think that with the joint effort of the members of this board, just about every question asked about a Prius can be answered in the same manner. __________________ Proud father of Priapus: the '04 Tideland BC9 with an OEM EV button and sense of self-righteousness >>Current Mileage<< Spreading information and passing gas in the Greater Chicagoland area

07-27-2004, 11:42 AM	#18
john1701a Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,715 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: Pioneer #3 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 3	Hi all. My approach has always been focused on data gathering. Then once I have enough, the hope is that a pattern will naturally emerge. The most important info basically rises to the top all by itself. It's like not laying any sidewalks at a new park. Just let them establish themselves. Allow the people to walk where they please. Eventually, the wear pattern in the grass will reveal where the sidewalk should be. And it will obviously appeal to many, since that is the path they have beeen walking all along. As for the website, it was blatantly obvious that people enjoy a variety of photos. So that's what I have strived to deliver. The "blog" phenomenon really caught me off guard. I had no idea so many would care about details like that. But they do. So I have done my best to fulfill that need too. The INFO-SHEET and USER-GUIDE were my attempts to summarize, to take the best info our combined minds had come up with and put it into a pleasing format that could be used offline. That non-web (printout) format was very important. It is a tool we can you to stimulate interest, to draw people online... enough to get them to try out a discussion group like this! I'm constantly filling a notebook with topics of hot items, things that require more attention than just an few updates. My latest effort was completely rewriting my misconceptions page. The week before, I finally did a large set of updates to the USER-GUIDE. Another on the way (eventually) is a brand new summary document, called OWNER-EXPECTATIONS. But the catch with this is lack of data. It takes a long time to gather enough... hence my approach. I try to be as proactive as I can, to keep ahead of the need wave. So I really appreciate the assistance some offer toward that... like with alternate tires. The discussion here revealed the desire for a better choice. Now I am 1,701 miles into testing. As a result, a few others will likely try them later too. So by the time that data is requested by the masses, while'll have a bunch available. If a new tool emerges that will help with that purpose, keep us informed. It may later be added as a resource... but not necessarily right away. I fought pretty hard against the PDF format back when version 3.0 was still ubiquitous. It had a number of technical problems that would have impaired our efforts. But then when the much improved 5.0 version finally became available, I jumped on board and took full advantage of PDF. And by the time 6.0 was released, I had already prepared to take advantage of it. The format had proven quite valuable. In summary, I'm going with the flow, building upon what we come up to help solve our emission & consumption problem. __________________ JOHN http://john1701a.com 47.9 MPG average @ 108,544 miles

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07-26-2004, 06:51 PM	#11
V8Cobrakid some guy... Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 2,559 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: #9 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 5	I would advise against linking anything to a chat group. especialy yahoo. I don't use yahoo. It has problem with my pc. To see a page that links to yahoo.. and i try it.. discourages me to read on. I don't like to deal with problems of something not working.. and neither does anyone else. Priuschat.com and priusonline.com seem to work for anyone. At most, like to those. But if you have to log in, it's no longer "free" info. it's work. :mrgreen:

07-26-2004, 06:55 PM	#12
LeVautRien Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Claremont, California Posts: 367 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Quite a valid point.

07-27-2004, 01:50 AM	#14
LeVautRien Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Claremont, California Posts: 367 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Also, there could be a condensed version, and then a link that brought the reader to a more broad version, catering to both kinds of readers. We don't have to compromise if there are enough people willing to make it happen. And as for how to handle information from the yahoo groups, while it would take some good work, the useful snippets could be taken and placed into corresponding wiki entries, each entry having a page worth of comments from Yahoo group members. Some of this information would certainly be incorporated into the entry itself.

07-27-2004, 10:44 AM	#16
jkash Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: West Hills, CA Posts: 857 My Car: 2004 Prius Package: #9 Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	There already is a Prius article at the Wikipedia encyclopedia. It can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius As with all Wikipedia articles, it can be added to. I have added a link to PriusChat to the article this morning. Jeff

07-27-2004, 10:51 AM	#17
LungCookie Join Date: May 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 67 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	A prime example is Wikipedia. It's an encyclopedia with over 300,000 articles built by its readers. Anyone can add to it or edit any article, no login required. Here's the Prius article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prius It already had a link to John's site -- I was about to add a link to this one and found that somebody just beat me to it. EDIT: Ahh... didn't see your post in time, jkash.

07-27-2004, 11:58 AM	#19
mshappe Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Richfield, MN Posts: 88 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	John, I sincerely hope you do not take my interest in founding a PriusWiki for any sort of slight against your efforts. Quite the opposite -- I would love to see you participate and contribute information if we bring such a thing into being. I would also understand, however, if you were reluctant to do so, given the amount of effort you've put into building your own site! I think there's a lot of good information out there -- much of it is on your site. I've been a Web junkie for long enough, however, that I've come to believe in the value of linking information together more actively. That said, this post is just a strawman. I continue to welcome comments -- both from those who really like the idea, and those who think it's redundant. I have a little time and effort already invested in setting up a skeleton for such a service, but not so much that I'll be upset if the idea doesn't fly :-D

07-27-2004, 01:57 PM	#20
LeVautRien Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Claremont, California Posts: 367 My Car: Package: Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTM Awards: 0 Friends: 0	Similarly, I should hope my interest wouldn't be taken as a slight against your site, John. I absolutely love your site, and I think it's the best Prius site out there. I'm simply interested in this wiki format and the large amounts of centralized information it can bring. No large quantity of contibuters will ever beat the quality of your site, though!