From: David Conger Subject: [Paparazzi-devel] Paparazzi Wiki gone commercial? Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:21:36 -0700 All, From the start I like to use the features of the Wiki like viewing what gets edited not just who. It's becoming alarming the number of commercial, i.e. insert direct link to a vendor website with a product link, virtually everywhere on that Wiki. Pretty much the same person is doing every edit of this type. I have never seen this on any WIki before so much advertising and ad references put everywhere. I'd expect this on a CocaCola Wiki or but Paparazzi? I write this after watching the Wiki grow over the past year, from watching the edits mature the sites content....and now as I watch the quality of those edits go down as someone who values the site as a source of information about Paparazzi I have to say something. Even the readability on a language standpoint is suffering. I did not name any one person so I am hoping they simply read this and think about their real interest in Paparazzi because as it is often said: "Actions speak louder than words". About Wiki. I really like how the software makes edits and changes so accessible. Here's a bit of info I can share that is quite useful. All edits can be seen easily. Who make the edit and even what they edited. It's all stored in a database so the "history" of any page can be seen. Here's the link to the recent edits of the Wiki: http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/index.php/Special:Recentchanges Note that you can click on "(diff)" and "(hist)" links that will show you the content that was edited. So, you can see down to the letter every change to every page and what changes were made. It's very powerful and allows you full access to what people are writing not just who wrote it. This link shows that jszeto changed the outputs copied and pasted from my terminal for some reason: http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/index.php?title=USB_Boot_Loader&diff=3808&oldid=3803 Not sure why that would be needed since it was a copy and paste from my terminal showing the output from the command. This one shows the same person inserting their product image that is only carried on their website: http://paparazzi.enac.fr/wiki/index.php?title=USB_Boot_Loader&diff=3823&oldid=3808 Ok, not so bad but now what cable do you use with it? The FTDI cable used by most everyone requires an adapter but none is shown now for this image... Is there a governing body of some sort to review the Wiki and it's content? Maybe one could be created? I don't have the answer but can we please preserve the Wiki as a source for knowledge not advertising? Regards, David -David
From: martin Subject: Re: [Paparazzi-devel] =?ISO-8859-1?Q? Paparazzi Wiki gone ?= =?ISO-8859-1?Q?commercial??= Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:16:40 +0200 (CEST) Hi, we can all be very happy that finally people have started to manufacture and sell Paparazzi hardware. It took a long time to convince companies to invest time and money to start doing this. It was the biggest show stopper for people to begin with Paparazzi. There is even more than one company now working on this. It should be good for all customers to see some competition as it usually lowers the price or makes companies enhance their products and services. The wiki is there to give information to help you work with Paparazzi. This includes technical information as well as sources for buying equipment. We should try not to mix up those two. There is the "GetHardware" page perfect for any commercial activity. This is where you can find all vendors in the order of appearance. If vendors want their own wiki page, that is fine too. But it is not useful to stumble into commercial advertising in pages describing hardware. This includes hidden teasing messages about other vendors not having some features. If you think you are different and provide better service, put this in the GetHardware page. It is perfect to make money with selling Paparazzi. This is how business works and should work - earn money for giving people what they want. But keep that separated from the development of Paparazzi. The developers of Paparazzi are not selling any hardware nor are they connected with any vendor. The wiki/cvs is the exchange place for info, equally available for everyone. No one will get any schematics or data before anyone else. It should not be tried to set up any connection with development/research/charity or whatever buzzwords. This is business. It is about making money. If you want to do the community any good, keep your prices as low as possible for you. Please refer to Paparazzi when you set up your commercial page, give a link to http://paparazzi.enac.fr It should be very clear where the work has been done and where Paparazzi origins from. Vendors should try to avoid giving the impression that they are the one and only source for hardware. Do not fill this mailing list with discussions that do not help people to work with Paparazzi or might even insult others. Do not expect anyone to govern the wiki. There is much greater stuff that can be done for and with Paparazzi than writing emails like this. Martin
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