New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

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Ken
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New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

I am happy to announce the creation of a new Australian bus-related 'Wiki' site. i.e. a Wikipieda-type pertaining to Australian Buses (and other Australian transport matters).

The easy to remember website is: www.bus.org.au

Content is very scarce yet as I have only concentrated on getting the site up and running. Readers are invited to contribute to this site as they see fit.

It is hoped this 'wiki' will complement this forum by providing a place for people to be able to very easily find information on particular topics without having to search this forum or elsewhere to find the answers they are seeking.

Subjects I can think of for the wiki include (but are not limited to):
- Bus Makes and Models
- Bus Company details/history
- Bus Routes (curent or historic)

Anyone who has edited or contributed to Wikipedia in the past will be familliar with how to use a site like this. You will need to create a username/password to be able to post/edit items.

There is a markup language to use when editing articles. Some of these are:
== Section Heading == for a section heading
=== Subsection === for a subsection
''text'' for italicized text
'''text''' for bold text
* text1 for a bulleted list
[[Bus Chassis]] for a link to the page named 'Bus Chassis' showing those words as the link to click
[[Bus Chassis|chassis]] for a link to the page named 'Bus Chassis' chassis as the link to click

More info at: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Con ... or_editors

To start a new page, there are two easy ways you can do it:
- If a link on a particular page is shown in red then the page doesn't exist yet. Simply click the red link to create the page; or
- Type a page name (which is the name of what you are searching for) e.g. Volvo and click Search. If the page exists it is shown, otherwise you are told it doesn't exist and gives a link for you to create the page.

Like Wikipedia, when you make a change to a page, the previous versions of the page are kept. So if someone tries to 'vandalise' a page then the damage is easily reversed (and the offending person banned from editing).

Any questions, please ask (either in this thread or contact me privately).

Regards,
Ken.
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The Inspector
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by The Inspector »

Thats great, well done ken.

Topics such as,

T-Way, O-bahn, Busway (Brisbane) could all quite easily be started on this site, ie a history of each service type and anything else anyone can add to it.

Not to mention a topic an various bus types, double deck, articulated & gas powered, these to could add to this site in their own way.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by City Bus Observer »

Excellent :!: :!: :!:
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Ken
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

RAAF wrote:When I tried to view any of the pagesm this came up
Permission error
From BusWiki

You do not have permission to do that, for the following reason:
The action you have requested is limited to users in the group user.
Why is this?
Ken wrote:You will need to create a username/password to be able to post/edit items.
So if you create a username and login, things will work for you.

Remember that like Wikipedia, page links shown in red do not yet exist and clicking them will take you to a page to create the content for that link you clicked. If you are not logged in then of course you can not edit/create any pages.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by busrider »

Just a suggestion, Ken, do you think it would be a good idea if we had a forum for the Bus Wiki, like the Australian Transport Discussion Forum with the various state sections/ a general section, or maybe a sub-forum within the Miscellaneous forum titled Bus Wiki, which had separate threads ie; Victoria bus routes, SA Operators? It would be a good way to build it up, and people could post their ideas for articles, and have help from other users to make the article as good as it can get, before putting it into the Bus Wiki.

ANOTHER IDEA :arrow: A Bus Wiki photo section, with threads such as; Volgren CR228L body, Articulated bus, Interchange pictures etc etc etc.
Last edited by busrider on Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Douglas »

Great site, Ken! It should flourish (I hope!). I've already started an article about the Mount Gambier bus service (first South Australian article!), and I am looking forward to viewing what others have to say on various bus-related things.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by CB80 »

I fixed up the Custom Coaches page a bit, but I don't know much about their history so I couldn't do a lot.

I also cleaned up the Volgren page, but it really needs a lot more info added to it.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by B7RLE »

i started the Volgren Page but that is as much as i know
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

Thanks everyone for your input so far.

RAAF (and others), thats what Wikis are for. You don't have to know everything, as you can post what you know, someone else adds a bit, and so on, and before long it is a very detailed article.

Good idea about having a section of this forum relating to the Wiki - I'll suss it out.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by bunza »

I dare say we'll need some formatting guidelines for bus routes when the time comes that every man and his dog adds a story about the history of their route. This would ensure consistency across all pages.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by busrider »

I found some pages on Wikipedia that may help people to use the Bus Wiki;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... dit_a_page
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by huyie »

Is there any chance of installing the ParserFunctions Extension to the bus wiki, so that I can transfer/copy some templates that I was creating from wikipedia?
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

huyie wrote:Is there any chance of installing the ParserFunctions Extension to the bus wiki, so that I can transfer/copy some templates that I was creating from wikipedia?
I don't see why not. Leave it with me.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Duncan »

Hi Ken
Great concept. I've got a pile of stuff I've written for my own records on Sydney buses such as a history of the Explorer and Airport services and the Inner West.
I'll try and find time to add them to the bus wiki.
Were it a more general Australian street transport wiki we could add historical information such as horse buses and even trams. Would be a useful place to keep editied versions of discussions such as the long running Sydney tram remants discussion.
I'll also offer to assist in editing if people need help.

Regards
Duncan
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Chaleyer61 »

Ken

I am already adding material and I am happy to assist further, but as a person who has provided input to Wikipedia, I notice that Bus Wiki lacks some of the features that makes Wikipedia easy to use eg templates and scripts. The templates would be good so that we can start designing some standards for pages about bus companies, bus services, bus routes, etc (if that is what you and other want :?: ).

Can you get the extra features or is there a limit on what is available with the Wiki downloaded software from WikiMedia??

Robert
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Fleet Lists »

We seem to have some duplications creep in:-
Body and Bus Body appear to be much the same thing.
Also we have Route 472 and Route 472 (Sydney)

Shpuld in each case one of those be deleted and if so how is that done?.
Or if they should stay, if one is updated will the other one also be updated? - if not one of each should definitely be deleted.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Douglas »

Fleet Lists wrote:We seem to have some duplications creep in:-
Body and Bus Body appear to be much the same thing.
Also we have Route 472 and Route 472 (Sydney)

Shpuld in each case one of those be deleted and if so how is that done?.
Or if they should stay, if one is updated will the other one also be updated? - if not one of each should definitely be deleted.
I think disambiguations and redirects like what they have on Wikipedia. For instance, if ther are six 472 routes, we could have Route 472 (Sydney), route 472 (Adelaide), Route 472 (Perth) and so on (If Adelaide nor Perth are lacking a 472 route, never mind, they were examples only)
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

Douglas wrote:I think disambiguations and redirects like what they have on Wikipedia.
Yes, thats what it is.

When you rename a page in the wiki (by clicking Move) it leaves the old page there with an automatic redirect to the new page. I have 'renamed' a couple of pages and then gone back in and deleted the original ones where the original one had a typo or was slightly incorrect. With body and bus body I'm sure body automatically redirects to bus body - this helps in searching as if someone just types in body as the search criteria it will automatically bring up the bus body page.

With the Route 472 page it was intially entered without (Sydney) in the file name but I 'moved' it to include (Sydney). In cases like these the original page should be deleted as the original page was incorrectly titled, rather than it being purposely there to aid in search and provide aliases etc.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by mjja »

Idea: the fleet lists could be moved onto the Wiki.

This would mean that changes are automatically logged (so we don't have to have the Fleet List Manager doing the red/orange text manually), and would also mean that anyone could post updates.

There would still need to be a Fleet List Manager to get rid of any extraneous comments (eg "This bus was involved in a minor accident with a car on 1/2/03 and was back in service by 4/2" or any such uselessness) but the role would become a lot easier.
Happy Gunzelling and remember, "Go By Rail!"

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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Hornibrook »

There is no more red/orange lists anymore. They are all contained in a .txt file which PHP text is used to pull the bus information out of.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

The wiki software is designed for use as an encyclopaedia not a customisable database, so the wiki will not work for fleet lists. What it may be able to do is replace the information about a company, their routes, technical or historic details on a type of bus etc. leaving the fleet list pages to concentrate on fleet list data and provide a link to the wiki page for the relevant company/vehicle type.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Fleet Lists »

What is the strange subject at the bottom of the lists of subjects YFcSMlA5qO

I think it is rather suspicious and should be deleted.

Does anyone know how to go about that?
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Ken »

Yes, looks like a user has created that page as a 'test'. It should be deleted, but I can't remember how to do it now.
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Fleet Lists »

There are now another four pages which look like rubbush: Stockpile, Shimmied, Stringier and Smithereens.

How can we get rid of these?????
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Re: New Australian Bus 'Wiki' website

Post by Fleet Lists »

Somebody must have read this. I just rceived an email from the Wiki system
Dear Fleet Lists,


The BusWiki page User talk:Fleet Lists has been created on 04:48, 22 March 2009 by 037291, see http://bus.org.au/qindex.php/User_talk:Fleet_Lists for the current version.

This is a new page.

Editor's summary: New page: hi fleet lists i know how to delete pages do you want me to explain to you how to ~~~~

Contact the editor:
mail: http://bus.org.au/qindex.php/Special:Emailuser/037291
wiki: http://bus.org.au/qindex.php/User:037291

There will be no other notifications in case of further changes unless you visit this page. You could also reset the notification flags for all your watched pages on your watchlist.

Your friendly BusWiki notification system

--
To change your watchlist settings, visit http://bus.org.au/qindex.php/Special:Watchlist/edit

Feedback and further assistance:
http://bus.org.au/qindex.php/Help:Contents
After a lot of going back and forwards, I replied "Yes please" to the question asked. So it will be interesting to see what happens from here.

This was again totally new territory for me.

Note: All links in the quote above have deliberately been made invalid.

So hopefully we will go somewhere form here.
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