Warbird Information Exchange

Are there any out there?

Would anybody like to (and be capable) start one?

I personally think it would be a great asset to the community.

Your thoughts?

(here's where you start telling me how stupid I am. )

how stupid am i???? what is a wrbird wiki??? i must be getting old!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I think it's one of the little cute idols you get at a hook E Louw.

I didn't know either.

http://www.wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki

Still not sure I do...

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Essentially, it's an online database which could be modified by members without actually using complicated software and uploading the page.

The wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) is a good example.

Essentially, a wiki is: "...is a free, open content, community-built encyclopedia with thousands of articles on topics from A to Z."
(taken from a yahoo search of wikipedia)

by golly i am old!!!!!!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I'm with Tom, I must be old to.....Tom

tom crawford....... you'll like this, i use this regarding myself with my kids as a dad & in relation to my / our names, your welcome to adopt it........ .t.o.m. translates to "The Old Man"

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

So does anybody have any interest?

Can you show us an example?

Mike

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Mike R. Henniger
Aviation Enthusiast & Photographer
http://www.AerialVisuals.ca
http://www.facebook.com/AerialVisuals

Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
Do you want to find or contribute to the documented history of an aircraft? If so then start with the Airframes Database.

Yup. My question is, do we need a *separate* Wiki for Warbirds? If your proposal has a different subject slant than a general Wiki or Encyclopedia, then maybe you could be right. There is a danger in inventing something for its own sake.

For Wikipedia examples of warbird and non-warbird articles - see below. The Travel Air article is intersting because it needs to be expanded and ANYONE can do it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis_Belle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno_Air_Races

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_A ... ace_Museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beech_Travel_Air

Here's a Wiki for the Stearman and the B-17.

There is a Warbird Wiki, it just needs to be expanded upon. Anybody can do it, and false information or vandalism on a Wiki is quickly fixed by the rest of the community.

It's one of those "things" the internet was made for.

EDIT: Kansan posted while I was typing. The current Warbird Wiki could have links to the various specific types that already exist, as well as organizations, etc.

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Commemorative Air Force
Experimental Aircraft Association
Warbirds of America

What are you waiting for? Join us!

Best way to contact me- email my last name @gmail.com

I guess I haven't made myself to clear (I'm not very good communications-wise).

I mean a separate wiki.

Wikipedia is a wiki. Another example is uncyclopedia. If you do an internet search on wikis, you will find many wikis. Some dedicated to games, some dedicated to nonsense, etc...

What Kansan and Eric posted are wiki articles.

I am proposing separate web page--something like warbird.wiki.org (fake URL created by me solely as an example) or something along those lines--which is completely dedicated to warbirds, which the wikipedia is not.

(Sorry if I'm sounding mean)

You communicated the point perfectly well. That's what I *thought* you meant. But I asked if you meant a separate Wiki to make sure I understood!



Yup. Those were indeed Wiki articles - that's why I said they were articles.



No, you don't sound mean at all. If you want to do it, who am I (or who is anybody) to stand in your way? I still wonder if a separate Wiki is the right way to go - I have some doubts personally. If someone (not you) were to create a separate Wiki and that person (for example) just rips all the warbird-related pages/articles off Wikipedia (which anyone can do legally under the GNU license) - IMHO you might (and this is all conjecture) get seriously divergent pages in the event of major rewrites occurring on one source and not the other. So you might get two wikis saying different things.

It just seems to me like a duplication (and dilution) of effort. We're doing a lot of that now in the huge variety of authoritative and very non-authoritative web pages out there. There is a bunch of people out there already who are clearly into warbirds and who are actively contributing to Wikipedia. Wouldn't it be just as good an idea to persuade some people on WIX or wherever who don't already contribute to Wikipedia to do that, rather than start a Wiki which duplicates sections of another one?

I'm not trying to rain on your parade - just wondering out loud.

Rob / Kansan

Sorry, I'm not a good reader;

Right now, I'm not capable of creating a wiki by myself. I have a very tight schedule and am working on my own warbird-related internet project right now.

If I understand this correctly, a Wiki is initially created by a group of people invited by the owner.

"It just seems to me like a duplication (and dilution) of effort. We're doing a lot of that now in the huge variety of authoritative and very non-authoritative web pages out there."

Good point.

However, I've never seen a site that was like a warbird encyclopedia, having articles on the people (Earl Rhinert for example) and places (such as the Strathallan collection or Planes of Fame) in any single place without being diluted by other things.

Also, if you noticed, wikipedia has articles on the types of planes, rather than their use as warbirds (I haven't spent much time reading, so I might be wrong). I don't think that the amount of data on warbirds would be terribly appreciated by the good folks behind wikipedia.

You mention different pages--any good ones where I could get the kind of information listed above? I don't know of any one source. That's why I'm suggesting the wiki.

My idea of a wiki would not be a copy of a bunch of different information, although I do understand what you mean.

My knowledge of wikis isn't that deep, but I do understand that if people were to put unreliable information on it, the sites admin(s) could change it back using a "history" function.

I'm not the best communicator, so if I haven't allayed your doubts (or you couldn't make a lick of sense out of this post), don't be surprised.

On a completely different note, will you be coming to see Doc fly?