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PullMyFinger going away?


Emberlost

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To save other people time finding out the situation, this time the situation is that WikiSpaces is closing down.

Scheduled Closure dates

Classroom and Free Wikis end of service:  31st July 2018

Plus and Super Wikis end of service:  30th September 2018

Private Label Wikis end of service:  31st January 2019

Souce:  http://blog.wikispaces.com/

 

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The other wikispaces page I can think of (battlecollege) ended up migrating over to MediaWiki as it's new home in response to the *last* time wikispaces changed policy.  Whomever takes this over could perhaps start there?

Related, is it possible to scrape the pages of the existing Wiki so they don't all need to be written from scratch?  Better yet, is it possible to *selectively* scrape the pages?  Me thinks it's time to let the 1.5 stuff go down with the ship.

Viking funeral?  Can we viking funeral a web page?

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On 2018/2/13 at 5:29 PM, Clement said:

Related, is it possible to scrape the pages of the existing Wiki so they don't all need to be written from scratch?  Better yet, is it possible to *selectively* scrape the pages?  Me thinks it's time to let the 1.5 stuff go down with the ship.

Mechanically, according to the posts, wikispaces is offering several options for exporting the data from the wiki.  Those options appear to range from exporting the whole wiki in "Wkikspaces format" or other content types.

And they even volunteer this bit of 'knock yourself out' helpfulness:

Quote

If I can create a tool whereby I can shift all my data from Wikispaces to an external site can this be shared with other users?

Yes it can.  Feel free to contact us if you have developed something.

Please note that we cannot be held liable for any loss of data or corruption caused as a result of using or creating the tool.  Anyone who uses such a tool will do so at their own risk. 

:mellow:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've done several tools and sites for the game Netrunner and I would be more than willing to provide a host for the data located at PMF if you're interested. Could most likely figure something out to get the info scraped if there's no good way to export it. Let me know!

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There's quite a bit of useful information on that website, it'd be a shame to loose it. I think it's a great help for new players who want help to choose what to buy.

The open aspect of it helps alot as well, so that people who know particular models are able to impart their knowledge without burdening a single editor with so many updates.

There's still time to do something about it, but i think it's time to discuss what can be done before it's too late.

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I agree it is a great resource, especially for new players. Sadly I don't have any technical experience that would help with moving the information to another site. 

Who currently controls the page and what kind of help do they need? Even if we can save the information and maybe ask one of the Malifaux Podcast or Blog people to host the info until a better solution can be found?

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I noticed that they recommend Moodle. I'm not as familiar with that, but another LMS, Canvas, offers free pages. I'm just not sure it works well format wise. It would also be quite time-intensive to pull all the info. There are going to be a lot of dead links as they all link back to the Wiki pages.

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Before I spend too much time on working on something on my end, is anyone working on a move for the site?

The only idea I had was to move it to a free Learning Management System that many schools use. It's what I'm familiar with and can help with. It also allows for users to make changes to pages, etc. 

I've splashed together this, but it is not complete (and most of the links still point to the Wiki site - that will take time to create all new pages and link to the correct locations). While this is fun to do, i don't want to step on anyone's' toes, especially if there is a better alternative that someone is working on?

I was able to find the correct setting so that you don't even have to Join the course to see it or  (supposedly) edit pages. Might work OK after all. What do you all think?

https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1293024 

 

 

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2 minutes ago, Baskakov_Dmitriy said:

My idea is to switch to wikia. I doubt if we need stuff from the earlier editions, but 2e stuff could even be moved manually, by hand. Any volunteers? :)

I don't want to create another account at the moment. I'm assuming Wikia is free? Does it allow anyone to edit like the old Wiki? Have you tried creating a test site yet and if so do you have a link? If it's just copying and pasting/reformatting I'll be glad to help. 

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1 minute ago, Paddywhack said:

I'm assuming Wikia is free? Does it allow anyone to edit like the old Wiki?

Yes.

1 minute ago, Paddywhack said:

Have you tried creating a test site yet and if so do you have a link?

Not with PullMyFinger, but it would take around 30 seconds. Because of no announcements I will presume that no work is being done towards that. 

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I'll take a look later today and see what I can start moving. I'd love to hear from whoever controls the original page though just to make sure we aren't duplicating work. The original page also mentions being able to download HTML files, but I can't seem to find that option. Maybe its only the owner of the page that can do so? 

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Was 'PullMyFinger' not available as a name? If we're going to change it maybe something completely new instead? Though I would personally prefer to keep it for ease of transition. 

I'm also having trouble figuring out how to do things. I'm not finding it very user friendly for newbies.... 

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7 hours ago, Baskakov_Dmitriy said:

It probably was. But even if we do use it, we should ask the author. I will send the PM now, probably there will be no problems involved. 

OK, I've tried, but am having no luck with Wikia an learning their tools for creating pages, editing, and layout options. If that is the option chosen I doubt I will be much help getting it set up really. The same amount of time I spent trying on Wikia I was able to copy over several pages to Canvas. 

Let me know if you decide not to move forward with Wikia or if Hateful Darkblack doesn't have other plans in place. I can keep playing with my Canvas site for fun as I'd hate to see all this info get lost due to indecision. 

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OK, I've been playing a bit, though I haven'y heard from any of the original Pull My Finger admins. I tried learning the other Wikia site, but was having no luck and it was taking too long. I've created this site:

https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1293024

Which is free (and ad free) and as they service higher ed I doubt that they will get rid of their free service any time soon. It's not perfect, and has some minor annoyances when editing, etc. but it works. I've so far only focused on Resurrectionists and have through the Enforcers copied over. I wanted to get some feedback on the format I've chosen though. I've done tabbed pages to try and make things easier to find, and it works well for Masters who have a lot of content, but seems overkill for some of the other models. Any opinions? It will be pretty easy to remove the tabs, but I want to do it now rather than later. A lot of the links still go to the Wikia page and that will take time going through and updating. I also haven't added many pictures just yet - mostly the Masters.

If anyone at Pull My Finger has a problem with this, please let me know. I've tried PMing Hateful Darkblack, but no response yet. Who else in charge of the original page?

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21 hours ago, Paddywhack said:

OK, I've been playing a bit, though I haven'y heard from any of the original Pull My Finger admins. I tried learning the other Wikia site, but was having no luck and it was taking too long. I've created this site:

https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/1293024

Which is free (and ad free) and as they service higher ed I doubt that they will get rid of their free service any time soon. It's not perfect, and has some minor annoyances when editing, etc. but it works. I've so far only focused on Resurrectionists and have through the Enforcers copied over. I wanted to get some feedback on the format I've chosen though. I've done tabbed pages to try and make things easier to find, and it works well for Masters who have a lot of content, but seems overkill for some of the other models. Any opinions? It will be pretty easy to remove the tabs, but I want to do it now rather than later. A lot of the links still go to the Wikia page and that will take time going through and updating. I also haven't added many pictures just yet - mostly the Masters.

If anyone at Pull My Finger has a problem with this, please let me know. I've tried PMing Hateful Darkblack, but no response yet. Who else in charge of the original page?

Wow, I teach higher ed (including teaching and developing online courses with Canvas) and it would never have occurred to me that Canvas could be used as a wikispaces substitute for something like this! I guess I just compartmentalize work and play too much...  Anyway, nicely done! I agree that using modules for the layout is best, and the only thing I would suggest is making sure that information is not duplicated anywhere on the site (or it will be hell to update later), and keep things simple. I would even hide the "pages" link in the menu. Just have the front page and the modules page showing (I am not sure if the files tab is important to anyone but content editors). Canvas has a nagging habit of crashing when pages are accessed by different routes (modules vs pages list, etc.). Limiting viewer's options to the modules page should eliminate problems in the future.

Best,

PA

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Thanks. I only left them available as I'm not sure if people can save images to the files sections without it being there, but I think if people sign up as 'students' it creates a file storage for them so maybe not an issue. Same with Pages, as I'm not sure if the tab isn't there if people would be able to add new pages since this is going to be open to the public for additions/changes. I'll play a bit and make sure it works as intended in 'Student view'. 

Right now anyone can view it, but you can only edit if you Join the Course.

I played with using Accordion buttons instead of Tabs, but found that it meant you had to go in to the HTML to make edits and that would be too cumbersome. I do think I will remove Tabs from all but the Masters as they are more annoying than helpful in those cases. 

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On 3/14/2018 at 2:27 PM, Paddywhack said:

OK, I've been playing a bit, though I haven'y heard from any of the original Pull My Finger admins. 

If anyone at Pull My Finger has a problem with this, please let me know. I've tried PMing Hateful Darkblack, but no response yet. Who else in charge of the original page?

Technically I started PMF but I left it in the hands of @Hateful Darkblack and @Rathnard long ago.

I have no issue with what you’re doing. Doubt they will either. Who you really need permission from, I think, would be Wyrd themselves. We had to get that way back in the day.

Best of luck. :)

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