Time to start a Model S Wiki Manual?

[thedonald]

Perhaps its time to start a Wiki based Model S manual. With the car's changing feature set, a Wiki manual makes more sense. Any takers on the effort?

 

[alset]

I totally agree, too hard to catch-up/keep up with posts. I can contribute - maybe someone can start an outline and we can sign folks up for sub-sections?

 

[Owner]

I think this is a good idea. Tesla's documentation was not their strong point with the Roadster.
Part of my blog, Tesla Owner, ended up being some details about some features I discovered.
But I do like the idea of a user based manual is an interesting idea. I'd assume Tesla itself would put more effort into the manual and have it eventually be part of the touch screen. Seems like it might be somewhat of a duplication of effort.
What exactly is your vision of this? I'd be interested in helping if the vision made sense and was an adjunct to the standard manual.

 

[FlasherZ]

You would really need a single benevolent leader to lead the effort, as communities rarely self-organize something like documentation very well.

 

[jerry33]

You would really need a single benevolent leader to lead the effort, as communities rarely self-organize something like documentation very well.

+1. I've never had much luck finding things in wikis, so mostly I just ignore them.

 

[Francis Lau]

I can help lead the charge if we can have topics leaders help create and maintain the content. I have a server hosting a Confluence wiki and I could try to get a community license to host the wiki. I can create the outline for topics and then have a small group of contributors. I certainly do not have sufficient knowledge to be the author for almost all topics . We can get a domain so it is easy to access. My tech writing and training teams use this product as well - you can see an example at http://docs.marketleader.com. It has a great interface supporting full text search, images, embedded videos, embedded presentations, open source widgets etc. I can get my designer to create a brand so it looks nicer.

Is this what you all are thinking? I tried to buy the domain Teslapedia.com but it is sold Maybe we can find another.

- - - Updated - - -

+1. I've never had much luck finding things in wikis, so mostly I just ignore them.

Confluence uses Lucene for full text searches so it works pretty well. But it also depends on how well we use the correct keywords in the articles

 

[Francis Lau]

I just bought the TeslaWiki.com domain, what do folks think about this approach before I plunge right in?
* Domain: http://www.TeslaWiki.com
* Setup with Confluence wiki product hosted by me
* I create initial home page and site map for topics
* Community review
* Find topic leaders and authors
* Publicize
* Use, improve and add content

 

[thedonald]

I'm thinking that some topics are better served by a wiki--like the list of features in each software update. What is important is that it fits in with Tesla Motors Club, not detract from it or compete with it. So I'm thinking we use the wiki on Tesla Motors Club. We start with a single topic which could use documenting/tips and see how that goes.

 

[dsm363]

We have this Wiki already
Model S software/firmware changelog - Tesla Motors Club - Enthusiasts & Owners Forum

Others can be added of course too

 

[AndyM]

While it's not in Wiki format, I have collected a lot of this data already from many places, not just the forums here.
It's a GoogleDocs spreadsheet. If someone would like to spend the time to import that data into a new format, please be my guest. I just haven't had the time to do that.
See my sig below for the link to the Google spreadsheet.

 

[thedonald]

I think what's needed is not a "Manual" but instead a Tips section of the wiki. This section would be populated with the results of threads once a course of action/consensus has been determined. This way, there is an easier way to locate the final "tip". Since this is a wiki--just a series of linked pages, it would be easy to re-organize the wiki as needed.

 

[bonnie]

I just bought the TeslaWiki.com domain, what do folks think about this approach before I plunge right in?
* Domain: http://www.TeslaWiki.com
* Setup with Confluence wiki product hosted by me
* I create initial home page and site map for topics
* Community review
* Find topic leaders and authors
* Publicize
* Use, improve and add content

Why wouldn't you just use the TMC wiki setup? Why a new domain?

 

[brianman]

Why wouldn't you just use the TMC wiki setup? Why a new domain?

Presumably because there are limits to who can create wikis on TMC. Put another way, the TMC implementation is currently more like a small number of moderator-created set of wiki pages rather than a wiki site where topics are relatively short, narrow in topic, and heavily cross-linked.

For example, lol's (I forgot his full forum nick, sorry) proposal for an issues thread could just be collated as a wiki by him or multiple people on a general wiki quickly and easily. As it stands with TMC, a mod would have to create the topic (and any subtopics linked to) which introduces an overhead factor that makes it not worth the effort.

This post is not intended as a complaint, just an evaluation.

Update:
Skimming some of the newer content in the Wiki area, perhaps some of the permissions have been opend up since I last looked. If so, that may invalidate some of the "outsourcing" rationale suggested above.

 

[bonnie]

The TMC wiki pages are set up so that anyone can edit.

 

[brianman]

The TMC wiki pages are set up so that anyone can edit.

Are they currently set up so that anyone can create a topic? Originally they were not.

 

[Francis Lau]

Then main reason is that a full fledge wiki product offers much more functionality; especially to lay out information in a more intuitive manner. However, I agree with the need to not compete with the TMC domain. Maybe we can go with a subdomain like wiki.teslamotorsclub.com. I will create an outline of the site to show what the advantages are. It will take me a week or so since I am busy this week.

 

[bonnie]

PM sent. Thanks, Francis.

 

[thedonald]

I was playing with the TMC test wiki and could not figure out how to create a new page which I could link from the test page. There is a way to link to a page, but not a clear way to create a new sub page.