100 replies to this topic

[JAZ]

We're pleased to announce the WikiGullet Project, a collaborative culinary encyclopedia sponsored by the Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. Please feel free to ask any questions or make comments about the project on this topic.

To read the full announcement, click here. To visit the WikiGullet project, click here.

[lancastermike]

I understand the meaning of beta, but I can't read the information in the topics as the search feature and the banner cover up part of them. I'm sure this is a design feature that can be fixed

[Dave the Cook]

I understand the meaning of beta, but I can't read the information in the topics as the search feature and the banner cover up part of them. I'm sure this is a design feature that can be fixed

It would help out the tech team if, when you have an issue like this, you posted the following information:

• Computer platform (PC, Mac, Blackberry, etc.)
• Operating system (Vista, XP, Mac OS, etc.)
• Browser (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc.)
• Browser version

[lancastermike]

PC, XP Pro, IE 7

[Dave the Cook]

Thanks, Mike -- and sorry you're having trouble. We know there are problems with Internet Explorer 7 (IE8 seems to be fine). We're working on the problem.

[lancastermike]

Tried FF and it works fine

[IndyRob]

Wow, the amount of questions flooding my mind is daunting. I'll just pick one....

It looks like the content is published under the Creative Commons license which I think, generally speaking, means that Wikipedia content could be used. That might be a good way to seed articles. Should this be encouraged? Discouraged?

[JAZ]

You should certainly feel free to use content from Wikipedia, as long as you cite the the relevant article(s) as your source. We've found, in practice, that often Wikipedia articles contain quite a bit of information that is not culinary in nature, and so they can be of limited value. For instance, given that our project has a culinary focus, the WikiGullet article on crayfish rightly ignores large sections of information that can be found in the Wikipedia article, such as raising crayfish as pets, the fossil record of crayfish and the etymology of the name.

[Dave the Cook]

Thanks, Mike -- and sorry you're having trouble. We know there are problems with Internet Explorer 7 (IE8 seems to be fine). We're working on the problem.

We think most of the display issues have been fixed in IE7. Please check it out.

IE6 should be functional now, but the browser doesn't handle certain "modern" styles, um, gracefully.

[lancastermike]

Thanks, Mike -- and sorry you're having trouble. We know there are problems with Internet Explorer 7 (IE8 seems to be fine). We're working on the problem.

We think most of the display issues have been fixed in IE7. Please check it out.

IE6 should be functional now, but the browser doesn't handle certain "modern" styles, um, gracefully.

Looks like IE 7 now works for me

[Chris Hennes]

We've gotten some reports from people having trouble logging in: the first thing to check is the capitalization of your username. Unfortunately, unlike the forums, the wiki software is case-sensitive (so I have to log in as "Chris Hennes" for example: "Chris hennes" doesn't work). If you have double checked that and are still having problems logging in, please post here so we can look into it.

[Chris Amirault]

Also, if you're having trouble, try removing your cookies in your browser's preferences and restarting the browser. Often that will take care of the problem.

[Dave Hatfield]

Just for the record Google chrome & chrome yellow seem to work fine. Or at least I haven't seen any problems.
Haven't tried the Explorer 9 that was just released, but will

I think this is a great project.

[Chris Amirault]

We agree, Dave. So dive in! Have courage!

[Mjx]

We've gotten some reports from people having trouble logging in: the first thing to check is the capitalization of your username. Unfortunately, unlike the forums, the wiki software is case-sensitive (so I have to log in as "Chris Hennes" for example: "Chris hennes" doesn't work). If you have double checked that and are still having problems logging in, please post here so we can look into it.

Was the issue with the non-standard characters ironed out? For some people, it may be necessary to change their password.

[Chris Hennes]

Yes, I think I (finally) got that figured out. Of course, time will tell!

[IndyRob]

We've found, in practice, that often Wikipedia articles contain quite a bit of information that is not culinary in nature, and so they can be of limited value. For instance, given that our project has a culinary focus, the WikiGullet article on crayfish rightly ignores large sections of information that can be found in the Wikipedia article, such as raising crayfish as pets, the fossil record of crayfish and the etymology of the name.

This makes sense, but it leads me in deeper to some of the thoughts that assailed me. In this case, only the first couple of paragraphs from the Food section appear to have been used. I agree with excluding the sections you mentioned, but a lot more relevant info was excluded.

I understand that we don't need to be knitpicking individual articles at this point (there's the Discussion tab for that), but it would seem to me to make more sense to dump the whole article in and let it get edited down.

[Chris Hennes]

With that crayfish article there was so much extra stuff I wasn't interested in I simply found it easier to grab a few sentences and jump off from there. But I think individual editors can use whatever approach they want.

[Chris Amirault]

Indeed, IndyRob, that's part of the chaotic energy that will make WikiGullet great: whatever methods make most sense are the ones you should just. Dive right in! Have courage!

[nakji]

For me, I spent a about a week kind of dancing around starting an article, worried about it being "really good" before getting started. Then I grokked that since anyone can come along and re-write the article or add to it, I figured I'd just start putting pages up and see what happened. I didn't use WP information for the stubs I started, but that will be something people can easily add to them, I suppose, as they see fit.

Warning: it is addictive. I can follow those red links adding more and more stubs, and before I know it, an hour's gone by. I'm also keeping a notebook list of articles I want to go back and develop.

One thing that really got me started was going through my collection of food photos of places I've been and food I've made. That got me thinking about information I wanted to share.

[lesliec]

Lovely project, guys - well done (and thanks for wasting the rest of my life ...).

It doesn't like me adding an image. I click the 'Image' button in the rich text editor and all I get is the 'busy' mouse pointer when I'm on the toolbar. I can still do other things on the page (like editing text) but I never get the opportunity to select an image and publish it. This persists for several minutes, until I give up and go somewhere else. PC, Win 7 Pro, IE8.

[Chris Hennes]

Hey Leslie - Yeah, the Rich Text Editor is definitely a work in progress, and uploading images is not really the wiki's strong point to begin with. I pretty much always resort to the old-school editor to add the image the first time. First, go to http://wiki.egullet....=Special:Upload to upload your image. Then at the top of the wiki article you want to put the image in, type "[[File:MyImageFilename.jpg|thumbnail]]". That usually does the trick, though of course there are a dozen options you can set. You can check out this page: http://www.mediawiki...iki/Help:Images for more detail than you ever wanted to know.

[Shalmanese]

I started off a couple of stubs for y'all! http://wiki.egullet....ial:WantedPages is a good jumping off point.

[nakji]

I started off a couple of stubs for y'all! http://wiki.egullet....ial:WantedPages is a good jumping off point.

Thanks for putting Thomas Keller in! It's amazing what articles are out there to start.

[Yajna Patni]

I have been hamstrung by wanting it to be really good. Surprisingly, despite my horrid spelling I am a lapsed academic, and the really good, and arguments that will stand up to all kinds of assault thing can make it hard to start. I will do as you say Nakji!

[Yajna Patni]

'cause if the peeps don't like it they can just change it. Or something.

[nakji]

'cause if the peeps don't like it they can just change it. Or something.

That is, in fact, the spirit of wiki.

[LindaK]

I have been hamstrung by wanting it to be really good. Surprisingly, despite my horrid spelling I am a lapsed academic, and the really good, and arguments that will stand up to all kinds of assault thing can make it hard to start. I will do as you say Nakji!

Same here. Though I find it a little intimidating to start a new article, it's shockingly easy to add something to an article that's already begun. Browse what's there, if you read an article that strikes you as lacking a detail or fact that you know, just add it. It's a stress-free way to get started.

[Chris Amirault]

And, those of us who are more comfy at this point: start cranking out the stubs!

[nakji]

I added more to the bento page recently. Lots of great cheese info going in, thanks to Xxchef! And Mjx added a thorough start for prosciutto. What's everyone else working on?