I personally think a lot of this discussion is a moot point.
I feel that as long as the Authors of articles are directly credited on the title of an article, and still hosted on the 405th site, there's nothing worng with it, as long as the act of having it on that wiki, or new thread, or whatever, doesn't put the article into an "altered" copyright situation.
In brief.. if anyone wanted to, at the current time, they could take any and all tutorials from the public wiki, publish them in a bound book, and sell them. Or simply copy them to Disk and resell the crap out of it. That's because the copyright license is different on the public Wiki.
On an internal semi-private Wiki, that legal ability to commercially or non-commercial distribute the material can be stopped. To me, that's an absolute "must do" in terms of knowing that I would avoid contributing anything to the Wiki that might be of value to someone monetarily.
As far as concerns regarding dividing the community by splitting material between the forums and wiki, that's a non-issue, in practice, because it would be much like linking to a webpage. On each of those webpages there is also a discussion page, where changes and questions could be discussed, AND/OR users could ask their questions on threads in the forum. In other words, the WIPS and stuff are still here on the forums as is normal, but there could be a single sticky in that forum that links to the relative section of Wiki that would act as an index for the contents in there.
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Here's an example of an integrated Wiki in action:
The Single sticky in a forum links to the wiki-section that deals with that topic. Click the button on the Weapons/Prop section and get a list of ALL WIP's in that section in Alphabetical order, listing weapon types, authors, and mediums used in the WIP, plus the date the WIP was introduced to the board.
Each entry has a link to the WIP thread which is still on the forum itself, a Link to the Creator's profile on the forum, and possibly a small picture (either a member picture of a project picture). There could also be (at the option and work of the creator) a link to a Wiki User-page that could have things like links to other projects, a personalized profile, a blog of what they're doing now, or a link to it on the forum, etc.
It get's better.. you're still at the Weapon/prop link page, where you scroll past no less than like 8 assault rifle WIPs created in various mediums, and you can tell what the medium is before you even GO to the article, and perhaps we could add a "Percentage Done" to that list.
Meanwhile.. Any WIP that the creator wanted to be displayed in a format that they wanted more control over with no threads, could opt to make a wiki page for the WIP, or they could just leave their WIP on the forum. If they chose a Wiki WIP, they could advertise and discuss it on the forum.
This is not division, or duplication, it's organization at it's finest.. I, for one would never want to lose something like Link's Assault Rifle WIP, we can't sticky it, but why let it get lost in the sea of what.. 13 pages of topics in that forum?
The other option, of course is to ignore that Wiki sticky in the forum, and sort through all the threads in the old-fashioned way. The only difference being that folks are sometimes making references to things that are linked to the thread. (Some intregrated wiki systems even automatically add wiki links into the forum itself whenever you say specific phrases).
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A search function? well, it'd still be the one you remember, but why would you use it ? See the word EVA in a post? just click on it.. and you've suddenly got links to pep files, reference shots, EVA WIPs collections, and "show-off" collections that involve it. Now imagine that for words like Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Endoglassing, Bondo.. (Where to get it at a decent price based on what part of the world you're in, what safety precautions/warnings should you be aware of, how do you use it, is there something else preferred?)
Sure.. it takes time to build it all up, but like I mentioned.. some integrated Wiki systems will AUTOMATICALLY link that kinda' stuff straight to phrases found on the forum if they match a page name or category on the Wiki. Make an EVA page and put on all the links you think are relavent, and from that point forward, everyone gains from that little bit of effort you put out.
In terms of the massive tutorial ideas.. essentially if you do that with a Wiki, it will come together easily and clearly, without minimal hassle, with full credit for sections being something that is REQUIRED when it's entered. No bunch of stickies will equal the Wiki in this regard. Author credits can accompany links to User pages that could optionally include lists of other stuff that author has done, and/or projects they are involved with. It would also link to the board profiles and related threads as determined desirable.
You could go directly to specific tutorial sections that you're currently using, perhaps with WIP links thrown into appropriate sections so you can see how the work relates to what you're doing.
See the clutter in the Sigs on here talking about their Press appearances, Percentages done on various costumes, links to galleries and all that? Three words.. "WIKI USER PAGE"
BIG POST, BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS....
The forum usage wouldn't change from how it's being used now, it merely expands to allow access to referenced material that you can opt to look at, and/or add to, or choose to ignore.
I'm almost convinced that nay-sayers at this point aren't wiki users at all and are merely mildly fearfull of what they don't understand. Trust me in the fact that if someone does NOT want to make a page, or do any work regarding adding stuff to the Wiki at all, they are more than welcome to click on the links that help them get to what they want to see, and have nothing further to do with it. Most links will point to further links or threads/subforums, the other links will go to Wiki content, such as tutorials, (reference and non-reference) images, pep files, and possibly various documents such as forum rules/ettiqute, etc. Possibly some Wiki hosted user profiles and WIPs may show up there too, but the conversations are pretty much over here in the forums except where discussions of wiki editing for specific pages will be accessible to those that want to participate in wiki editing decisions.
If it confuses you, rest assured that it won't be neccessary to do anything beyond clicking on clearly defined links to get you to whatever wealth of data awaits you from the more pro-active Wiki users that beleived links were possibly desired in those areas. Your actual level of involvement with the Wiki itself is up to you.
Nothing put on the wiki will have credits removed as long as credits are availible for any piece in-question, and on an integrated wiki, they aren't leaving the site you posted them on in the first place. If you spot something you wrote that somehow missed getting a credit marker.. add it or get someone else to. All credits should be immediately under the title of the page or section where they get prominent placement, including links to that user's PM. If a significant alteration to a credited section is planned, the credited author is to be consulted before doing so.
It's my opinion that this is an informational Utopia who's abilities have merely been touched upon in the existing Wiki.