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Introducing the AARoads Wiki

Started by Scott5114, September 07, 2023, 06:00:01 PM

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Scott5114

Quote from: vdeane on July 05, 2024, 04:19:56 PMHow is the wiki taking off?  It seems like a lot of threads regarding highway projects such as the exit number changes on I-81 are citing when Wikipedia makes changes as if it's big news, and not the AARoads wiki.

I have no idea why people are doing that, especially considering that in many parts of the country, AARoads Wiki is scooping the hell out of Wikipedia. We beat them to the I-11 extension by months.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef


vdeane

Meanwhile, the exit numbers listed for I-81, I-690, and NY 690 are making me wonder if they're making stuff up on Wikipedia.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

SectorZ

Curious if we can get this thread pinned so it's always among the top threads in the sub-forum.

TheCatalyst31

Quote from: vdeane on July 07, 2024, 11:48:23 AMMeanwhile, the exit numbers listed for I-81, I-690, and NY 690 are making me wonder if they're making stuff up on Wikipedia.
Newbies making up stuff about roads has always been a problem on Wikipedia, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's getting worse now that a lot of the experienced road editors left. Some of us are still around for non-road articles and will revert the obvious crap when it comes up, but aren't going to try and clean up anything that's been a mess for a while.

LilianaUwU

The newbies making up stuff when I show them Fandom or Miraheze:

"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

Max Rockatansky

That's how that CA 58 becoming I-40 to Bakersfield bullshit started. 

Scott5114

Quote from: SectorZ on July 07, 2024, 02:59:20 PMCurious if we can get this thread pinned so it's always among the top threads in the sub-forum.

Done.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

D-Dey65

You know, I just tried to sign onto the AARoads wiki for the first time, but it keeps rejecting my password.


bugo

The mentally challenged dorks will no doubt win. And Wikipedia will become more and more irrelevant until it's no more popular than Myspace is today. They shouldn't let those nutcases dictate what goes on.

bugo

Quote from: Quillz on September 08, 2023, 02:01:02 PMAlthough ultimately as long as the same/better info can be accessed in a similar useful fashion, that's what matters.

This site is not immune from politics. Believe me, I've been through plenty of drama on this site.
Quote from: dgolub on September 09, 2023, 09:32:43 AMIt's sad that Wikipedia's inflexibility has led to this, but I love the idea of the roadgeek community having its own wiki where we set the rules that work for us, rather than having them imposed top-down by people who don't really understand what we do.  Congratulations to everyone who's worked to bring the AARoads Wiki into reality!

That said, I have noticed that many of the pages seem to load very slowly.  It could probably use some SRE work to bring it up to speed with other web sites.

This site is not immune from politics and drama. Lord knows I've been through enough of it, going back to when this site was still in the planning stages. There eventually will be drama. How you react to it is what's important.

Rothman

Quote from: bugo on July 23, 2024, 02:14:35 PM
Quote from: Quillz on September 08, 2023, 02:01:02 PMAlthough ultimately as long as the same/better info can be accessed in a similar useful fashion, that's what matters.

This site is not immune from politics. Believe me, I've been through plenty of drama on this site.
Quote from: dgolub on September 09, 2023, 09:32:43 AMIt's sad that Wikipedia's inflexibility has led to this, but I love the idea of the roadgeek community having its own wiki where we set the rules that work for us, rather than having them imposed top-down by people who don't really understand what we do.  Congratulations to everyone who's worked to bring the AARoads Wiki into reality!

That said, I have noticed that many of the pages seem to load very slowly.  It could probably use some SRE work to bring it up to speed with other web sites.

This site is not immune from politics and drama. Lord knows I've been through enough of it, going back to when this site was still in the planning stages. There eventually will be drama. How you react to it is what's important.

Well, of course.  You brought it in, in a decent number of cases. :D
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

LilianaUwU

Quote from: D-Dey65 on July 21, 2024, 09:12:16 PMYou know, I just tried to sign onto the AARoads wiki for the first time, but it keeps rejecting my password.



Are you trying to sign in with your forum credentials? The wiki uses separate credentials.
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

D-Dey65

I forget. I was using whatever password was on my PC.


formulanone

Question: when adding photos with a caption, should the information inside the image's caption be [[wikified]] as well?

LilianaUwU

Quote from: formulanone on September 23, 2024, 10:16:23 AMQuestion: when adding photos with a caption, should the information inside the image's caption be [[wikified]] as well?
Are you uploading them on Wikimedia Commons?
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

formulanone

Quote from: LilianaUwU on September 23, 2024, 10:34:26 AM
Quote from: formulanone on September 23, 2024, 10:16:23 AMQuestion: when adding photos with a caption, should the information inside the image's caption be [[wikified]] as well?
Are you uploading them on Wikimedia Commons?
Yes. Wasn't sure if a bunch of inter-Wikipedia links could clash with the AARoads wiki.

LilianaUwU

Quote from: formulanone on September 23, 2024, 10:39:29 AM
Quote from: LilianaUwU on September 23, 2024, 10:34:26 AM
Quote from: formulanone on September 23, 2024, 10:16:23 AMQuestion: when adding photos with a caption, should the information inside the image's caption be [[wikified]] as well?
Are you uploading them on Wikimedia Commons?
Yes. Wasn't sure if a bunch of inter-Wikipedia links could clash with the AARoads wiki.
I mean... I don't bother with interwiki links myself. But there are categories you could put your pictures into.
"Volcano with no fire... Not volcano... Just mountain."
—Mr. Thwomp

My pronouns are she/her. Also, I'm an admin on the AARoads Wiki.

Chris

It was mentioned elsewhere that the AARoads Wiki doesn't rank high in Google search results, possibly because it was forked from Wikipedia and that Google ranks it as a duplicate / mirror site.

The Dutch road enthusiast community maintains the Wegenwiki (road's wiki), which is almost always near the top of Google search results on relevant searches.

The admin for Wegenwiki said that generating sitemaps on a daily basis and importing them into the Google Search Console has significantly improved the visibility of the wiki in Google.

I don't know if AARW is already doing this, but it could be helpful.

rschen7754

Quote from: Chris on October 12, 2024, 02:03:04 PMIt was mentioned elsewhere that the AARoads Wiki doesn't rank high in Google search results, possibly because it was forked from Wikipedia and that Google ranks it as a duplicate / mirror site.

The Dutch road enthusiast community maintains the Wegenwiki (road's wiki), which is almost always near the top of Google search results on relevant searches.

The admin for Wegenwiki said that generating sitemaps on a daily basis and importing them into the Google Search Console has significantly improved the visibility of the wiki in Google.

I don't know if AARW is already doing this, but it could be helpful.

Thanks, we can look into it.

We've certainly been looking at Wegenwiki over the last several months as an inspiration that it is possible to operate a roads wiki for a substantial length of time.

formulanone

Quote from: rschen7754 on October 13, 2024, 02:40:42 AM
Quote from: Chris on October 12, 2024, 02:03:04 PMIt was mentioned elsewhere that the AARoads Wiki doesn't rank high in Google search results, possibly because it was forked from Wikipedia and that Google ranks it as a duplicate / mirror site.

The Dutch road enthusiast community maintains the Wegenwiki (road's wiki), which is almost always near the top of Google search results on relevant searches.

The admin for Wegenwiki said that generating sitemaps on a daily basis and importing them into the Google Search Console has significantly improved the visibility of the wiki in Google.

I don't know if AARW is already doing this, but it could be helpful.

Thanks, we can look into it.

We've certainly been looking at Wegenwiki over the last several months as an inspiration that it is possible to operate a roads wiki for a substantial length of time.

I edited some AARoads wiki pages a few weeks back, but they are not appearing in the first 6-7 pages of Google searches.

If I force the term "aaroads" in the search, then it appears at or near the top (either the State Guide pages and/or forum discussions appear first).

Chris

Quote from: rschen7754 on October 13, 2024, 02:40:42 AMWe've certainly been looking at Wegenwiki over the last several months as an inspiration that it is possible to operate a roads wiki for a substantial length of time.

Wegenwiki and Wegenforum are part of a club with members and a board. It was established in 2014 to ensure long-term operations of both the forum and the wiki. We thought of going for a foundation, but that was more expensive to establish and had little benefit over a club in Dutch law.

The members pay an annual membership fee (€ 15). This allows the forum and the wiki to be hosted, and the wiki is also ad-free that way. The forum has some ads. Tech support is by volunteers, we happen to have two very good ones who are professional developers. This is key to keep the operational cost managable.

rschen7754

Quote from: formulanone on October 13, 2024, 10:59:00 AM
Quote from: rschen7754 on October 13, 2024, 02:40:42 AM
Quote from: Chris on October 12, 2024, 02:03:04 PMIt was mentioned elsewhere that the AARoads Wiki doesn't rank high in Google search results, possibly because it was forked from Wikipedia and that Google ranks it as a duplicate / mirror site.

The Dutch road enthusiast community maintains the Wegenwiki (road's wiki), which is almost always near the top of Google search results on relevant searches.

The admin for Wegenwiki said that generating sitemaps on a daily basis and importing them into the Google Search Console has significantly improved the visibility of the wiki in Google.

I don't know if AARW is already doing this, but it could be helpful.

Thanks, we can look into it.

We've certainly been looking at Wegenwiki over the last several months as an inspiration that it is possible to operate a roads wiki for a substantial length of time.

I edited some AARoads wiki pages a few weeks back, but they are not appearing in the first 6-7 pages of Google searches.

If I force the term "aaroads" in the search, then it appears at or near the top (either the State Guide pages and/or forum discussions appear first).

We've gotten into the Google Search Console and have the sitemaps going, at least. New unique content like https://wiki.aaroads.com/wiki/EM-04_(Kyrgyzstan) is now ranking pretty highly, though stuff that hasn't been edited in a while and is mostly unchanged from Wikipedia is still not showing up.



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