The Future of the QL Wiki

A place to discuss general QL issues.
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Outsoft
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by Outsoft »

RWAP wrote:Taking account of my ongoing health issues, I have been considering what would be best for the QL Wiki and other community projects which I currently run (such as the Z88 forums, the ZX80/ZX81 forums and the Sinclair QL GitHub).

Looking at what happened with World of Spectrum when Marjin was unable to continue with the site, it is important to consider the long term viability and what should happen if I (for example) were to walk under a bus tomorrow. My health issues also mean that I no longer have the time or energy to continue in the way that I have been.

My family would not really know what to do with the forums - and would not continue to pay for the hosting. There is also not really anyone else involved in the administration of the site. I also think that the QL Wiki is itself a barrier to people being involved, as there are certain people out there who cannot see beyond the fact that it was set up by me initially and is hosted on my server - so seem to think that it is my duty to update it!

After deliberation, I think the answer is to set up a non-profit organisation (Sinclair World ?) which could then own these resources and be responsible for their maintenance, improvement and upkeep. It would take some fund raising to set up the organisation, as well as willing hands to set everything up and create the necessary constitution, book-keeping etc to keep it viable.

What do others think - and who are the willing hands?
Well we have preserved more that 700 different programs in his Original format and we have practically more than 200 original manuals and inlays to scan.

When we will be at a good point on preserving QL stuff we can create a new site with ALL our stuff preserved and we can publish all Free stuff and new inlays scans.

So It will be great to UPDATE the Wiki too but we have a very LONG work ahead and we will go on for years!

We are also preserving ZX81 MIA stuff and all Sam Coupè stuff (I've a lot of originals and MIA's too) so is very hard to see the END of the TUNNEL ;)

I'm also dumping my ZX original stuff because can be some difference with WOS stuff: I also have all new original Speccy titles edited on TAPE since 2003 and many are MIA's on WOS!

So the work is very very long ;)


swensont
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by swensont »

What I've found in being involved with non-profits for 18 years is that you take a volunteer to water, but you can't make him drink. Meaning that a volunteer will what they are interested in doing and not what they are told to do. Everyone has their own interests or things that generate internal energy. There might not be a single person that is interested in all that Rich has listed, but there might be different people that want to take on different parts.

With such a international group that we have, the difficult part of a non-profit is where is it to be incorporated, what laws will it follow and can officers of the corporation reside in another nation. If I was to take on the project, I could only incorporate in the State of California and its non-profit laws might not be what everyone wants to use.

Maybe the first step is to find the volunteers and see how they want to operate. Let's try not to dictate to those stepping up how they should accomplish the task. I've seen that fail in the past with the non-profits that I've been involved with.

Tim Swenson


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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by tcat »

Hi,

Just trying to understand better what needs to be done, also looking for some analogy among ATARI user groups and sites, where I am also partly active.

Setting up a non-profit organisation, with its own status AND rights, makes only sense when there is enough general consent and recognition among QL users' base.

ATARI-WIKI
http://www.atari-wiki.com/index.php/Ata ... Wiki:About

ATARI-FORUM
http://www.atari-forum.com/

ATARI-SOFTWARE (some titles not free)
http://www.atarilegend.com

EDIT
The above sites seem centered mainly around an English chap - a.k.a. `UK-mug'.

Whatever decision, I wish to keep volunteering, although my contribution so far is negligible, and my weakest point probably is `www' and the like things.

Tomas


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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by RWAP »

tcat wrote: ATARI-WIKI
http://www.atari-wiki.com/index.php/Ata ... Wiki:About

ATARI-FORUM
http://www.atari-forum.com/

ATARI-SOFTWARE (some titles not free)
http://www.atarilegend.com
But there again you have the problem - if you use whois.com to look up the website owners, 3 important Atari sites = 3 different personal owners. Again it raises the question as to what would happen if one of the 3 people were to face an untimely death....


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dilwyn
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by dilwyn »

Not just "death" - loss of interest, falling outs, change of circumstances etc.

Having built up such a collection of free software on the Sinclair QL Homepage I'm mindful of what might happen if I wasn't able to maintain it. In fact, this did happen due to family illness last year, when I had to travel 40+ miles several times a week to my father's place and stay there often to look after my disabled brother while my father was in hospital.

I had to call on Rich, bless him, to update the site while I couldn't - you might remember all the software he uploaded during RWAP's anniversary celebration period.

Also, having amassed several GB (yes, GB) of freeware/PD/Shareware etc here, and recently lost a backup hard drive, that made me mindful of what happens if that type of thing was to happen again, which is why a copy is kindly languishing in Rich's Dropbox (again, bless him!) and an off-site copy with someone else on a DVD.

While Rich's proposals seem quite drastic, I can see where he's aiming for with this and just hope that enough people will volunteer to help with this.


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Cristian
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by Cristian »

dilwyn wrote: I had to call on Rich, bless him, to update the site while I couldn't - you might remember all the software he uploaded during RWAP's anniversary celebration period.
Also, having amassed several GB (yes, GB) of freeware/PD/Shareware etc here, and recently lost a backup hard drive, that made me mindful of what happens if that type of thing was to happen again,
I understand the seriousness of "the future of the QL Wiki" and so on. Thanks for opening this important topic.
You have all my favour for your hard maintenance job, despite the bad circumstances!
I think that a little concern is normal, but maybe he don't have to be too anxious, because (in my modest opinion) your websites, especially Dilwyn's one, remain vital even if slowly updated. For what it regards all the other aspects of the "future" issue, surely it's not so easy to get the best solutions immediatly, but I'm confident of a positive end somehow.


tcat
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by tcat »

Hi,
But there again you have the problem - if you use whois.com to look up the website owners, 3 important Atari sites = 3 different personal owners.
Could website(s) be owned by an organisation, with domains tied to its body or committee rather than a single person? Is that what we look for here?

Tomas


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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by RWAP »

tcat wrote:
Could website(s) be owned by an organisation, with domains tied to its body or committee rather than a single person? Is that what we look for here?

Tomas
I think that can only happen if the organisation is a limited company (so that it has its own legal identity).... I have never seen a domain name owned by more than one person


RWAP
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by RWAP »

There seems a reluctance to set up an actual organisation to take on the responsibility for these various sites.

After some discussion on the ZX80/ZX81 forums, I think the best way forward is to ask for a list of people who are willing to get together and look after the QL aspects of the various sites and facebook pages etc which I control at the moment. If there are enough people, then they can discuss how best to do this for the QL and consider how they will develop extra resources going forward.

People on the ZX80/ZX81 Forums have also been asked then maybe there can be groups responsible for each site / page etc who can then nominate others to get together to think about an over-arching approach to form a one-stop Sinclair go to place....

As for the Z88 - this has a much smaller user base, and no-one is really active on the forums, so that is more difficult.


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vanpeebles
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Re: The Future of the QL Wiki

Post by vanpeebles »

For me personally I enjoy the operating forum and using the QL as a hobby. If it became more of a chore with AGMs, meetings, accounting etc. I think I'd lose the love/interest/fun etc. I think it's just the nature of the beast that things ran in a similar way can fall by the way side when something happens to an individual. *touch wood*.

There has been lots of discussion anyway :)


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