Moving our maker community to WikiFactory
Hi all, I've not been an active poster here but reader none the less. I'm owner of another G+ community called 'Build your own ceramic 3d printer' and we've had a lot of active discussion over the last months about where to go now that G+ shuts down. We're a maker community with very specific needs, for example more than 90% of our active members use G+ only to participate in our community, so they don't use it as a social network for which I see most discussion here. But we were looking for something more like a discussion forum.
In case it might be useful for this community (I would be sad to see it go!!!) here are some details on our own plans.
We will move our community to Wikifactory, a social design and production platform born out of WikiHouse that best resembles something like GitHub for hardware. Currently it's more focused on hosting open source hardware projects and stories but we're actively working with them on adding discussion forum like features which will launch in a few weeks.
Here's a link to a post by Wikifactory Community detailing the new features:
https://wikifactory.com/@carolportugal/stories/wikifactory-forum-for-digital-fabrication-communities-on-google?fbclid=IwAR1bw8I8d0zpkKA-E3yLB1F12UqHspH0_b0nK8KkiJNOyUrqNuMQL-XIHz0
Link to our 'Make your own ceramic 3d printer' G+ community:https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109375785524125994679
Hi all, I've not been an active poster here but reader none the less. I'm owner of another G+ community called 'Build your own ceramic 3d printer' and we've had a lot of active discussion over the last months about where to go now that G+ shuts down. We're a maker community with very specific needs, for example more than 90% of our active members use G+ only to participate in our community, so they don't use it as a social network for which I see most discussion here. But we were looking for something more like a discussion forum.
In case it might be useful for this community (I would be sad to see it go!!!) here are some details on our own plans.
We will move our community to Wikifactory, a social design and production platform born out of WikiHouse that best resembles something like GitHub for hardware. Currently it's more focused on hosting open source hardware projects and stories but we're actively working with them on adding discussion forum like features which will launch in a few weeks.
Here's a link to a post by Wikifactory Community detailing the new features:
https://wikifactory.com/@carolportugal/stories/wikifactory-forum-for-digital-fabrication-communities-on-google?fbclid=IwAR1bw8I8d0zpkKA-E3yLB1F12UqHspH0_b0nK8KkiJNOyUrqNuMQL-XIHz0
Link to our 'Make your own ceramic 3d printer' G+ community:https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/109375785524125994679
Dries Verbruggen I'm sure lots of advice can be provided by this community's members. Whatever you do, take action ASAP to preserve outside of G+ contact with your community members. The rist of shutdown procedures undermining G+ capabilities increases every day.
ReplyDeleteLovely site. Just took a look. Unfortunately, my talents don't lie that way. :) Good luck.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. Is there a question here as well, or is this just informational?
ReplyDelete#DieHardsSociety Good luck with that!
ReplyDeleteDries Verbruggen That is a seriously impressive migration. First I've heard of Wikifactory. Anything else you can provide on that?
ReplyDeleteHow'd you come across them?
This is a truly impressive looking site. Common questions:
ReplyDelete1. Who owns the site?
2. Do I retain ownership of my content, and under what license?
3. Can I host my own version of the site? If yes, what STACK do I need to host it?
4. Do I have to pay anything to join, create a community, or create my own stack?
Thanks! Impressive work so far.
Hi Edward Morbius and John Lewis, thanks for the kind words :)
ReplyDeleteCommon answers:
- we're a startup owned by it's four founders and angel investors (here our linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wikifactory)
- With the exception of Projects (e.g. this one https://wikifactory.com/+OttoDIY/otto-diy is shared under CC-BY-4.0 ) we don't currently support sharing content under a specific license as a user. As such, forum threads and comments would be under the same default copyright as this thread and comment (as per International Copyright law). Of course, one could always explicitly state that his/her content is shared under a different license. Data would be stored on our servers, however an export functionality is being developed, putting ownership of the data into users hands.
- Self-hosting Wikifactory will likely not be supported in the near future.
- Joining the site as well as using it's tools is and will always be free for public and open source projects. For users wanting to use our product collaboration features in a private way, we will charge a subscription. Similar to Github...
Hope that clarify things, let me know if you guys have any further questions :)
#sub #readlater
ReplyDeleteCool!
ReplyDeleteWanted to check it out from my ipad, but all links somehow result in a blank page, just plain white. Not a good sign. ;)
ReplyDeletePavel Cherenkov thanks for letting us know, we'll take a look. Its working fine in IOS on phones, we'll check on an IPad later. Could you let us know which version of Safari you are using?
ReplyDeleteHi Edward Morbius, just informational. Did I post in the wrong section?
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius, in short, WikiFactory found us :) They reached out asking how they could help and to understand our needs. Our use of G+ is more like a good old forum style, which WF didn’t have. But in my exchange with them I quickly learned that that was actually on the drawing board and being accelerated. As we’re a community centred around open source, the project hosting part and blog style features became the major added value that made us decide to go for it. And obviously the fact that the WF team is throwing their weight behind accommodations communities like ours. As G+ has always attracted lots of makers I thought our experience would be interesting for others, especially since some features are not yet released so people might dismiss the platform as a good alternative for forum like use.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tom Salfield Maximilian Kampik Carolina Portugal for pitching in with your answers, you’re better qualified :)
Ps. There’s a ridiculously long post on our community detailing our though process & history for those interested.
Pavel Cherenkov works fine on my iPad, use it on the phone a lot.
ReplyDeleteDries Verbruggen Your posting here is entirely on-topic. Just looking for clarity on the story being told here.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's exceptionally proactive of WikiFactory. Again, this looks really interesting, and though a late addition to the fold, I'd love to see more on the platform, what it offers, terms, features, etc. If you could write up more on any of that it'd be great. I've looked a bit over their website, and it's a bit opaque on these points (though there is a FAQ).
And I'm swamped.
Tom Salfield There's no explicit version number in Safari (cannot find it), but the iOS version is 9.3.5 (I assume, Safari is bundled in).
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Is there a format that I can use for a write up on various features of WF? Wasn't there a Google doc or sheet available to compare services?
ReplyDeleteYou asked if I had questions, actually I do now that I think about it, not sure if you or anyone else can answer:
- I get no emails whatsoever about G+ closure and I don't get that new yellow bar. Why? I am a G Suite user (from the time it was free). Does that mean that our community will not disappear?
-Is there a way to direct message/email all our community members, just posting in the community misses many many people. Or what is the best way to grab the attention of as many of your members as possible?
It actually works on my ipad, but not in Safari. Works with Opera (Coast) on the device (ipad mini of 2012).
ReplyDeleteone more question for those who understand the Google Takeout, there's a CVS contact file labelled Members but it includes only about 20% of the actual member count. My guess is that those are the members who have actually posted, commented or clicked +1. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteDries Verbruggen I would suggest asking that in the Google+ Help Community :)
ReplyDeleteFilip H.F. Slagter thanks, will try that.
ReplyDeleteSo, diving into recent announcements to try & answer my own questions.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like me being a G Suite user is likely the reason I don't get any announcements as my G+ profile will actually not be deleted and my community neither. All fine right??? NO because all the content from non G-suite users will be deleted. So I'll suddenly be on an island on my own with maybe 1-2 other G Suite users. Which begs the questions, why does Google think as a community owner with G Suite account that I don't deserve a warning that my community will be wiped out by a virus that only G Suite users happen to be immune too???
Dries Verbruggen Excellent analogy.
ReplyDeleteDries Verbruggen I think you are not the "typical" G Suite user since it was intended for internal business use.
ReplyDeleteJohn Lewis I agree, didn't even know G+ was also a G suite feature. Only reason I have G Suite is because it was the way to get a custom domain with Gmail, and it was free at that time (and called Google for your domain). I don't use any other features besides email. I tend to put my eggs in different baskets :)
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Just looked at the various 'resources' listed in the left column here, added a reference to WF on the wiki. The spreadsheets seem to be a bit dead, correct? Where's the best place to write up about the features, just a fresh post here going over the features in more detail?
ReplyDeleteDries Verbruggen Wiki (https://social.antefriguserat.de) or reddit (https://plexodus.reddit.com/)
ReplyDelete