Re: [tlug] Web-based edit/update software?

[Michael Smith <smith@example.com>]

Jim Breen <Jim.Breen@example.com> writes:

> As those TLUGers who read SLJ may know, I am slowly moving towards
> the semi-wikification of my dictionary, etc. projects. Ultimately
> I want to get them into the state of being "open" projects operating in
> some sort of peer-moderated environment.
> 
> Currently all new EDICT entry submissions coming in via the WWW form 
> at http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwnewword.html   go live the next
> day on the WWWJDIC server. See:
> http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/jwb/wwwjdic?1MDJ%C9%FC%B9%E6
> for an example of one.  Also my master database for EDICT/JMdict
> generates a "new" version each day, both the WWWJDIC and the release
> versions, so amendments I make become available in a short time.
> 
> The next step will be to put the whole thing online for edit/new-entry,
> with edits having to be signed off by a moderator before they go live.
> 
> I've been looking at possible software platform I could use to build
> an online moderated edit system. There are several wiki engines
> around, but all seem rather geared to the anything-goes, full wiki
> arrangements. What I want is to have a pool of trusted moderators
> interposed between edits and the live database. That way I will cease
> to be a bottleneck in the process, and the projects might continue if
> I fall off the twig.

I wonder if a Wiki system is really the optimal way to handle the
actual concurrent maintenance of a dictionary file. Perhaps a real
source/version-control system such as SVN/Subversion might be
better. Your moderators would each just have a local copy of the
file in a working directory, and check in changes when needed. You
could set up a mechanism to automatically rebuild/regenerate a new
version each time a change is checked in, along with automatically
assembling a ChangeLog. You could still have the web interface, as
now, for the general public to submit changes. Your moderators
could just work from e-mail messages or whatever generated by that
whenever a user submits a new word.

  --Mike

-- 
Michael Smith
http://sideshowbarker.net/

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