Monday, March 15, 2010

More Changes to the Wiki

In the spirit of increasing connectivity among Mx sites, we've changed the name of the "Share page" on our Wiki to "Sharing & Links"; put it into a folder called "Sharing" to make it more accessible from the Front Page; and expanded its function to include an extensive (but not exhaustive) list of links to genealogical/history-oriented Web sites about Mx's.

If you don't see your site here and would like to, send me the url. If I think its appropriate, I'll include it in the list. However, though I try to keep abreast of changes in the link addresses and of dead links, I'm not responsible for the linked sites' health and well being. If you find a dead or misdirected link in our pages, let me know that as well.--WJS (woichi01@comcast.net)

IMFA's Web Presence Evolving

Note from Wayne:

As our on-line functionality continues to expand, the IMFA finds itself in need of new ways of doing business. One thing that has become abundantly clear is that we need to have obvious and easy connectivity among our various on-line presences--our homepage, our DNA page, our Wiki and our Blog--as well as to other Mx-oriented sites such as those posted on the front page of our Wiki (The newest of these is Mx An American Story (http://www.mxroots.us/), a site dedicated primarily to the South Carolina Mullinax's, et al. Our thanks to Wendy Arnim (US339) for this link.)

Our most recent change involves connectivity between our Wiki and our Blog. Although, our Wiki has a built-in comments function, the ability for you to comment is constrained by your access privileges. Everyone in the world has "Read" access to our Wiki but only IMFA members or those non-members with an Mx-based story to tell, can have "Write" access*, and unfortunately you can't comment within the Wiki without "Write" access.

To get around this problem we've inserted a hot-link on each and every page of the Wiki (excepting appendices) which looks like this:
RESPOND

Clicking on this hot-link within the Wiki will automatically redirect you to our Blog page. Once there, you simply go to the upper right hand corner of the Blog window and sign in. Once signed in, you can click on "New Post" and make your comments in re any aspect of our Wiki. Once your Blog has been posted, one of our administrators will copy and paste it into the appropriate comments window on the Wiki.

Future changes may involve Web Hooks or some other Web technology to ensure seamless connectivity among the IMFA's many parts. Keep tuned in to learn of new changes as they develop.

*This is due to a combination of constraints within PBWiki and the IMFA's need to ensure a modicum of control over content within the Wiki. Our policy in this regard is still a matter of discussion and may change in future.