Gaudiya Wikipedia -

[ In reference to http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/ . - Madhava ]

A little user-unfriendly--a search engine would help a great deal--but definitely useful. Good pick.

I checked at random the article on Brahma-vaivarta-purana and it seems fairly well done. The article on Sahajiya is pretty confusing.

I have often thought that such a wiki-type site would be incredibly useful for Gaudiya Vaisnavism. I played with several different software packages and have also been collecting notes for quite a while with this intention. Dredging the forums here would also bring up a lot of material--people, places, books, dates, etc. Would anyone object if I were to use their material, posted here and on other forums (with proper citations, of course)?

I was going to do this on jaivadharma.com but if anyone has a suggestion for a different name, I'm open to suggestions.

I'd probably go with a domain name less bound with a particular branch of the tradition. wikigaudiya.com?

I wouldn't have an issue having things I wrote cited, given that I could somehow fix up some of the stuff I may later on find to be outdated or incorrect.

Actually, I have long been thinking that we should start working on a Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan. This might be a great way to go about it.

I have a great deal of material in glossaries, like the one I recently attached, in which several of Bhaktivinoda Thakur's terms, like svarUpa-siddhi, etc., are discussed. I also have accumulated notes about things like Paurnamasi, etc.

The Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan would be a good starting point. With a little support, I would be ready to throw in my support behind such an effort.

I would like to have some control over the subject matter. Wikipedia seems to be open to anyone who wants to contribute, yet it remains pretty good quality. How do they do that?

I think you can count me and Braja in if we go for GVA.

Why does Wiki work so well? I guess the people "out there" are more sane than the people "in here". I can only imagine how much some unnamed individuals would enjoy to go around tweaking and twisting the texts. Oh, religion.

I would go with a format where people submit entries which are reviewed by editors before going online.

I volunteer for coding the site-engine. Why not a ready-made script? Because they are often a pain in the butt to customize when the need arises. A tailor-made engine is easy to tweak and turn around.

I opened my Monier Williams to check on the word abhidhan and then came here to see Jagat mention the name. Seemed uncanny--although I wonder how many words there are for an encyclopedia? Anyways, I just went ahead and registered Abhidhan.org.

You really want to code it yourself, Madhava? The existing scripts seemed pretty good. The only area where some of them were lacking IMO was in the area of permissions/moderation--something that I agree with you on as far as how to accept submissions. I think we all know some who might be inclined to vandalism.


Seems we need a sugar daddy to keep all of us maintained while we work on these projects. Does Ford have a better idea? Why build a city when you can build an encyclopedia?

Yes, I do. The problem is exactly with something being pretty good, or having almost all the features we need. When I code something myself, it has whetever I need, and can in the future easily accommodate whatever whims we may come up with. With ready-made scripts, it's often a nightmare.

Somehow many folks code the kind of stuff only they can unravel if modifications need to be made. Variables swapping places, defined and re-defined over twenty separate files, basic HTML elements to a single page pulled through all sorts of loops from ten different pages, stuff like that I hate. It takes as long to figure out how to modify it for your needs as it takes to just code it from a scratch.

I have customized two existing engines for GGM. The first (from a paFileDB-derivative) became a nightmare, as I eventually came to feel it was glued together with holy spirit, and the second (tweaked from 4Images) is way too troublesome to customize to the extent I would like to have it customized with its template-structures and what not.

That aside, such a site is technically not very difficult to code. In fact, I have many elements, such as member databases, permission level -based content-editors etc. already coded and spread over different projects. Basically we just need to think through the structure. What do you want, what do you need? Just tell me that and you'll have the code done next time I have a couple extra hours to put in.

I'll work on a list of contacts--scholars and devotee scholars who might want to be contributors. It's time for me to renew some bonds that have come loose.

You got a sugar daddy, Braj? Neal tried to get some funding for GGM, without success. We are not Iskcon, so I don't think Ford would be very interested.

JVS finally got funding from somewhere after Satyaraj had been more or less paying out of his pockets for a decade. Forget where from again, he told me Garuda had something to do with it.

But I don't think we should announce anything until the mechanics are in place.

Oh, about the name. I think that abhidhan is too generic. How about Gaudiyabhidhan or Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan, in honor of Haridas Das.

Good idea, Braj!

Didn't I write something about Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan on these forums some time ago? I could not find it searching for Abhidhan or GVA.

Here: http://www.gaudiyadiscussions.com/index.ph...c=988#entry7665

Sound to me like long and complicated domain names... We can call the site whatever we wish on its pages, the domain name need not be the full project name.

I am trying to BE the sugar daddy, but the less I work, the less I earn. Actually, it's fortunate that it is not correlated directly due to the time I spend here and in my bookish habits. I'm trying to increase my business(es) but my attraction is really elsewhere.

I'll put my thinking cap on in terms of sponsorship/donation opportunities. The "stars" have forecast a period of rewarding networking and business for me.



I prefer the short name for a domain name though. Even that is a bit tricky with the spelling. Gaudiya Vaishnava Abhidhan would be a beautiful name for the project.

Excellent. Perhaps the script can be called the Gaurapedia?

How about we start from present feature lists and work back? I've posted a couple here.

(There is one that I was really impressed with and wanted to use but as it required php 5, I never got around to it. Will hunt around later.)


Features

Skins Different ways to present the site. - not important, imo

File upload feature. - yes, would be nice to allow people to submit files but not a priority

Watchlist Every page has a link "Watch this article for me" - don't think the site would change frequently enough for this to be of use

- many entries here are about the specific format for making internal links. I'd guess that using an existing one is easier and don't have a preference over the format

User contributions - tracking not so important

Interlanguage links - I don't think multiple languages are required, especially initially

CamelCase: By using a word with MixedCase, you do not automatically create a link - the logic here for those not familiar with wikis are that when you type a word "HaridasThakur" an entry for that topic is automatically created or linked to. So various methods exist with regard to the specifics of when and how that happens.

Smart caching - I don't think the site would be busy enough for that to be of value

Edit preview - nice

Basic support for handling edit conflicts (page being saved by a user while still being edited by another one, then saved again) - I guess so

Cookie-based account and login system - yup, your current code

Pages can be deleted and undeleted. - yes
Pages can be moved (renamed) by signed in users. - yes


Random article function - not necessary. Perhaps a related idea would be a calendar bringing up entries relevant for the day, but not a priority

Support for automagically turning ISBN numbers into links to an editable list of booksellers - this is nice. I have another script that I started for my own book collection that does this.

List of images - I guess images would be a nice part, although copyright issues may be complex

Popular articles - yes
Most wanted articles - yes

List of all pages by title - yes

Support for linking to individual sections of an article - possibly
Users can configure their timezone - if there was a calendar, yes
Support for emailing users through the wiki - kinda nice

Printable versions of articles can be generated - this would be great. there is a pdf plugin for wikipedia

Gaudipedia might be good. Follow the pedia-trend.

Braja, all of the features listed above should be fairly easy to put together. While I'm at it, I don't mind coding in all the extra bells and whistles we may need, too, such as easily changeable custom skins, date-bound entries for the calendar-feature, and so forth. Since the basic texts for the user interface will at any rate be inserted from variables, an extra language will be easy to add in at any time.

I wonder if it was too obvious to mention in that list, but I take it that a search engine would be a welcome aspect, too?


Could you spell out the difference between the two, please?

Yes, search capability is a must.



From what I can gather that would relate to when several participants have created entries and within those entries have created links to a non-existent entry, e.g. if someone entered "Blah blah blah SuryaKunda blah blah" it would create an entry in the wiki for SuryaKunda. If several other people put in their own entries and also type something that includes "SuryaKunda" the rating for SuryaKunda as "most wanted" would go up. It's really a feature that would bring to the editors' attention that an entry is needed. At least, that's how I understand it.

I found the script I was impressed with before: http://www.develnet.org/2.html

Cowiki seemed more complete, rounded and human than most of the others in existence.

Here is a site with a few oriental dictionaries/encyclopedias: http://www.orientalia.org/encyclopedia.html

Some of it is OK, e.g. http://www.orientalia.org/term22342.html but it is totally lacking in references.

Besides definitions of key terms, people, texts, places and events would seem to be the next most prevalent type of entries we'd required. I'd suggest that any entry for a text also include as much detail as possible, including all known publications. Looking at Dimock's bibliography for Caitanya Caritamrta has opened my eyes as to the number of publications in existence--it runs for 32 pages and includes something like 44 different editions of Cc. Ideally the site would become authoritative for both the Vaisnava community and scholars.

Does anyone have a bibliography already typed up, or even lists of texts by the Goswamis and others? (Do any OCRs work with diacritics?)

I think it would also be great if participants at gaudiyadiscussions who are initiated in a traditional parivar put together information on the practices and personalities of their line (if they haven't already done so through their own web sites or books).