Why isn't there an easy to find "espresso wiki"?

[bruce]

This forum and others are a great resource of information about espresso. I have learned so much reading them. But often it is hard to find anything specific without spending hours searching and reading, searching and reading. Often most of the posts are 'insider' comments. Sometimes I will remember having read something in a thread months ago, and not been able to find it after doing a search. Coffeegeek has years of threads that come up when you do a search. A lot of times there is a certain body of knowledge and jargon that you need to know before you can get a relevant search result. And it is common for a new person to the forum to be chastised for asking a question that had come up in a previous thread. I know, there are the FAQs. But they cover only a fraction of the topics that come up. And they are static. Could the information in these forums be organized without all of the 'fluff': that is! , the jokes, personal comments, digressions, etc? Like wikipedia. I googled coffee wiki, barista wiki, espresso wiki- nothing came up. Does such a thing exist? Once a question has been answered or the thread has run its course, why not summarize it in a wikipedia style article? The relevant information distilled down to a one or two pages. It seems to me that the people who spend time answering questions and sharing their experience and expertise in the forum format could be doing the same thing in the wiki format.

[HB]

I know, there are the FAQs. But they cover only a fraction of the topics that come up. And they are static.

Actually, the FAQs and Favorites Digest is dynamically constructed. The first page is created from the forum FAQs and Favorites stickies and the second page is created from a list of topics that are vetted by the moderators (i.e., the first page is more restrictive - the topic really must be noteworthy; the second page includes topics that are just fun and interesting).

Once a question has been answered or the thread has run its course, why not summarize it in a wikipedia style article? The relevant information distilled down to a one or two pages. It seems to me that the people who spend time answering questions and sharing their experience and expertise in the forum format could be doing the same thing in the wiki format.

An HB-hosted wiki has been on the project plan for over a year. I've prototyped it using the same MediaWiki software that Wikipedia uses. It's not gone public because (a) creating and maintaining a quality wiki is a lot of work, and (b) MediaWiki consumes lots of database space, network bandwidth, and server CPU cycles. However, with the upcoming release of phpBB and my plans to upgrade the site after the holidays, I will take another look at the technical considerations of an HB wiki. Thanks for the reminder.

PS: Anyone who knows a bit about customizing MediaWiki templates / CSS and is willing to offer their help, please contact me offline.