Just an idea

[clayliner]

I'm quite a fan of Wikipedia and have a vague idea how it works. How useful any article is depends, presumably, on the motivation of people with knowledge to actually post a contribution. Whether people are keen to show off their erudition or just feel they have something useful to contribute probably doesn't matter. What I'm less clear about is what happens when there is a difference of opinion on a topic, e.g. someone says "A. Hitler was a homicidal maniac who ran his country into the ground" only for some neo-Nazi to post "Herr Hitler was an inspirational and much misunderstood leader who very nearly founded a magnificent thousand year Reich". Maybe both views are allowed to stand side by side? Who makes the call?

Hopefully the sort of factual material which a (new) Handbook would contain would not throw up major differences of opinion like that. (We may sometimes - mildly, of course! - disagree here on the forum about some things but hopefully not about static grass and the like.)

Whether it's a document put together by a group of individuals or a wiki-style resource I presume it would still need someone to at least put together a structure - topic headings and the like - under which articles can be contributed. In other words, an 'editor' of some kind would be required either way.

David.

P.S. Maybe this thread could helpfully be renamed now - something like 'The Society Handbook' - to make its content more obvious (is Paul C, as the initiator, the only person able to do this?)

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

Thanks George!

And thanks, 'Clayliner'.  I think Wikipedia has methods of editors voting out troublemakers but the main principle is that anybody can edit and sensible perspectives tend to win. 

I hope and believe it wouldn't come to that for us.

I suppose if somebody wrote that "DCC is the only proper means of control" somebody else might respond with "No, DC is" but at the end of the day we would probably be able to read "DCC and DC are control systems that both have adherents and successes, and advantages and disadvantages" or summit like that.

By the way - I just saw some interesting and completely non-OO9-related trivia:  Adolph Hitler was born four days after Charlie Chaplin.

[Paulc]

Wow!  Just noticed that my thread has been unearthed.

Things have moved on a lot since I posted this.  I wonder whether we need to re-consider  what we want a handbook to achieve or even whether it is a handbook as such.

An on line resource, available to members and covering various aspects of the hobby - topics like: turntables, DCC, coupling systems, etc. would be a useful resource for members  and a wiki (subject to all the caveats about wikis) may be the way forward.  This would probably reflect the original  purpose of the old handbook (?)

What about the

[Tom Haythornthwaite]

I'd like to offer my services to help with whatever approach, if any, the society chooses.