admin Posted September 19, 2016 Report Share Posted September 19, 2016 Hello, we are really proud to have such a great ASA community where everyone is helping others to improve there know how in using ASA products. Therefore we are currently thinking about the possibility to install a wiki here in our forum, to give our customers a better way to share there know how. We know there are many wikis out there and since we are specialized in building astronomy equipment, we are not well experienced in wikis. To make sure to give you a Wiki that fit the community needs, we ask you for suggestions which wiki we should use and why. Please feel free to post links to your favourite wiki and ad some points on the advantages and disadvantages of this wiki. Thank you for helping us to improve the forum. Best regards, Your ASA Team! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxmirot Posted September 20, 2016 Report Share Posted September 20, 2016 I don't think where the Wiki is hosted is a major issue. I can safely say that most of us would like to see commentary from ASA on the content. A few minutes of Q & A with the engineers a couple times a week that produce the product would most beneficial. Max Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lukepower Posted September 20, 2016 Report Share Posted September 20, 2016 Hi Admin, well, there is already a community effort to build a wiki going on. There we use MediaWiki for obvious reasons (mainly as it is one of the most well supported Wiki softwares round, being used in Wikipedia). I think Max' idea would be very nice, adding a section in the forum like "Ask ASA engineers" where users could post their questions and one of your guys would regularily check and answer. Then of course adding content originally written by ASA to the wiki would be great - if this is fine for ASA; that is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted September 20, 2016 Report Share Posted September 20, 2016 Before we make a decision regarding where the wiki is hosted we need to be absolutely sure there is a real interest in it from ASA users. As Lukas says, we already have a user community effort under way to create a wiki which can be found here asa-users.org. However so far only 11 users have registered on it. Our understanding is that ASA themselves are unable to make a major commitment to build content for a wiki - it will be up to us to do that. If we all register and contribute just small amounts of content we can grow it very quickly. But if only 3 or 4 people create the content (so far only 3) then it is unlikely to develop very fast. We would really encourage all ASA users to register and contribute - even if only by suggesting topics to be included. Christer is doing a great job at the moment hosting the current wiki and personally I see no need to change the hosting arrangements, but we can talk about that later once we are positive the commitment exists to continue to build the wiki. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted September 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2016 Hello, that wiki looks great! Who is the owner of it? Regards, Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted September 23, 2016 Report Share Posted September 23, 2016 It is a community effort by ASA users. It is intended mainly to support amateur users of ASA hardware/software. It is hoped to form an ASA User Group which will coordinate the development of the wiki (among other things). For the present, Christer (ChristerS) has volunteered to host the wiki and he is the system administrator. Christer, myself and Luke (lukepower) are currently the three wiki administrators. Anyone is able to register and add or edit content - and we hope that all ASA users will want to do this. The wiki is at a very early stage, but the faster we add content the more useful it will be. We would very much welcome input from ASA itself. In particular we would like permission to use existing ASA documentation (which is mostly out of date) as a starting point for producing up to date wiki content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkS Posted September 28, 2016 Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 Hi Christer, Is anyone else finding it impossible to 'create an account' on the Wiki? Via Windows7 and Firefox I get nowhere. The screen just goes blank after I follow all the prompts. I have cookies enabled. This needs to be fixed if the Wiki is to get anywhere. Please help! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted September 28, 2016 Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 Mark We're trying to replicate this problem (works fine for me with Win 7 and Firefox which is frustrating). Just try and eliminate other factors, are you able to try with a different browser from this PC, and also with Furefox from a different PC? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted September 28, 2016 Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 I had no problems either with W10 and Google. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkS Posted September 28, 2016 Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 I get a message that an account could not be created because the source could not be identified. I've tried 2 computers, both Firefox, and enabled cookies and turned off Protection Software. But I get exactly the same response...... Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristerS Posted September 28, 2016 Report Share Posted September 28, 2016 Hi Mark, Sorry to hear that, can add you manually if you want, send username/passw to support@asa-users.org. Also try Crome or IE brower if possible. BR, /Christer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 (edited) Now that we have a Wiki which is starting (slowly) to be populated it would be good to get users' views on how it should develop. Here are the things it COULD do (but maybe it shouldn't try to do all of them): 1. Answer user questions and problems (maybe this is best done using this ASA Forum, which is more responsive than a wiki). 2. Provide tutorials and "how to" guidance aimed at new users (ASA should be doing this, but as they are not, this is probably a good thing for the wiki to do). 3. Provide basic documentation of how to install, configure and operate ASA hardware and software (obviously this must be ASAs responsibility using their own documentation, but as much of that documentation is missing or out of date maybe the wiki should try and do this also - however maybe that will discourage ASA from bringing their own documentation up to a good standard). 4. Provide supplementary documentation on advanced features that ASA does not document (also this should be ASAs responsibility but it seems they have no intention of documenting these features so maybe the wiki should; however do we have the technical information to do this accurately - particularly as ASA have said they do not have the resources to contribute directly to the wiki?) 5. Provide information on how to integrate ASA hardware/software with 3rd party hardware/software (this is probably a good thing for the wiki to do as it is not really ASA's responsibility) 6. Provide a forum for astrophotography, astrometry, photometry and other activities by ASA users for them to discuss techniques and host their results (not sure about this one, is it best to do this here on this ASA Forum or in the wiki?) Before we invest too much effort in building the wiki further it would be good to get views from as many ASA users as possible. For example, we have started to document the Autoslew user interface on the wiki but this is already described (albeit incompletely) by ASA documentation. Should we continue to complete and expand this user interface documentation or should we simply refer to existing ASA documentation, even if it is a bit out of date? Please add comments to this thread on which of the 6 above areas we should focus on, where we should prioritise and if there is anything else we should be doing. Many thanks Edited October 2, 2016 by nakbrooks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 Hi Nigel, Totally with you on points 2,4 and 5 for the wiki. 1 I think the forum is a better place for that. That is a bit more accessible for fast answers. 3 is already covered in an understandable way by the new ASA documentation 6...well I think a wiki is not the right place for that Like I said before, the new ASA documentation which was posted here a little while ago is far better than the old manuals. Thanks for all the effort you guys put into this. I realise this is a major task... Just my 2 €cents, Waldemar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 Waldemar For Autoslew I agree the new manuals are good and probably provide enough information for Autoslew installation and basic configuration. What they don't do is provide a comprehensive reference guide to the user interface (screen controls, menus, etc). The old manual (Autoslew-Manual_E) dating from 2012 is much better at that, but the interface has changed a bit now (the old manual is based on 5.0.4.3 and earlier versions). Maybe we continue with the screen/menu sections on the Wiki but the installation and configuration sections can simply refer to the new ASA manuals? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 So, a mix... That would be great. The best of both worlds. I got an old AS manual from Robert, that was intended for professional users it seems. A lot of stuff in there that is not mentioned in the old, nor the new manuals I don't know if you got them too, but it maybe a nice resource as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 Don't have that Waldemar - could you send it to me? nigel.brooks@stratis.co.uk. We won't add the manual to the Wiki but we do have email confirmation from ASA (Dietmar) that we can extract material from their documentation for use on the Wiki so it may be useful. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 In your mailbox Nigel With thanks to Robert Pudlow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkS Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 Nigel, I agree with Waldemar's comments on 2,4,5 and 6. Regarding 3, the new ASA website doesn't have an English version of the 2012 Autoslew manual - or it didn't when I last looked, and it doesn't have the best Sequence manual either. The latter I think I sent you. Regarding 6, I think it's best left with the forum. I think we (one of our moderators?) should ask ASA to put these on their download section, as they are really essential! I also think we should try to get ASA to allow us to put a section on the Wiki containing their supplementary documentation. Surely this would be OK provided that these documents cannot be edited. (Does the Wiki provide for such a feature?) Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
admin Posted October 3, 2016 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 6. Provide a forum for astrophotography, astrometry, photometry and other activities by ASA users for them to discuss techniques and host their results (not sure about this one, is it best to do this here on this ASA Forum or in the wiki?) If you want to have this boards in the Forum, we can create them. I think the forum is better for discussions and more responsive than a Wiki. I think Wiki should be the knowledge database that should be updated with the latest learning and information that are generated out of discussions in the forum. What boards should we generate? BR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldemar Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) If you want to have this boards in the Forum, we can create them. I think the forum is better for discussions and more responsive than a Wiki. I think Wiki should be the knowledge database that should be updated with the latest learning and information that are generated out of discussions in the forum. What boards should we generate? BR It would also be very nice, if ASA provided us with the latest knowledge and (upgrade) possibillities of the mounts, so that can be used in the wiki... That would be the best ASA could do for it's (potential) customers and it is long over due. It is almost impossible for users to find out by themselves what all the hidden possibillities are without any help from you guys. Sometimes we really feel kind of deserted by you... Waldemar Edited October 3, 2016 by Waldemar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) If you want to have this boards in the Forum, we can create them. I think the forum is better for discussions and more responsive than a Wiki. I think Wiki should be the knowledge database that should be updated with the latest learning and information that are generated out of discussions in the forum. What boards should we generate? BR Michael Agreed. Can I suggest the following: In the existing ASA Imaging forum create a new Board called "Imaging Discussion". Create a new ASA forum called "Astro Science" with three Boards: - "Science Discussion" - "Astrometry" - "Photometry" Together with the existing ASA Forums/Boards this should cover most discussion topics relating to ASA hardware/software. (Discussion about the Wiki itself probably belongs on the Wiki site, which already has discussion forums for Improvements, Bug Reports, Editors, etc). Edited October 3, 2016 by nakbrooks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nakbrooks Posted October 3, 2016 Report Share Posted October 3, 2016 It would also be very nice, if ASA provided us with the latest knowledge and (upgrade) possibillities of the mounts, so that can be used in the wiki... That would be the best ASA could do for it's (potential) customers and it is long over due. It is almost impossible for users to find out by themselves what all the hidden possibillities are without any help from you guys. Sometimes we really feel kind of deserted by you... Waldemar Fully agree. Michael: there is a lot of ASA documentation which exists but is either specific to individual customers or very old. However often this documentation is valuable as it is all that exists. It seems there are three options here: 1. ASA puts all current documentation in your download area and also creates a new area on your web site for "Archived Documents". You can then put all the old or specialist documents in that Archive (with a "health warning" that it may not be up to date and users should use it at their own risk. 2. You give permission for the Wiki to hold copies of all ASA documentation that we can find and any others that you can give us. We will put this in a document archive on the Wiki (with a similar "health warning"). 3. We don't put this documentation on the Wiki but we use it to create new guidance pages on the Wiki. Dietmar has already given us permission to extract text and photos from your manuals for this purpose. However this will only be a partial answer as the user community does not have the time or knowledge to re-write and update your documentation (neither is this our responsibility). Could ASA please confirm which of the above options you can agree to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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