Saving a (smallish) wiki

Started by Oniya, October 30, 2024, 01:30:25 PM

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Oniya

So - there's a Minecraft mod that is currently between versions.  The domain for the wiki has expired, meaning that people looking for information about the two existing versions are getting dumped into one of those 404 hellsites.  The old wiki pages can still be semi-accessed through the Internet Archive, and it occurs to me that the code could be salvaged by someone stubborn enough to do it.

I'm thinking that this wouldn't take up much space, right?  HTML files are small, and it would simply be a matter of sorting out the directory structure, then zipping the whole shebang up to deliver with a bow to the dev team.

Would it be better to try to drill through links, one after the other (a la spider-bots), or to find the 'List of pages on this wiki' index and go alphabetically?
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! (Oct 31) - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up! Requests closed

BlueOrange

If ‘list of pages on this wiki’ can be trusted to be complete, then it’s a dramatically simpler approach, and should be preferred.

The third option…. no, I think linking to the original wiki from a new site isn’t the good option I thought it might be.

So yeah, given the complexity and cost of a spider, I reckon go with ‘list of pages’, and do a manual check for completeness. 

Are you familiar with GitHub? They provide free hosting for code & associated documentation. Could be useful. 

Oniya

Linking to the original wiki wouldn't really be an option - the domain is expired.  Linking to the Wayback would probably still be clunky as heck.

I am familiar with GitHub, on a stumbling level - oddly enough, I created one to store my knitting designs (which are really just simple documentation, when you get down to it.)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! (Oct 31) - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up! Requests closed

Esoterica

Well a hellish possible solution is moving the old wiki to a new site or wiki and hosting it yourself. I wouldn't do it but, there are freeware wiki codes available.

Oniya

I'm not officially on 'the team', and wouldn't want to shell out prematurely.  Grabbing the source code is a minimal investment of a few Kb of storage space in case they don't want it at all.

I've tried asking, and even suggesting that they do this themselves, but there's this one troll that keeps derailing the conversation with non-sequiter interjections about Russia.  No, I'm serious.  This inevitably leads to 100+ messages about the state of world politics, and the one on-topic question is lost in the sauce. 

If I can say 'I have this *here*, do you want it?  I'll Gdoc a zip file or give you the github link or whatever' there's a good chance that the other people complaining about the lack-o-wiki will take some notice.

Bare minimum, I'll find having the info useful.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! (Oct 31) - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up! Requests closed

BlueOrange

Sounds like 2-3 hours setting up a Github repository (I think Github has a wiki built in?) would give you relief from the immediate problem.  Probably also turn you into the person managing the effort, since nobody else is managing it.

Oniya

I don't expect there's going to be much management.  The older versions aren't getting updated, so the wiki shouldn't need to be 'active'.  Worst case scenario is likely to be me fixing un-created pages.  If they want to label me as a 'contributor', that's also fine.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! (Oct 31) - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up! Requests closed