Is there any interest in putting together a wiki for this project. I know that the google community is great for sharing what is going on, but it is tough to organize the data. If there is interest I can look at setting it up and getting things going. I don’t mind the couple dollar cost to buy a web address either. Maybe something like OpenRC.com.
We could set up links to the latest and greatest files, list sources for parts, reviews of the parts. We could even have different sections for various other OpenRC designs. I have seen some crawlers and RC plane stuff. We could have sections for all of that.
Just a thought. If there is enough interest I am happy to set it up. But a wiki only works if people contribute.
I am not super familiar with wordpress but what I have seen in the past is that they mostly do blogs. My initial though was to set up either MediaWiki or TikiWiki. MediaWiki is the backend that Wikipedia uses, and TikiWiki is another very common wiki for projects. I have some experience with both. MediaWiki is probably overkill for this project.
We would just need server space with MySQL database functionality. I don’t mind hosting it on my domain and registering another domain. Down the road we can always move it to more dedicated server and just reroute the domain. Visitors to the page wont even notice anything changed.
TikiWiki also has lots of other nice features like forums, blogs, chat rooms and other stuff that we could set up. I could see a use for a official blog site that we could let people post article on. For example if you want to write a longer post you could do that. The chat room might be cool too.
Anther option would be to set start lurking in an IRC channel. That would require no effort to set up, just gotta have people be there.
There are tons of resources out there and we could do any number of them. I have just seen other projects like the RepRap project that have benefited from have a dedicated website and wiki. So I would prefer to avoid being tied to either github or wordpress for it. We just would have more control. That being said I think the wiki should link to github, grabcad, thingiverse, and any personal blogs out there. The goal would be to get a website that gave new comers to the project a single source to direct them to all the information that is out there.
Okay, so I just ordered OpenRCProject.com and in 12 hours can set up the wiki which shouldn’t take long. We can always change it down the road too. After that we can get people adding content.
Printrbot is very interested in being a part if the fun! I’m looking to offer a hardware kit for the open rc car and I have partnered with a designer for an rc plane. I intend to do a street car myself targeted at an easy to print design. Count me in!
Brook
Yeah, don’t mind hosting it on my webserver until such a point were we want to move. I just don’t like being tied to a site like github or wordpress. Also, they limit what you can do. Again I don’t think we should get rid of any information that is out there. Just tie it all together. I am using the RepRap project as a model for this.
My initial thoughts were a main page that points new people to where all the information is. A quick start page that show what parts need to be printed, which ares are optional, and which parts you should source. A detailed BOM page listing various supplier and maybe a page where people post which off the shelf parts work or don’t work.
I would like to do a poll for which printer people were using and perhaps create a couple pages on specific printers and various configurations, settings and the like. That way people printing on a Replicator 2x can share what works. Same goes for other printers too. I would love to get some profile setting for the makerbot up there for everyone to share. For example the nylon and ninja flex filament would be awesome.
We can also set up a google map where people could pin where they are from. Do something with different colors for if you have a working truggy or in progress one. We could even get some local meet ups going, maybe organize a race day or something.
There is just a lot we could do with a simple wiki and a few dedicated supporters adding content. I could even see some new projects spinning off from this. OpenRC is not just a single truggy design. It would be awesome if people started designing other versions of cars, planes or wherever else. We can have sections for those people to collaborate together. @Daniel_Noree did an amazing job starting this project and I just want to see it turn into a community as big as the 3d printer community is.
I’d love to see an OpenRC owned website where files and instructions can be hosted. I have my own website where I host my work. I use Drupal and I like it quite a bit.
WordPress is like Drupal and I think any modern (and popular) Content Management System would be the way to go. You just need someone with a bit of experience to develop the site. It can more easily be sculpted into something that looks professional.
Get the website professionally hosted, it’s so cheap these days. You don’t want to have to worry about or spend anytime on server admin.