Linking to HTLAL on the Wiki
Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2018 6:56 pm
Since apparently I'm on wiki mode today, in another thought, and part of a longer project I've been working on, I think something needs to be done to remove or minimize the reliance on HTLAL threads. Many pages have a subsection of links to the forum, and the Assimil page for example simply references a user "Michael K." It is my understanding from reading another discussion that the wiki was created as some sort of corollary to the old forum, but at this point if the goal is to make it more readily accessible and comprehensive - the casual self-referential nature ought to be changed.
As a second point, the HTLAL site is volatile enough as it is. Perhaps when someone "adopts" a Wiki page, they might peruse the linked threads to extract the relevant information and (even better) distill several posts into a concise narrative. This might need some sort of standardized practice as well. Moreover, a curious lurker might want to learn about the pros and cons of Pimsleur without having to read a bunch of arguments between people from 12 years ago. I guess the question is (and perhaps someone can point me to the answer if it's somewhere on this forum): is the wiki intended to be an index of HTLAL discussions or a general source for language learning techniques and publications aimed at the public?
The "longer project" I mentioned above is sorting through the Lessons in Polyglottery subforum and creating some type of archive of Prof A's work there. He wrote incredibly long posts, sometimes with no ensuing discussion (much to his voiced dismay), and should HTLAL finally crash for good, that would indeed be a great loss for the community. I've exchanged a couple of e-mails with Prof A about this topic and he has even agreed to write a new introduction to the forthcoming "archive" when it is complete. It is with this spirit in mind that I suggest we pull text from the old forum when we can and repurpose it for posterity.
As a second point, the HTLAL site is volatile enough as it is. Perhaps when someone "adopts" a Wiki page, they might peruse the linked threads to extract the relevant information and (even better) distill several posts into a concise narrative. This might need some sort of standardized practice as well. Moreover, a curious lurker might want to learn about the pros and cons of Pimsleur without having to read a bunch of arguments between people from 12 years ago. I guess the question is (and perhaps someone can point me to the answer if it's somewhere on this forum): is the wiki intended to be an index of HTLAL discussions or a general source for language learning techniques and publications aimed at the public?
The "longer project" I mentioned above is sorting through the Lessons in Polyglottery subforum and creating some type of archive of Prof A's work there. He wrote incredibly long posts, sometimes with no ensuing discussion (much to his voiced dismay), and should HTLAL finally crash for good, that would indeed be a great loss for the community. I've exchanged a couple of e-mails with Prof A about this topic and he has even agreed to write a new introduction to the forthcoming "archive" when it is complete. It is with this spirit in mind that I suggest we pull text from the old forum when we can and repurpose it for posterity.