Wiki Additions and Pelargonium

Mary Sue Ittner msittner@mcn.org
Mon, 23 Aug 2004 15:58:06 PDT
Dear All,

I'd like to clarify a question about what is appropriate for the wiki since 
it seems to be coming up now and again so it must not be understood.

When this list was moved to ibiblio.org we were given the opportunity to 
have a wiki, an interactive web site, where we could display pictures of 
plants we were discussing. It seemed like a wonderful solution to the 
attachment problem. We could disallow attachments and thus save people who 
did not have storage space or a fast connection and avoid having viruses 
sent to the list. They do come as we list administrators get them (or 
rather our virus software gets them), but it is nice to know they aren't 
coming to everyone. If people were interested in looking at the pictures 
they could and if not they didn't have to.

As long as we were adding pictures it made sense to write about them and 
without consciously deciding to do so we have created a resource of 
information and photos that I think is rather wonderful. Anyone on this 
list can contribute to the wiki. If you have a picture of a geophyte, it 
can be added. We only ask you to follow the rules we have set up to keep it 
organized. If you look at the wealth of material there you will find what 
is most represented comes from people who were willing to take the time to 
add pictures and text. It's not a matter of wiki administrators deciding 
what should be there.

Those of you who choose to look at the Pelargonium information that David 
Victor has added will see that he spent a lot of time working on this page. 
His pictures show the leaves (with a ruler) and the flowers. Photographing 
both in the same picture is really tricky we found when we saw them in 
South Africa. And he has written a lot of really interesting information 
about the plants. For people wanting to know more about tuberous 
Pelargonium searching the web it will now be there.

We hope Jaime Vande will add to the Paeonia wiki page. If Joe wishes to 
create a wiki page to link to the Crinum page with Marcelle Sheppard's 
information and his digital images of her plants, of course we would love 
him to do it. Our wiki has limitations that a web page does not have, but 
it has the advantage that anyone who is willing to learn how to use it and 
put the time into it can participate. It is the only resource we have 
available for this kind of information. We don't even have a web master for 
our pbs web site.

Any of you wanting to create a resource for the geophytes you love are 
encouraged to do so.

Mary Sue 


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