Robot FAQ - Community Wiki Project, Win a Roomba!

[robotreviews]

At Roomba Review, our goal is simple: To help people find out everything that they want to know about Robotic appliances. As ever more and confusing models are released, it's getting harder and harder to organize the information and make it easy for people to find what they are looking for.

With that, we are launching our very first community project: The Robot FAQ.

The Robot FAQ is a community created Wiki. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with Wiki's, a Wiki is a piece of software that allows everyone in the community to collaboratively create web pages. If you've ever used Wikipedia, then you have seen just how much can be accomplished with a community built Wiki!

The goal of the ROBOT FAQ is to make it easy for everyone to find what they are looking for. To meet this goal, we need your help! Whatever you can contribute, whether it's troubleshooting tips, comparison information, documentation, pictures or even video - anything that you can contribute would be helpful.

As an added incentive, the moderators and I will be regularly selecting the most valued contributors to receive prizes all holiday season long! (Watch this thread to see updates on what prizes are awarded!)

In addition, the person selected as the most valuable contributor at the end of the year will also be awarded a brand new Roomba 535!

Thanks to everyone in advance! And of course, if anyone has any questions at all, please don't hesitate to ask them here.

Here is a link to The Robot FAQ

Regards,
Craig

Prize list:
-----------
$50 Amazon.com gift certificate - fancyfreewv
$50 Amazon.com gift certificate - Mag48
$50 Amazon.com gift certificate - MrAP

[fancyfreewv]

okay when I use the link I get the HSN 535 site. ???

[robotreviews]

That's what I get for trying to do two things at once.

Fixed now, thanks!

[heinz57]

hello roombareview
this is a great step in the right directions
thank you very much

[ronstew]

I just noticed this post. I was going to suggest that a wiki would be ideal for this community and these products, and now we have one.

Now, I just have to go find it.

[fancyfreewv]

I just noticed this post. I was going to suggest that a wiki would be ideal for this community and these products, and now we have one.

Now, I just have to go find it.

The link is in the first post on this topic. www.robotreviews.com/wiki

[robotreviews]

Thanks to everyone for all of your hard work, the Wiki is really coming along nicely!

To those of you who have started contributing, a big THANKS! To those of you who are thinking about contributing, but aren't sure how, here is a link that describes the basics of how a Wiki works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

I invite everyone to browse through the Wiki to see how it's coming along. If you happen to see a section that isn't complete, or if you think that you can add something to an existing section, please, feel free to go ahead and do it! (Just make sure to quickly create a username on the Wiki, so that you can be eligible to win a prize too. )

Many people are hesitant, because they are afraid that they might do something 'wrong', but rest assured, you can't. The beauty of a Wiki is that all changes are always tracked, and easily backed out of. So please feel free to contribute, and help us in our goal to build the biggest and best robotic 'user manual' in the world.

Regards,
Craig

[robotreviews]

I'm proud to announce the first prize awarded this holiday season, a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate. The winner of the gift certificate is fancyfreewv!

Fancyfreewv was one of the very first people to contribute to the FAQ, and she has been a tremendous help in getting the project off the ground.

Thanks Nancy!

The next prize winner will be announced next week.

[Fraggboy]

Congrats Nancy!!

[fancyfreewv]

Okay all of you who are intimidated by programming needed in the WIKI. Here's a "getting started" tutorial.

This is the link to access the WIKI: http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/

START:
By creating a user name on the WIKI. This can be the same or different than the user name you have on RoombaReview. At the top right of the main WIKI page you will find a log in /create account link. Once you have created your account, you can change preferences and log in automatically each time.

NEXT:
Check out the Navigation links on the left side of the page of the WIKI. Start with Main Page to see what has already been created. If you plan to contribute but don't know how to start, click on Help in the Navigation bar. Just click here


NEXT: Browse some of the pages in a section you are interested in adding content to. Click on their EDIT tab. Here you will see the actual formatting used to create the page and get an idea what you will need to do to accomplish the same thing.

HINT: To enter a link (hypertext), you must use the http:// part too. Separate the words you want to show from the link with a space and enclose the entire thing in [ ].

FOR INSTANCE: [http://www.example.com Example] would result in just the word Example showing in blue because you put a space after the link and when you click it, the link executes.


Some of the information in the Help is advanced but most beginning users will need the information in these sections the most:

http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/Help:Formatting

http://www.robotreviews.com/wiki/Help:Images

NOTE ABOUT IMAGES: Uploading images is done on the toolbox link at the left and this does not work like RoombaReview. (Make sure your images are edited or resized using a photo editor prior to uploading.) Once you upload, the image will stay in limbo until you add it to a page. (make sure you know the spelling of the exact name) To add it to a page, edit the page and enter [[Image:example.jpg]] substituting the name of your uploaded file. When you SAVE the page, the picture will appear.

I'm just a beginner but that is the way I figured it out and you can too!!!!!

Let?s see some of your great ideas on the Wiki soon

[mag48]

Im working on adding a So What is.... roomba, scooba, ect section but having trouble finding my OWN roomba photos so if someone would like to insert a photo of what I'm talking about where I write (Insert Photo Here) you are more than welcome to, or if you have any photos you wouldn't mind sharing please post them or send them to me and I will embed them.

[Fraggboy]

Mag48, on the main page of the Wiki, there is a link that shows all of the different Roomba's, Scooba's, pretty much everything that iRobot offers..
You can grab the link to the photo from there. If you don't know how, let us know here and we will gladly get that done for you!

Link is HERE


Now thinking about it, I don't think there is one for the Looj.. Lemmie get it up there.. DONE

Mag48, Great Job on what you have done!!

[mag48]

Okay I got the basics so far for the So what is... section with pictures going. I'm goint to work on leaving a review of the scooba and roomba disco series soon.

[Nurse Janice]

Just had a quick look at the wiki and had a thought. We have different model numbers over here in Europe, and domotec list them with different numbers again - Roomba 2 Silver (DVUO0018) for example.

[Fraggboy]

Janice, that didn't come across my mind but that would be great to have different model #'s from different countries listed!!!

[robotreviews]

Sorry for the delay in awarding winners, there have been a lot of great contributors to the FAQ and I would like to personally thank everyone for their great work so far!

And so, we have two winners announced today. They are Mag48 and MrAP!


They will each receive a $50 Amazon.com gift certificate. There will be more winners announced next week, I promise!

Regards,
Craig

[Fraggboy]

Congratulations Mag48 and MrAP!!

[mag48]

Thanks!

[MrAP]

Thank you!!!

[robotreviews]

I apologize for the long delay in announcing the latest winners.

To make up for it, we are going to continue to randomly award prizes to people who make valuable contributions to the project indefinitely!

So for all of those who have worked so hard to help build the Wiki, thank you for all of your hard work, keep it up because we are planning on giving away plenty more goodies before the Wiki is finished!

As for the rest of the winners from December, and the winner of the Roomba 535 - those winners will be announced this week!