[Goob]

I recently installed a wiki on HIF, similar to wikipedia.com. In fact, it runs just about the same so much as I can tell. My goal is to one day get a huge collection of freebies that don't often change and that everybody can use, similar to the free birthday list I made a while back. So far, I've started a list of free museums and later on I'll be starting a list of free national parks and similar stuff.

The reason I set this up as a wiki as opposed to just making a page on HIF is that I figured if anybody wanted to help, I should make sure they're able to as easily as possible :D

If you have an account here on the forums, then your username and password will work on the wiki. I copied the list of museums on wikipedia and basically have just been going to the museums website to see if they charge an admission or not. If they do, I take them off the list. If they don't, then I link directly to the page on their site that says the place is free. And if there are any special requirements (age, day, etc) then I just note that off to the side.

If anybody wants to help out, then by all means please do! You can do this at your own leisure and you can do whatever states you want. (For instance, I'm dreading doing California and New York :)) All I ask is that you note what state you've done, either in this thread or in the wiki so that I can keep up with what's been done. So far, I've only done the A states, so if you are having trouble editing the wiki, you can look at how I did those or you can ask here.

Thanks again to anybody who wants to help! And like I said, this is totally voluntarily so don't feel like you have to do any of this.

[Undrallio]

Haha, wow that's an awesome idea man! Make us feel even more family like as it is!

[Goob]

Anybody still interested in working on this with me? I'm going to post it on HIF this week, because there's still a ton of editing to be done on it and I know I won't get it done on my own until Christmas, lol. Since it's summer and people are traveling now, I'm gonna post it up for anybody to use as it is so far. Who knows, maybe a few people from HIF who aren't active here on the forums will turn out to be huge wikipedia contributors and jump into this with reckless abandon!

[pbchicknz]

I love the ideal of the wiki. I woudln't mind putting some more time in helping you with it soon, I had kinda forgot about it again. Unfortunantly this week's gonna be a hectic one for me, so I don't know how much time I'll be able to contribute. This time of the year is a good one to post it though, since gas prices are so high, the more local stuff should be getting more attention

edit: I was inspired to put in a little time over on the wiki. I finished the hamption area of Virginia's list. There are several that don't list thier prices on their website. I sent them an email to ask what the admissions are. Is this how you would like us to tackle questions like that? Just ask 'em if their sites don't say or if they don't have sites at all? (I have yet to find many without a website though).

This post has been edited by pbchicknz: 16 June 2008 - 12:13 AM

[Goob]

Thanks for doing that section, pb! I didn't actually think anybody would do a part of it tonight!

If the museum is so small that they don't have a website yet in 2008, I go ahead and just delete them off the list. If they have a website but don't say anything about admission, I put FTA? after it as a note to myself (or anybody, for that matter) to try and follow up on it later via e-mail, phone, etc.

I should probably put that above paragraph in the wiki itself because I'm sure more people will have the same questions.

[pbchicknz]

I accomplished Virginia, Wyoming, and half of Wisconsin :D I highly recommend anyone else interested in this project, to consider doing their own home state (if it's not already done). I found a lot of places I had no ideal were anywhere near me, let alone cheap :)

This post has been edited by pbchicknz: 18 June 2008 - 12:40 AM

[Goob]

PB, you rock! As soon as I upgrade the Medals mod and get it configured, I'm adding a "Wiki Contributor" medal and awarding one to you :)

I just did Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, and South Carolina.

When I was doing WV, I looked up on Wikipedia's list of museums in that state and there were like 10, which is way more than the single one I had. Thing is, I got my list of museums for each state from Wikipedia a year ago! Makes me wonder how many I've missed since then...oh well.

[pbchicknz]

Yeah! I like awards :D Thank you Goob! I hope to work on it a little more tonight, maybe finish up Wisconsin and then move into another state. Who knew there were that many museums in America? I had no ideal. I guess i'm just naive, ha ha.

[Froggie]

Help.. I need help.. How do you edit it? I finally found one .. and it says something about the page being protected...

Am I having a blonde moment again???????

[Goob]

Hey Froggie, go to the wiki and click the "log out" button near the top right. Then log back in using your forums details. Or maybe it's not logging you in automatically, in which case just click the log in button up in the top right as well and then proceed.

[Froggie]

Yep I logged in, then logged out, then llogged in.. said some choice words... logged out.

Each time I got page is protected..... :(

When I log in now, I still log in as froggie2007. Froggie doesn't work.... maybe I messed another thing up changin my name.....

[Goob]

Blarg, hahaha, I know what's wrong. When I created the new group of "Moderators," I forgot to give that group access to the wiki. Try it NOW and it should work just fine.

[pbchicknz]

Just trying to learn the abbreviation system, if it's a completely admission free museum, with no special restrictions, do you want me to put FTA on it, or just leave it the name & web address? I see you've done this with some of the ones you completed, so if I'm putting FTA where I shouldnt just let me know. It'll save a lot of effort in editing later ;)

[Goob]

Yeah, sorry, I'm going to clean up the top of that page so that it better clarifies what to do. But if there are no special requirements at all, you can just leave it blank after the web address and the museum name.

[pbchicknz]

In the spirit of the Free Museum Day post today I was inspired to work a little bit on the free musuems Wiki. I found 30+ new ones for Virginia by using the links to museums found on the Smithsonian site, and further surfing around. And I found some new ones that are geographically really close to me. Pretty neat!

[Goob]

PB, thank you! I'm actually posted something on HIF today talking about the museum project we've been doing. Maybe that will get a few more people to help out :)

[Goob]

I'm posting about the museum list tomorrow, just fyi. I didn't forget about it :)

[pbchicknz]

Kewl! :D

[Goob]

I'm actually working on the wiki now, I figured I should get as much of it done before I post it! :D

[darkk2b2]

hi, this is my first post, I did washington.

[Goob]

Holy moly, I just noticed that. Thanks mate :D

I'm creating a wiki award right now, you and everybody else who has/does contribute will get it!

[darkk2b2]

cool thanks

[Goob]

By my count, we've already done 36 states already. Heck, I'm going to work on finishing it all this week and rolling it out on the main page as an acutal completed project.

[pbchicknz]

Wow! Thank you Dark. Your contribution is appreciated.
Love the new award! That one is neat. And I'm amazed that we've already got 36 states done. Thats only 14 left, which is fantastic. The completion isn't that far away now, which is great news


*lots of happy adjectives, meaning I'm tired and delirious! *

[darkk2b2]

I did Washington DC