I wanted to find a wiki engine that could be seamlessly integrated into WordPress, but I was unable to find such a device. So, I have decided to create a Twins Wiki using WordPress static pages. This will take a lot of work to make this thing something of value to Twins fans, but if people are willing to put time into it, then it can be something cool.
Wikipedia itself has a Minnesota Twins page, of course, and it has a number of players listed, as well. I have read the copyright agreement from Wikipedia and it is acceptable for us to copy what is there (provided that attribution is given), although merely copying something readily available elsewhere seems to be less than valuable.
In a perfect world, this wiki would become the authoritative, unofficial base of history for the Minnesota Twins. However, I'm realistic. It may not turn into much at all. If you are looking for something to do on a long, cold winter and you have authoring privileges here at the site, feel free to contribute. I have some ideas as to what the wiki should look like, but since it is a wiki, it's up to the content providers to make it look like something.
If you are interested, I'll give you a little bit of know-how on how things can be added. I'll work on it slowly but surely (or maybe sporadically and not at all).
The wiki software is open source. I believe that you could d/l it and host it somewhere on your site.
There was one of these a few years ago, actually (it was when TwinsGeek was running the TwinsTerritory site, I think, if that helps nail down the timeframe), at WikiTwins.com. It got a few good contributions right away, but there wasn't enough participation to keep it going, and it died out. If you can get a good set of contributors who are willing to keep working on it, though, it could grow into a wonderful resource, particularly for things like the 40- and 25-man rosters and historical season summaries (i.e. stuff you can't necessarily find on baseball-reference).
The big risk with a wiki is that people will lose interest - I've also contributed to a wiki devoted to RBI Baseball, and during a period where no one paid attention to the wiki, it got hit really hard by spammers, and there was so much damage that it's hard to summon up the energy to do all the work that would be involved in fixing it.
Part of why I wanted this thing integrated into my Wordpress application is that I did want to control how information is added. People who have authorship privileges are invited to contribute. Others can ask to contribute. But, spammers and miscellaneous and anonymous contributors will not be invited.
I would be down for contributing.
Great. The first task that I need to create is an outline of topics.
I'm not sure what the copyright law is on pictures I took of Twins games, but if I have full rights over the subject matter, I'm all for sharing them with the wiki. That way we won't run afoul of copying other stuff. Not that I foresee a problem, but it might come up later.
I believe that you own your own pictures.
I assumed as much, but I didn't know about "diseminating" photos of a MLB game "without the express written consent of the Minnesota Twins/Office of the Commissioner". I thought that only applied to broadcasts, both radio and TV, but I'm not the lawyer around here.
I'm not sure about that either, actually. That's why I said "I believe".
From a few different sources it would appear as though I'm OK with using my pictures in an informational manner rather than for profit.
Quick Survey: I have decent enough pictures of Punto, Baker, Redmond, and Lew. I think I have a few more deep in the recesses of my hard drive.
Turns out I don't have a lot of "portraits" of anyone. My shots are all of action where there are multiple persons involved.
I have some pictures from Twins picture day from the early 2000s. Most of the pictures are of groups of people, although you could crop them if you needed individual pictures of people too.
I would be willing to contribute as well.
Also, I'm wondering - can baseball cards be used for player images? I have no idea what copyright law is, but TwinsCards.com seems to do just fine with only a disclaimer saying the images are displayed for informational/entertainment only.
I'll tell you what we found out for GameDay concerning baseball cards. If you're displaying them because you're talking about the card, it's all good. If you're using it as a picture of the player because you're talking about the player, it's not good.
I don't know if it really matters in this case, or if the same criteria is used for internet images. Blake would probably know.
Thanks, TG. We should probably be aware of that.
I look forward to reading this
I don't want to make a promise I can't keep, but maybe I could work on something to do with transactions.
I have something for that in mind.
Just tell me what you want done. I will do my best. Feel free to incorporate all my historical stuff in there.