1st Read

What is vespalabs.org?

vespalabs.org is a "Wiki" hosted in a small shed out the back of a house in Melbourne, Australia (a.k.a. Vespa Lab). The purpose behind vespalabs.org is pure and simple, capture all information about Vespa's in a way that can be used and refined by everyone that is interested. The "lab" angle is meant to encourage applying science, where possible, to the information given. We hope that people will have fun testing things out and providing information for everyone to see. There will be second hand information, of course, but this should be referenced, whether it be a book, web page or an online forum. There will also be mistakes and incorrect information, but people should feel free to add comments to get things quickly fixed (or even fix it yourself).

What is a Wiki?

"A wiki is a collaborative website which can be directly edited by anyone with access to it". This is the definition is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and is itself a good example of how people all over the world can collaborate to build a valuable resource for all... this is an example of what vespalabs.org wishes to achieve for Vespa information.

Also note the Disclaimer!!!

How to use this Wiki?

This wiki is a shared notebook, you add value by reviewing its content and keeping it up to date and easy to understand. We encourage you to create an account as a "Lab Rat" and add any comments that you think need adding. Over time your comments will be removed and incorporated into the page content. People that show good sense in their comments will be given higher access priviledges and will be able to add/change their own content that will in turn be reviewed by others... and the cycle continues.

Before adding anything you should have a look at Wiki 101 and Technical Wiki Writing.

Once users get higher access priviledges they get their own lab area where they can put anything and everything. Eventually the information will make it into the main page, where it is open for anyone to comment on and other lab members to refine.

For example a lab member might trawl the internet on expansion chambers and dump the info in their "lab" (i.e. a personal notebook). Once the info becomes first hand (i.e. they have the expansion chamber) they can start moving or creating info in the public area (i.e. the public notebook which gets refined by everyone).

How do I contribute to this Wiki?

To keep some sanity, users are given different levels of responsibility. The idea here is to allow anyone to do anything but provide some protection for the integrity of the site as a whole. The user levels and how they can contribute are listed below: