Russells+Analysis+and+Reflection+Page

toc =First Impressions=

As I have encountered a Wiki-building class environment before in CCT205, I believe it is an impressive way to get the most out of a group of minds in that it helps us all gain knowledge in where our research needs improvement. This is not to say an individual can know everything about one thing. Rather these types of environments help us realize different aspect and different views that also need to be accounted for other than our own.

Through this project, I hope to utilize my graphic design skills to make this wiki visually-pleasing (ie: adding page banners). Also, my compulsion for uniformity will help to organize this wiki's content. Though these types of contributions feel repetitive for me and I would love to find other ways and other things that people usually over-look when building wiki content. //(Completed: November 5th, 2006)//

=Getting The Feel...=

When I choose to develop an existing wiki the first thing that I consider is my interest for the topic. My interest in the topic compels me to add what I know about it. Sometimes with the existing work, utter frustration propels me to alter and edit a topic. This frustration usually stems from seeing poor quality sentence structure and seeing fiction rather than facts.

On the basis of these two factors, I find it very appropriate to organizing, editing and adding to other people's work. I know there are a couple of ESL students in the class, but I really don't find it an excuse not to proof read and spell check. Also, content from people who try to coin phrases that aren't accurate at all on facts that are out of context obviously needs to be edited. Some people aren't acquainted with formatting a wiki with things like headings and TOCs. These are things that improve readability for the wiki, so I stress that these wikis have these elements. Including pictures also helps readability, but not when people have obviously ripped off a splash image of a website and you can see the word "enter" on a picture with no link on it. Pictures have to look like they belong on the wiki, and that is another thing I strive to include with the wikis I edit.

I am also very compulsive with checking the material I've provided and I think that's the effect of putting hours of work into this wikispace. You can't spend all that time working on content and not care where it's going. Currently, no one has altered my work and I could say that I'm not too concerned with this happening. The content I've provided is pretty factual and the formatting I've done is an absolute need for the wikis. But we'll see if this changes in time. //(Completed: November 6th, 2006)//

=Final Reflection=

Personally the hardest thing to do for Wiki projects is know when to stop. I am a very meticulous guy when it comes to things like formatting and consistancy; and I see that not too many in this class have similar traits. I find a lot of pages needing a lot of improvement with look of their Wiki, but once I get started on the formatting, ten new Wiki's pop up that look even worse. My suggestion for future Wiki projects is to impose a style guide to which others must abide by. This will help content organization and in turn, aid its readability.

The challenges I found were of course, keeping up with everything that was going on the Wiki, especially the navigation bar. I think it's a good idea ot have the navagation no longer than the height of a screen, just so everything could be easily found.

= = =List of Contributions=

Uploaded McCloud's "Understanding Comics" to rapidshare.de
 * Was made available to students free of charge (giving them no excuse for not read the text)

Edited, formatted and added content to Billboards section
 * Fixed up some of the language problems on this page
 * Added TOC and organized headings
 * Added Broadcasting Billboards sub-section

Edited, and formatted Brutal Death Metal section
 * Added TOC and organized headings

Edited, formatted and added content to Heavy Metal Music section
 * Added banner (which took an hour to prepare)
 * Major sentence and paragraph editing done

Edited, formatted and added content to Blogs section >
 * Added TOC and organized headings
 * Added Disadvantages of Having A Blog sub-section

Began first major Wiki contribution: Moroccan Roll

November 6th
Added content to Moroccan Roll section

November 11th
Added content and page banner to Moroccan Roll section Formatted and added page banner to Advertising section Formatted, added content and page banner to Subliminal Advertising section

December 2nd
Began second major Wiki contribution: Professional Wrestling

December 3rd
Added content to Professional Wrestling section

December 7th
Added Homoeroticism in Heavy Metal Music