XPost: comp.emulators.cbm, comp.sys.cbm   
   From: protostealth@*spamblocker*hotmail.com   
      
   Pardon the crosspost, ladies and gentlemen. The subject seemed fitting   
   for readers in all the newsgroups listed.   
      
   While randomly searching Wikipedia and its sister projects, I noticed   
   that, while Wikipedia itself has a moderate amount of information on   
   Commodore computers, expansions, drives and such, its side-sites such as   
   Wikibooks contain little that would be helpful to people new to the C=   
   universe. The links on the 'pedia itself are numerous, however, most of   
   them refer to sites that are game-related, which doesn't quite do the   
   systems justice.   
      
   The key problem I'm trying to address here is two-fold. One is the   
   general lack of both hardware and software resources for the Commodore.   
   While there are literally dozens of sites out there, a good percentage   
   just keeps repeating the same old system specifications. Naturally,   
   there are sites that contain truly unique information, like collections   
   of C=Hacking issues, libraries of VIC-II glitch exploits and (here I go   
   again...) dual-SID schematics. The other side of the problem is that   
   there isn't a master index for all the unique information out there.   
   Some of it pre-dates the internet. While it doesn't lose any of its   
   usefulness, might've lost some legibility either due to the fact   
   hardware schematics had been scanned at lower resolutions or it's   
   contained in ASCII art. That would indeed call for some restoration into   
   newer graphic and textual formats. On the other hand, there are several   
   sites which contain saved newsgroup posts and threads which shed light   
   on some of the darker aspects of the computers or accessories.   
      
   Now, Wikipedia (or, in my proposal here, Wikibooks) is de facto   
   considered the main hub of the internet knowledge that's contained in a   
   well-formatted, easy-to read layout. Wikibooks can, like any other, be   
   divided into sections, subsections and articles, naturally, but with the   
   added bonus of being able to hyperlink to any other related area inside   
   the same book, or to any available page on the internet, for that   
   matter. The wealth of C= information could find itself a home in there,   
   as there is plenty of space to create a virtual bookshelf of Commodore   
   material, which'd be ready for use for any user, old or new.   
      
   Having spent the last 8 years C64-less (as I had to sell it), I found   
   myself at a great loss when I discovered there is so much more to the   
   C64 than games, GEOS and Simon's Basic. So in a way, this is my plea for   
   help from the community, but one from which the community as a whole   
   could benefit as well. Granted, I wouldn't be of much help, as I can   
   barely remember the proper way to format a floppy under C64's BASIC.   
   But, I would be willing to kickstart the project, help with restoring   
   schematics into PNG or other suitable graphic format or just perform   
   spell-checking and grammar correction. I wouldn't have suggested this if   
   I couldn't find a way to help along with the project.   
      
   Thank you for the time and effort in reading this.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)