So previously (http://blog.joeware.net/2012/07/05/2540/) I mentioned the idea of an AD Wiki. I had quite a bit of feedback in the comments and offline through email on the idea with some strong points to use the Technet Wiki and some strong points on YES DO IT! No other options came up so it came down, for me, to whether I felt the Technet Wiki was what I visualized I thought I/we needed or not.
After looking over the Technet Wiki pretty closely and thinking through the whole thing and then just plain listening to my gut, I have decided that putting up an AD Wiki is something that I am going to do. I just didn’t feel good about whether any kind of censorship of opinions and/or third party vendors might come up in Technet and based on some of the guidelines I saw there I don’t think they would take kindly to, for example, articles on the comparison of OpenLDAP to Active Directory or ADAM or detailed instructions on tying MIT Kerberos to AD or vice versa or documentation on how to set up VMWARE to host DCs if someone wants to write it up and others think it would be good to have and see. I.E. This isn’t going to just be a wiki about AD in a homogeneous Microsoft environment, but AD in the real world where we live.
I really really really want to see contributions from a wide range of people and sources. If your writing skills aren’t the best, don’t worry about it, this is about consolidating and sharing information, not showing who can word smith better than others. If someone else reads what you wrote and thinks there is a better way to say it, they can update it. If you have ideas on what you want to see but can’t speak to it, put in stubs and people who see the stubs who have more info and want to write will be able to take those stubs and suggestions and perhaps write something. These are things that make up the beauty of Wiki.
And yes, I will want to see opinions because I think people like seeing opinions along with hard facts. Sometimes opinions and "feelings" precede and possibly drive research that provides hard facts later. I do think there should be a special tag that indicates that something is opinion where opinion is when you state something you feel without verified sources you can cite.
I am even open to vendors writing up articles about their utilities etc. I don’t want to see ads, but real life examples and how-tos would be nice. When someone goes looking for how-to do X, seeing a page talking about it with related pages on native methods based on a multiple scripts, tools, and products you can purchase would be a good thing.
Anyway, it will take me a little bit to set it up but I will announce its availability here and likely places like the ActiveDir.Org list, etc.
joe
If there is already a “how to” or topic on the Microsoft wiki do we just keep that there and use this one for more advanced topics. I think this will be a really good thing for the community.
I just hope people aren’t intimidated to post after they see posts from you and others and think they have to be on that level.
I hope so to Mike, the idea is for everyone to contribute even if it will just be basic stub articles that others can fill out with more detail. I don’t expect it to be a work of art when it first fires up but I expect over the next year it will become quite robust.
Pretty excited about this.
Have you given thought to handling security issues? In the past, you’ve been reticent to discuss methods of escalating DA’s to EA’s since there’s no mitigation. Will these types of discussions be disallowed or just frowned upon? I don’t have a real strong opinion one way or the other; I’m just curious how you plan to approach it.
That is a good question Scotte.
I have not changed in my general approach to information disclosure. I will not allow any irresponsible detailed escalation steps/processes.
I think I would be open to general topics indicating that it is possible though.
Overall I will try to moderate very very little. Irresponsible security stuff, outright advertising for products (versus pages discussing utilities and if someone desires detailed scenarios/instructions about using products), spam, personal attacks I would feel would be the items most likely to be cut. But I don’t even want to have to police that so much as hope that people self-police themselves. I really want this to be a good solid resource that anyone in any place using any products can come and figure things out and share.
Can’t wait. But what will it be called??? If you name it ‘AD’ you just KNOW the product name will change – “AD DS” is just the beginning! Maybe you can call it ADAM-WIKI.
Naming is actually one of the tougher things… I have a couple of names bouncing around in my head that I am thinking about along with researching how to do some things with media wiki. Once I get past some of the summer business of Warrior Dashes, 5K/10K’s, reunions, get togethers, yard work, etc I will put something solid into place. The main thing in my head right now is the guidelines for the overall system and a good logo. 😉
We need to see a blog on the Warrior Dash. Those things have exploded in popularity, how long is the one you are doing?
Oh I am not doing the warrior dash, I am more of a code warrior than a warrior dasher. My girlfriend is doing it. I don’t much get into the organized sports things. If I want to run, I go out and run, if I want to bike, I go out and bike, if I wanted to run or bike in the woods, I would go into my backyard. I don’t personally get paying someone else some silly amount of money so you can do it with a bunch of other people. I think it is tied to my overall lack of competitive drive and lack of desire for attention. I do things for myself and judge myself, not really interested in beating anyone at anything other than how much I smile in a given day.
That being said I am supportive of my g/f who does enjoy doing that stuff. 😉 It is 3.25 miles with I think 14 obstacles.
Note: I wouldn’t mind getting a big cargo net to hang from my trees in the backyard, that would be cool to work out with. I looked around, they are exceedingly expensive for some reason.
This is a *great* idea, Joe.
Look forward to seeing and possibly contributing to this.