Tips & Tricks for the KPA (wiKPA) - For those who want to get to know their KPA far above what's in the manuals :)

    We're already talking ... but it's difficult of course since Gianfranco hasn't shown what he's working on ... and I'm convinced that I can provide the most open platform anyone can imagine. Nothing beats a Mediawiki in this regard. :) But we'll see. I just keep going full speed and I'm sure you'll be surprised by tomorrow what has been added to the Wiki.

    So far Gianfranco doesn't seem to like the idea of taking the content of his PDF to the Wiki, so we have to create all content from scratch. But I'll be very honest. I prefer to create everything from scratch and have it published under Creative Commons Licence so everybody can freely use it for whatever (free) purpose under these open terms. I don't like to be dependent on any kind of copyright when it comes to a community effort.

    Thank you guys for your concrete support to the wiKPA! PMs sent to each of you Senior Supporters :thumbup:

    As for Martin's initiative, I certainly don't plan to charge for wiki contents. But, considered the relative complexity of the project I am (well, was) working on, it's a pity that we start by splitting (dividing?) our forces.

    I really hope you guys don't take me wrong, Martin is a smart guy and I love this community's drive; It has revealed to be fruitful and I'm sure other things will come! I just find kind of ironic that, after months in which I received a very low logistic support, this wonderful community has waken up one week before I published my site, and after a supplementary effort from my part for creating the concept and the site...

    I'll have to decide whether it's worth continuing working on the new project or just discarding it. If the latter, I'll be of course more than happy to release the wiKPA for being implemented in Martin's site.

    Thank you, guys :)

    I see it similarly to Martin.

    To keep the effort of accumulating and maintaining information manageable for one human being I think the idea of a collaborative initiative like a wiki is the most logical one and I'm all for it.

    Having a docu-site and writing articles about the KPA is nice and honorable of course but would in no way be different than what already has been accomplished.

    This is in no way belittling all the efforts that have been gone to the wiKPA.

    Quote from viabcroce

    I just find kind of ironic that, after months in which I received a very low logistic support, this wonderful community has waken up one week before I published my site, and after a supplementary effort from my part for creating the concept and the site..


    As I already told you via PM, I'm really sorry for the trouble caused. It could have been avoided easily if we've been in the know of things happening and if we had been involved in creating it from the beginning. Nobody can support your effort logistically, technically or regarding content if we simply don't know. ;)

    Now I've started the wikpa.org and I made it public at the earliest moment possible so everybody can participate and discuss right from the beginning. I just had to grab the domain name (3 minutes work) and then setting up the Mediawiki (20 minutes work) and then add some special features and create some basic content structure as a starting point (a few hours). After that was done, the basic foundation created, I immediately offered everybody to have a look and to discuss it. :) I'm very glad to see that some fellow community members already started to add content immediately.

    It's really amazing what you've done with your PDF file! I totally mean that. It just had one flaw from the beginning, nobody could directly contribute to it. I think I've already mentioned a Wiki some time ago, but it took me some time to finally pull the plug and start. Bad coincidence that you've been working in the background on some project as well.

    Cheers,
    Martin

    Never mind Martin, it is certainly nobody's fault and I'm no way criticizing your initiative, that I appreciate instead :)

    I had written I was working on something but not in a clear way because I wanted it to be a surprise for all you guys after three months of wiKPA's layoff. I continue and find this sudden explosion of activity quite ironic :D

    At this stage I don't think a second site would make any sense. So if you think the wiKPA can be of any use for the site I think that will be its final destination! But let's agree on details privately :)

    Hi Gianfranco,

    thanks for offering your wiKPA PDF's content! So far I haven't used it to feed the online Wiki.
    There's something very important I have to point out as clearly as I probably can:

    The wiKPA.org website is NOT my personal project, I don't consider it my own property.
    It has to become a community run platform pretty much independent from me personally, the responsibility for the content side of things is on all of us.

    Right now, at the very beginning, I spend a lot of time with different things of this platform. But as soon as things are nicely shaped and get going, I certainly will move a bit more to the (important) background tasks. Help others to learn MediaWiki, clean things in the background (structure, formatting, categorizing, backup, cleaning and preventing potential spam and vandalism).

    Of course there's some technical limitations to perfect openness. Someone has to be the technical administrator of this project and as long as it's running on one of my own web servers, I simply can't offer technical administration access to anyone other than me. Also the domain name has to be owned and maintained by a natural person, which currently is me. But if there ever is the need to move the whole project to a different web server, to a technical administration other than me ... no problem at all.

    Ok, back to topic:
    I'm 100% sure that everybody here would be very happy to see you join this project, me included! And if you think that your PDF's content should be included in parts or completely ... you should state it publicly. There's no point of making a private agreement with me, personally, since I don't consider this MY project (see above). :)

    Cheers,
    Martin

    As I understand Gianfranco was working on something for some extended time. Why don't you guys check out this work done and decide together how to continue? It might be easier to integrate the wiKPA.org stuff into Gianfranco's efforts. I think it would be a fair way to deal with this unfortunate situation.

    Winni

    Martin, i'm sorry to budge in but i just have to say this -
    between taking the name of Gianfranco's work and airing your private discussions on a public forum, i think you're way off the line.
    I appreciate what you're trying to do, but this is just... Wrong.

    Please, guys, just work it out like civil individuals.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

    Quote from Labrat

    As I understand Gianfranco was working on something for some extended time. Why don't you guys check out this work done and decide together how to continue? It might be easier to integrate the wiKPA.org stuff into Gianfranco's efforts. I think it would be a fair way to deal with this unfortunate situation.

    Winni

    I think it has already become clear that a Wiki solution is the one that could be maintained easiest and also would be the one to accumulate the most useful Information in a relatively short time.
    So for me: Wiki vs. Proprietary: Wiki wins.

    Quote from Labrat

    As I understand Gianfranco was working on something for some extended time. Why don't you guys check out this work done and decide together how to continue? It might be easier to integrate the wiKPA.org stuff into Gianfranco's efforts. I think it would be a fair way to deal with this unfortunate situation.

    Yeah, too bad you guys could not communicate before and working on your own solution each other ...

    the best thing that could happen is gathering your own strengths and integrate amazing Gianfranco's work into the best platform . Maybe let the community decide with a democratic vote/poll wich platform to choose ??

    gianfranco : can we get the url to your test wiki ??

    Quote from Ingolf

    I think it has already become clear that a Wiki solution is the one that could be maintained easiest and also would be the one to accumulate the most useful Information in a relatively short time.
    So for me: Wiki vs. Proprietary: Wiki wins.

    "maintained easiest..." that is the point IMHO. i think gianfranco did a good job with his way, but i also think that a communitiy via a CMS like a Wiki is much faster and
    more accurate (discussions!) than a single individual human being possibly can be. i offer my help to put content from the pdf to the new wikpa if this is wanted.
    i think gianfranco is more than cool in saying he finds the situation a "little bit ironic". :D that's very sweet, but as i said before: i agree totally with ingolf above.


    peace

    My occupation: showing teenagers the many hidden secrets of the A-minor chord on the guitar.

    I agree with Quitty. This is a raw deal for Gianfranco and a bit over the line. Not cool. I don't think there is an excusable explanation. "Oops" isn't good enough.

    A proper collaborative effort and integration of Gianfranco's document would be the starting point. That would be the best move.

    bd

    Quote from Ingolf

    I think it has already become clear that a Wiki solution is the one that could be maintained easiest and also would be the one to accumulate the most useful Information in a relatively short time.
    So for me: Wiki vs. Proprietary: Wiki wins.

    Yes, totally agreed! Wiki is the winner and I took also Part in the Wiki team. But Nobody has seen Gianfrancos approach or asked for. Beeing runover by the "Wiki Train" Must be quite bitter for Gianfranco. All that work over months without even owning a KPA.
    Wie should implement on the Wiki a paypal donate button for Gianfranco to compensate for his tedious his work. Maybe CK can offer One Unit at manufacturing cost price and we send Kemper the donations until it is sufficient. A simple "oops and sorry" won't do it. It's just my Feeling. Let's put Money, where our mouth is!

    Quote from Labrat

    But Nobody has seen Gianfrancos approach or asked for. Beeing runover by the "Wiki Train" Must be quite bitter for Gianfranco. All that work over months without even owning a KPA.
    Wie should implement on the Wiki a paypal donate button for Gianfranco to compensate for his tedious his work. Maybe CK can offer One Unit at manufacturing cost price and we send Kemper the donations until it is sufficient. A simple "oops and sorry" won't do it. It's just my Feeling. Let's put Money, where our mouth is!

    Yeah I agree with all this too, that should be fair.

    Quote from Labrat

    Wie should implement on the Wiki a paypal donate button for Gianfranco to compensate for his tedious his work.


    Interestingly I already suggested just that, when I first wrote about the chance to setup a WIki for the community. Not only suggeted it, I even put it in number 1 of the small list in my post. But as long as Gianfranco isn't part of that project and hasn't agreed on putting a Donate button there .. well. ;) But in my opinion, this situation should be VERY easy to change, no?

    Well guys,

    let me tell you how I feel and explain my situation...

    This is quite a long post, so feel free to skip it.

    With the recent events I actually found myself in a strange situation.

    It's true, I don't own a KPA yet. I could not afford one ATM.
    When I started creating a collection of infos about the Profiler, it was something I was basically doing for myself. This is what I usually do when considering a new piece of hardware: collecting infos, tricks, hints from all over the sources. I guess I have a cataloguer's mind X)
    When the document started growing in size, I realized that it would be useful for many potential or current KPA users. Here's where things changed for me.

    When I made the first issue of the wiKPA public, it received a good welcoming from this community and was also linked in several KPA-related threads in various forums. I guess it has been downloaded thousands of times as by now.
    It was then that I realized I had taken a sort of (moral?) commitment towards the document's users: now I had to be sure that the wiKPA's contents were correct, consistent, logically laid out and up to date.
    This task became a sort of second job to me. I started taking care of the creature, and devoted never less than 2 hours per day to it. This implied reading all the posts on this forum and on TGP, as well as probing the Net for articles, other forums, random posts or quotes; then the infos had to be compared with the current wiKPA's contents, and to be put in the right section. At the same time the outdated information had to be removed, as well as the typos and any possible kind of problems.
    Needless to say, I never could achieve a 100% perfection, I still believe there're typos in the document... LOL
    Some of you guys also collaborated by sending hints, suggestions and requests.

    At the same time, I had contacted Burkhard to ask for some kind of support from Kemper. While they did not want to make the wiKPA become an official resource for a number of reasons, Burkhard was kind enough to offer proofreading and supervision, and several times sent me his observations and corrections, which would add valuable information, and address both mistakes by my part and technically incorrect posts from other members.

    After a while, some of you started suggesting that I should get something back for my efforts. Some was talking about a PayPal donation, some was suggesting that the community would buy a KPA for me! (It's here).
    That was really touching, the feeling of both been useful for the community and of them wanting to give back was incredible, I really felt being part of something. Don't really know why, and don't even know whether this makes sense TBH.

    Recently, some nice guys revamped the PayPal idea, and I finally gave my account (here). I must admit I felt at the same time embarrassed and happy. I won't deny it, with my economical situation every income is a blessing, but at the same time I did not want to sound like the guy who had done it for the money. And, at the same time, the idea of being rewarded for the work sounded - in a sense - good.

    So I had an idea. What about creating a site where the wiKPA is offered for free, but that also includes different kinds of services and information about third-parts, a collection of KPA-related articles produced by pro users, promotion for all the KPA-related products and manufacturers? And selected videos ad audio clips, and accessoires... a working and well-thought Rig Exchange... A real Web portal where sponsorships and advertising could also give me the opportunity to devote myself to it full time?
    I was not thinking of generalist Google ads (which I hate), but rather KPA-related products and manufacturers: FRFR, stands, amps, profiles, recording studios offering KPA services... And a dedicated room for presenting and promoting the people and firms wo are involved in producing anything KPA-related, where they would also meet the customers in a dedicated environment.

    I knew the idea would take time to embody and to generate some return. But I said to myself "hey, you're already devoting your time to this... and it would not be fair to ask KPA owners to pay for the wiKPA. But there might be someone interested in investing here, to create a new market". Sure, I was aware I would not become rich with it, but it would have been nice to get some return while not asking KPA users any fee. And, of course, to create something new and exciting.

    As you might have noticed, in the last three months the wiKPA has not been published. I was collecting ideas, materials, collaborators and know-how for my wiKPA.org (I'd be not able to create a site by myself, let alone a portal).
    I was about to start, when all of a sudden things exploded around me: for two years no one had moved a finger, as we say in Italy, and all of a sudden a site had appeared, just weeks before I published my site, basically making my idea just garbage (which advertiser would pay at this stage?).

    Furthermore, someone had taken the name I had invented, and used for another site.

    Mhhh... True, I had not registered the logo.

    Well, I felt frustrated. I had invested so much in the whole thing. It had started just for myself, had become a committed service to the worldwide KPA community, and was about to become something by which I could go on offering a number of free services to the users but at the same time to get some firms' attention and (I believe) add value to the whole concept.

    Now, I don't really know how to feel. I guess the right thing to do would be to just move the wiKPA to the new site.
    Some members here have proposed to add a donation button on my name to the site, and Martin (lightbox) has suggested the same himself. I don't know how to feel about this tho, after all the site will be a common effort. It's true that the wiKPA is about 60 pages now, and crammed with consistent and ordered information, and it would "fill" the site in minutes, but nevertheless...

    Don't know, I guess I really need your opinions at this stage.

    Thanks for your time guys, and for all your support and friendship