I think a mechanical music wiki is an excellent idea.  MMD is a
valuable resource and I think should continue in its present form.
But a wiki allows data to be shared in a very public way and is
extremely easy to access (no subscription to an e-mail list, no AOL
problems, no spam filter problems, etc.).  It is also a good way to
organize such things as the MMD picture database.

With a wiki people can share their knowledge and expertise in such
a way that articles and pictures can be searchable and cross referenced
in a useful and organized manner.  Also this would give one place where
anyone -- old hands who have been rebuilding players for 45 year to
people who bought their first player yesterday -- a place to get a ton
of information and most likely just what they are looking for.

I mean, how many times has there been someone who posts, "I just got
my first player and nothing works.  Where do I start?"  With the wiki
concept you could have one or more articles that are tailored just for
the newbie beginner.  Or how many times have we had someone ask how to
rebuild the action stack for a (insert band name here)?

We're all willing to help out any way we can with information for the
beginner or the experienced rebuilder, but we tend to repeat ourselves
a lot on MMD.  Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with that,
but often the advice will vary from one round of postings to the next,
sometimes with inaccurate information that gets corrected two or three
MMD cycles later.  Since a wiki is maintained by the people in the know
and can be set up to maintain a consensus of what is correct, we would
have a much better chance of presenting timely and accurate information
to the mechanical music community and also have the potential to more
easily get a younger generation interested in mechanical music.

The wiki concept also allows people to post articles about special
case issues, like how to tube a particular brand of player from year
thus-and-such to year thus-and-such and also be able to point out that
certain changes or improvements happened with the brand after certain
years that should be incorporated into a rebuild, complete with
detailed pictures.  Important details like these tend to get lost
otherwise, or at least they are difficult to find on-line.

There may only be one or two other people in the world who have had
a particular issue and today you became number three.  If one of those
other people had posted an article to the wiki on your current issue,
then your problem is solved.  Otherwise you have to rely on the
possibility that the one or two other people who have dealt with this
issue are currently monitoring MMD and feel like posting an answer
today.  With the wiki this information can be posted once and is then
available to anyone.

Also because of collaborative aspect of a wiki, such things as not
using Elmer's glue, not using vinyl tubing and why you shouldn't do
such things, in other words how to do a rebuild _correctly_, can be
posted so that people new to mechanical music won't make many of the
same mistakes that all of have done but are not willing to admit.

In short, the wiki concept would let us have an information store that
would be accurate, available to everyone with an internet connection,
and have very useful information for anyone interested in mechanical
music.

If you would like to get an idea of that a wiki is and how it works,
go to Wikipedia at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  and put
in your favorite subject in the search box.  An article of just what
Wikipedia is can be found at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia

Ray Finch
Abluquerque, New Mexico, USA

 [ The word 'wiki' is derived from the Hawaiian word for 'fast'.
 [ A definition of 'wiki' is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
 [ -- Robbie