Has anyone see this (lexicon) or anything like it? (if so, gimme some links) Or has anyone participated in anything like it? Is anyone interested? I'm thinking about hosting a wiki on my website and giving it a try.

Let's discuss the idea, what you think of the concept, what you thought if you participated in one, lessons learned, was it fun, etc. This thing just greatly intrigues me and I think I want to give it a try. I think we would be amazed at what the creative types around here could come up with.

If I do put something up, I think I'd like to limit it to between 5 and 10 'players' but I'm really open at this point. Any interest? Any thoughts?

I'm in favour of any idea that enables people to "intertwingle."

If I knew how to run a wiki, I'd run this myself, but I would love to participate. Obviously.

Well, I downloaded some wiki software last night and uploaded it .. but need my server host to get me some updated software on the server side, so we'll see. I may need to use a different wiki software. Anyhoo, once it's up and running I'll see, but I imagine (hope) it'll be as easy as creating users and logins, then a WYSIWYG editor to help you create posts with links and all. Maybe? Haven't been able to play with it yet.

I know there are 'wiki farms' out there that are free and would let us do the same thing, but I'd like to have a bit more control over this, and have some ideas that I'll throw out to the contributors that might be better served having it within our control rather than on a third party host. Anyhoo..

You lost me at about the second phrase of the first sentence, but I trust that you didn't lose yourself near as much. Technologically adept, I'm not.

I may try this with a smaller group anyways.

I don't understand technical bits either. But I'd love to be a part of this... I'm only anxious about time constraints -you won't do somehting like 'An entry a day', will you? If there's time for my slow brain to be able to produce stuff, I'm in.

Yeah, I hate technical bits too. I know just enough to be dangerous (and hopefully get this up and running for us).

The mechanics are for us to work out. Right now I'm not even all that concerned about 'taking turns', other than the need for continuity. If we thought it could work for a turn a week (ie, a letter a week), then we could go a good long while without too much pressure on the players (or lose steam entirely and peter out). If two people happened to post on the same word, it could be first come first use, or perhaps (more difficult) work out some reconcilliation of the two.

I suppose that anyway a Game Master-like figure would be needed, to outline the thing before writing the entries and to work out stuff that might come up (like the double entry thing).

I think that's where the wiki would come in handy. If you try to start an entry and are told, "Sorry, someone's already working on that," or open up someone else's entry, then you know you were beaten to it.

So far as the overarching idea, I can come up with a half-dozen forty words or less ideas before lunch if we need them.

(And we're going to create scholar characters, yeah? I haven't roleplaye din so long...)

You know, Clover, I hadn't thought about that, but I think it would be fun and quite interesting if we made character profiles for ourselves and wrote our entries from the character's point of view. I guess that was implicit (or rather explicit upon re-reading) the description of the game, but initially I was thinking about this more from a writer's/writing exercise standpoint and not the game standpoint. In fact, after setting the overarching theme, I think the first turn/post would be the character profile so we all had some idea of where the players/characters were coming from, then proceeding into the lexicon. ??

I vote for writing exercise PLUS roleplaying. It's probably the only was that I can write something

I already have a character in mind, although he'll need some serious tweaking if the idea I have in mind is the one we choose to go forward with.

I also have basic outlines for a character, but I'm waiting for a kind of world in which to place it.

(Damn, I just realised with the move and all I'm going to be internet-deprived for a wee while, although I'll still check every day at internet cafes and such... More or less when would you reckon this would take off?)

Well, right now the techie bits won't be worked out til this weekend, and I'm hoping to use the week to see about interest. I suppose it could start as early as this weekend, with people posting their character profiles here first if I haven't gotten the wiki up and running yet.

As for you being busy (I just read your letter in FW, and ugh) and internetless, don't fret. If the other players agree, I'd just say contribute when you can. The way I see this working could be that we do a turn/letter per week. What's a turn? Well, in the link above it's 3 citations - one that must reference an already-written entry, and two unwritten. So what if you (the general 'you') miss a turn? Do we say jump in with the current letter of the week, or have you pick up where you left off?

Id' say you pick up where you lef tit, but then that wouldn't work as well with the referrencing of unwritten entries (especially as the weeks move on and there's fewer and fewer letters to write entries for).
If you just join in with the letter of the week, then there'll be letters with fewer entries... although I suppose then you would be able to reference to an unwritten entry in a letter that's behind...

Gah. This is too complicated for me. I'll leave the rules for someone else with the brains for them...

I find this (Dictionary of the Khazars), as an example of non-linear writing akin to what we're talking about here, quite fascinating.

In fact The Electronic Labyrinth is where I started, and I'm sure I got here from a wiki reference I've sense forgotten.

Lexicons linky

I was just sharing this with Circus a couple of weeks ago...

I'm in, obviously.

I think that:
a) you do need to use a wiki software, as the idea is to create an encyclopedia of an imaginary world.
b) you do need a GM figure, or at least somebody in charge, not so much to enforce rules, as to keep track of everything and provide guidance if need be.
c) the role-playing aspect is definitely secondary to the entry writing, but would be fun nonetheless
d) one letter a week seems like a good idea - you need time to write your entry, but also to read what everybody else has written!
e) if somebody misses a turn, they should jump to the current letter: it makes sense that words starting with one letter would be more numerous that those starting with another, and this would also lead to much less confusion. Also, it keeps the door open for those who want to jump in mid-game. Otherwise they would have to start at A and play catch up, and the original players would have to keep double-checking older letters to make sure they didn't miss any new entries.

The Dictionary of the Khazars is a great, great book, too.

Yeah, C's post about your link is what started this whole thing in motion *grin*

We'll be on wiki software, I'll host it, it's just a matter of me getting something that works for us.

I'd nominate Dweller as our GM figure if he wants to be.

I think the role playing aspect is a definite must, as I'm already crafting my character.

Anyone else a though on the one letter a week pace?

And I agree, if a player misses a week, then they just jump in at the letter of the week.

My initial thought right now is to keep this at less than 10 players, and not let others join in mid stream. My gut just says that 5-8 players seems ideal, and that by allowing just anyone to join at any point might ruin some continuity and feel that we might have going at the time. I'm still open to other thoughts on this though.

I agree with everything

I'll gladly steer the mad and crazy ship of our collective creativity. I'm putting some polish on the collective idea, but suffice it to say that it's appropriate for our forums.

I do think that having people come in mid-stream would be needless disruptive. That said, if someone shows enough interest, they might be able to take over for a writer who's run out of steam.