[pct-l] PCT-L wiki

[dude at fastmail.ca (dude)]

IMHO, I think that a wiki would be a perfect fit for PCT info because:

1.  there is lots of info that changes often, such as what trail towns 
have which supplies, prices for hotels/hostels/transportation, what 
lightest pack/tent/bag is (seems like this changes quarterly almost), 
where bear cannisters are needed, how many people have thru-hiked, etc.

2.  as I understand it (I have never set up a wiki, just used 
wikipedia), terms mentioned in one part of a wiki article are 
automatically cross-refferenced and linked to entries for those terms, 
which creates a very nice reference resource for newbies who need to 
learn definitions for all the lingo that old-timers take for granted 
and really speeds up the learning curve dramatically.  As you can 
probably tell, this also blows away searching the archives because 
everything you need is just linked together and easy to find -- no 
searching required.

3.  there are many people on this list who have the knowledge and the 
apparent interest in the subject matter to maintain the wiki pretty 
well.

4.  the PCTA website is a very nice and helpful site loaded with lots 
of information, but like any static website, is subject to the 
contraints of maintenance and is therefore sometimes out of date or 
incomplete.  a wiki would generally solve this problem and the PCTA 
website would be the perfect compliment to the wiki as the repository 
for the "official" information, much as the PCT-L archives contain lots 
of great info, but is not "official". 


I am all in favor of the idea andf would gladly help contribute where I 
am qualified.

...my 2 cents.

peace,
dude

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