Unlike the main section of this site, which is handled by WordPress, the “Rides” section was being handled by MediaWiki. Mediawiki is a large, complicated, and difficult piece of server software that is used by Wikipedia, among others. I had hoped that the hours I invested integrating MediaWiki into my WordPress install would pay off eventually. It didn’t.
The main problem — other than the fact that you just about have to live and breath MediaWiki to be able to maintain it, let alone make changes — is that very feature that’s supposedly it’s strength: Crowd sourcing. The original plan was that after I got everything set up, local cyclists would contribute their favorite rides, road conditions, and other information of interest to the cycling community.
What actually happened was that spammers from around the world glommed onto the site, posting dozens and dozens of pointless and sometimes profane messages that had nothing to do with cycling, let alone the high desert.
I spend about a day attempting to secure MediaWiki before realizing that there would be no end to it: I just don’t have the time to dedicate to watching MediaWiki to ensure that someone hasn’t posted garbage on the site. If you visited the rides section and had to wade through the spam pages, I apologize.
So I’ve converted all (I hope) of the MediaWiki files to static pages, which should be secure from hacking and spamming (as long as my server is secure). While I’ve gained security, though, I’ve given up some of the niceties of MediaWiki, such as the crowd sourcing, the way the search feature worked, the more-or-less built-in links, and one or two other benefits.
As far as crowd sourcing goes, if you have road or ride information, e-mail me and I’ll post it on-line. As for as page linking, bear with me as I figure out the “best” way to make the information accessible. Right now, the search feature is probably your best bet, but eventually there will be hard links to each of the pages, and cross-links among pages.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, let me know.
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