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Improving Mindat.orgMore written information on mineral pages.

13th Apr 2016 01:01 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

It would be nice if each and every mineral page had a decent written information section up at the top. Sometimes I find myself returning to Wikipedia, because Mindat doesn't have immediately available historical information, etc. Some pages have this already, but many do not. While the pictures alone are enough to keep me returning, it is the information I learn about species that keeps me in this hobby!

Paul

13th Apr 2016 01:24 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

Paul, Have you checked out the "Best Minerals" section on Mindat? - http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?tab=65

It's a work in progress, so there are many species left to cover, but for those that are done already, the section contains much more information than could fit onto an ordinary Species page.

As an example, check out the various beryl pages - http://www.mindat.org/msgboard-67.html - superbly authored by Harjo Neutkens.

13th Apr 2016 01:34 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

I have. For ease of access, does each entry completed so far have a link near the top of the Species page? Even a single paragraph would suffice in many instances, some pages have no written info at all!

13th Apr 2016 04:08 UTCD Mike Reinke

Paul,

I'm like you; What I learn keeps me in the hobby. if they were all just 'pretty rocks,' I'd be bored after not too long.

But I suspect that that load of information, with footnotes so as to not plagiarize, would be a monster undertaking, and Mindat is volunteers, with plenty to do already, it appears. I have read a variety of authors, particularly in the winter when a certain white mineral nefariously covers all the others. I find their varied observations helpful and engaging, [moreso if I could only remember them all for a longer period of time] and consider it part of the 'sleuthing' I do in looking for minerals. Especially if there is any college near you, could a library there or even a public library, borrow from who-knows-how-many other libraries, and you'll find there is plenty there, if not so handily as on Mindat.

13th Apr 2016 04:31 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

I agree, it would be nice - and I've been trying to "persuade" people to add more description to these pages for some time now.

Part of the problem is that our management tools for mineral editing are quite difficult to use consequently we do not have them open up for the majority of people to use. Once we have better pages and better administration tools for more people to contribute you should see the information being added to these pages increase significantly.

Jolyon

13th Apr 2016 12:54 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

Good to hear! I understand it is busy running this database. Perhaps you could look to Wikipedia for inspiration on adding/editing information. References could be added with hyperlinks.

13th Apr 2016 14:59 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

Basically mindat is a mineral focused wiki. The problem comes in on verifying the info that gets entered and making sure that it is correct. If it takes as much time to verify info as to enter it, what is the advantage to allowing free access to the database for changes? We really haven't had problems with edit wars that plagues some areas of wikipedia. Wikis are also inherently inefficient as things are constantly updated and need to be checked.

Actually entering general descriptive info on a mineral page actually takes more experienced people to do it correctly.

13th Apr 2016 15:01 UTCPaul De Bondt Manager

Paul,

Thank you for your message and idea. But we don't like to much links because they break quite frequently. We prefer references of books or such.

Why don't you post some links here when you go on Wicki. It's a little thing to copy and paste.

That would help us a lot and I could ad it to the page.

Many hands makes work lighter.

Cheers.

Paul.

13th Apr 2016 15:16 UTCUwe Kolitsch Manager

Paul Stephen: Feel free to provide a suitable and scientifically correct text in a new thread (best named after the mineral) - we can then add these texts to the corresponding mineral pages.

14th Apr 2016 00:44 UTCPaul Stephen Cyr

My thoughts are that it would be generally better for information to be "boiled down" from a variety of reliable sources. While the scientific information is paramount (and already mostly present in statistics), historical information, varietal names, and industrial applications would also be of interest. Many minerals pages already mention their namesake, and this is a good start. Another idea would be to include info about a famous example of the mineral, or a classic collection that focused on it.

14th Apr 2016 11:10 UTCErik Vercammen Expert

Paul,

For a lot of minerals you can find info like this in the "best-of-articles".

14th Apr 2016 22:28 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

The "best of" articles are great IF you know they exist and IF you know how to find them. I understand Paul de Bondt's statement about not wanting too many (external) links, but links internal to Mindat should be less problematic. How about a link (For more information, see the Mindat "Best of [species]" article here [link].) at the end of the introductory section at the top of the species page?

14th Apr 2016 22:38 UTCJolyon Ralph Founder

The 'best of' articles are still a work in progress, started by the late and great Rock Currier we are slowly building these up, but they deserve a better way to manage, edit and display the information than they have now.

This will come and once it does the integration into the mineral pages will be much, much better.

Jolyon

15th Apr 2016 09:07 UTCPaul De Bondt Manager

Ed,

These links exist but as Jolyon wrote, it's a work in progress and many are still to be done.

But if you take for instance schalenblende, you will find the link under the description.

See "Best Minerals" article on Schalenblende, by Harjo Neutkens: http://www.mindat.org/mesg-85-134773.html

But there would be no harm to put a " best off " button above the headpictures. There still space to put it there too.

Cheers.

17th Apr 2016 10:59 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

Jolyon

Just a thought, might be a little naïve, but I wonder if there is any possibility that Mindat could get permission from the Mineralogical Society of America to incorporate the PDFS of the Handbook of Mineralogy into the Mindat data base. Citations and the like would follow the Society's code etc. They are freely available on their site so there is no down side.

Could even be set up so as to provide a link to their site as well. They may even get some additional members out of it.

While it does not cover all the known minerals, it would be a great start and would save "reinventing the wheel" so to speak and at the same time create a format for other minerals discovered since the Handbook came out.

Perhaps Mindat can even help the Mineralogical Society to update the Handbook. The Society is apparently in the process of updating but it appears to have fallen a bit behind.

Even a link to each individual PDF could be an option.

Cheers

Keith

17th Apr 2016 11:49 UTCDavid Von Bargen Manager

"Could even be set up so as to provide a link to their site as well" - We already have a link to the Handbook pages. It is down in the links section. If you go to the RRUFF link and then search for references, they often have the type description paper available.

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