[Search-l] Big Picture, Outline Plan

[Ronald Ashri]

Hello,

I have been following this list for quite some time and there are  
some interesting ideas being discussed but I seem to miss a big  
picture vision of where Wikia wants to go and how we can help with  
that (other than writing mini-articles that is - which is what the  
about us page seems to suggest).

a) what structure is there to manage the exchange of ideas and to  
decide what gets done and when
b) what exactly is open source here (can I download some code, and  
setup a website called myversionofwikiasearch.com and set it up just  
like wikia - is the software that runs http://alpha.search.wikia.com  
open source or just the spider software, and some other bits and bobs?)
c) what is the current algorithm for ranking? I realise that it must  
be in some code somewhere but an outline document saying here is the  
algorithm or (even better) explaining it in English would be fantastic
d) what is the big picture about user interaction? what exactly can  
be done now from a user to influence (improve) results? what is  
planned in the next 3 months, 6 months, 1 year?

I guess Wikia Search has a team of developers. What are they working  
on? How do the ideas discussed here filter through to them.

Now it may very well be that all these questions are not even the  
right ones to be asking of this list - perhaps something explaining  
that would help as well!

Hope this does not come across as aggressive and I apologise if all  
this is described somewhere - you are allowed to answer with the link  
pointing me in the appropriate direction and an appropriate  
derogatory adjective and I will go off and read up but I am genuinely  
trying to figure out a point of entry and I guess some document  
saying "How you can get involved" would be great (and I would even be  
happy to write it if we can figure out the contents)

Cheers,

Ron

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