I’ve been thinking for quite some time how I could make more use of organization, databases, and just more structure, in general, to make this site as good as I can. I briefly toyed with the idea of putting all the data for this site into a giant database but honestly, I lack both the skill to implement that and the money to pay someone else to do so.
So as a compromise I have launched the official SportsPaper Wiki. As you can easily tell it’s very much in its infancy. At the moment my primary focus is transferring all the index pages I had for cover artists and venues over to the wiki and eliminating them entirely as HTML pages from the main site. To that end I have completed several and added some new ones. Check out the entries for Lon Keller and Shea Stadium for examples.
I am also working on a way to both start adding entries for all new covers I add as well as porting over the thousands of existing ones already published. As you can imagine this is no small feat, especially given that my technical skills with the wiki platform are not very advanced.
So what does this mean for you? Two things mainly. First, I can add all sorts of neat new links that will allow you to navigate and find interesting images easier than ever because will no longer need to hand-code everything in HTML as I’ve been doing, Secondly and even more importantly I will be able to throw open the doors to contributors. A handful of people have been kind of enough over the last several months to supply me with many of the images on the site, so now they (and you!) can just add them directly yourselves.
I am very excited about this new evolution in the site and what it will mean for the SportsPaper community. In the meantime, any help you can provide either by becoming a Patreon contributor or by lending any wiki expertise you may have — particularly in the area of setting up templates or converting HTML pages — would be most appreciated.
Thanks again for all your support!