There are two types of drugs information repository on the Internet. Firstly, we have the static "Web Page" look, with a static design that almost hints at a template, but not quite - this not only looks boring, but gives no feeling of user interaction, required by today's Web 2.0 generation. The other type is the exact opposite - A Wikipedia style site, whether it's Wikipedia itself or a spin-off focusing on just drugs, for example, WikiShaman. The fact remains that these kind of sites are just no good when you want quality information compared with the static web page style information resource, but what they do offer is community interaction. Each article has, or can have, it's own "Talk Page", where users can discuss the article. Take a look at the Talk Page for Cannabis Foods on Wikipedia. This kind of thing is a great idea, but with one problem - users have so much control over the site that the information presented by Wikipedia is renowned for being factually inaccurate, which is not very helpful when it comes to drugs and their potentially fatal effects.
So, where will Coffeesh0p.org fit in? Hopefully, somewhere in between. We aim to display quality information, unedited by the public, like the static web page style site, but allow some degree of community interaction and discussion. Each subsection (IE, not the main page for each drug, but specific articles, such as a History or Advice section) will allow readers to comment on it, and those comments will be displayed underneath. We will also allow readers to rate that section, so we can get a feel for what you all think both qualitatively and quantitatively. One final thing we'll let the users do is flag an article for review. This means that reviewing the article in question will be added to the "To-do list", looked at and hopefully improved. This middle-ground of user interaction will also allow us to pick out people from the community who really know what they're talking about to join our team.
Up to now, this blog has covered a few of our major ideas for the project. In future posts, I intend to direct the conversation towards actual development, with a few ideas thrown in, as well as guest posting from members of the team. With any luck, the Christmas period will bring with it major developments to the project, so keep an eye out!
