Help: FAQ

Why make this instead of just using При Ватрі?[ ]

• The Main Advantage of WikiSpiv: Anyone can add new songs and edit existing ones.
  • Without anyone being able to contribute, any spivanyk will fall out of date and be missing many songs.
  • We see this when new songs like Безмежне життя, Чекатиму, and Село become popular and are passed around handwritten or verbally instead of in a convenient, central place.
  • Even classics like Ясний вогник were glaringly absent from both При Ватрі, and the internet as a whole, before this project.
  • This also allows anyone to update the list of renditions so we don't end up with so many songs with broken links or without renditions at all. This massive effort to compile recordings of songs will help make sure they aren't forgotten.
  • При Ватрі is not interested in this kind of collaborative development which it finds to be incompatible with being the official Пластовий співаник, a completely reasonable position. After discussion with the creators, we agreed to remain separate but to borrow content liberally from one-another.
• In При Ватрі, the way chords are shown (i.e. using a variable-width font) means that they will not show up in the same position in every environment. This is a real issue, as you can see in the screenshot comparison below. WikiSpiv renders by telling the browser to align each individual chord above the correct letter to mitigate this problem. This also opens up flexibility in the future, allowing us to use whatever fonts and font sizes we want on the web and in our print versions without losing the chord placement.

• By using the open MediaWiki platform, anyone can create custom apps or desktop applications which interface with our database.
• This spivanyk is intentionally not part of Plast – we also include CYM songs, for instance, and half-на-пів songs like Borscht riders. It is a collaborative spivanyk for everyone.
• Our open design is also allowing us to collaborate better on the development of new features. For instance, we are currently working on a system to allow people to collaboratively edit sheet music for each song.
• We have a strong focus on preserving music written in the diaspora, like the repertoires of Mickey and Bunny, the D-Drifters-5, and Burya. No other online spivanyk is doing this.
• WikiSpiv's official language is half-на-пів, which makes it more accessible to its target audiences in North America, Britain, and Australia.

Is there an app?[ ]

It's a work in progress. As a stop-gap, the website is mobile-friendly.

Who should I contact for more info?[ ]

Данило Сенторе at Daniel.Centore@gmail.com