From: Dossy (dossy@panoptic.com)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 09:12:16 MST
On 2003.01.20, Reason <reason@exratio.com> wrote:
> You can also have a wiki with a comments section for each section (so
> that people can discuss potential edits) which is something like a threaded
> forum.
If you want a threaded forum, use a threaded forum.
If you want a wiki, use a wiki.
Trying to make one behave like the other is defeating the purpose. I
think I said that originally.
A wikis as a means of communication has its own particular attributes
and emergent properties. It's those exact things which make wikis so
attractive for certain purposes.
> Ah, but you lose so much information by viewing it [without change
> history].
Not true. You actually get so much more information because you have so
much less noise. Each contributor/editor of a wiki page is given the
opportunity to add signal and/or remove noise. A mature wiki is like a
container full of various sized pebbles that has been shaken for a long
time. The large, coarse pieces at the top can get scraped off, leaving
behind only the end result of a lot of shaking and sifting ... a very
dense collection of many particles.
The problem is that a wiki is really never "fully matured" so at any
given point in time, a glimpse at a wiki's contents will seem
half-organized and refined but half-haphazard -- those rough edges are
where contributors should look at to help refine. As new ideas emerge,
they become new rough edges which eventually either get deleted or
branch off into their own wiki pages.
-- Dossy
--
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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