I haven't participated much on this list, but I do have some heartfelt thoughts on the wiki discussion. One reason I don't participate as much on this list as I want to is that it's hard to follow the chronlogy of the posts. You don't really know where the posts begin or end. You have to look for a post that doesn't say Re in it. Then you can't just read the comments in chronlogical order. The comments are interspersed with other posts on different topics. So it ends up being a disjointed, hunt-and-peck reading experience.
I don't know why you're considering a wiki, though. What you totally mean is a blog. Wikis are for encyclopedic material or other team-building content that you're pulling together as time goes. The content you post on TCP are random thoughts that lots of people have comments on. They flourish for a week or two and then die. Perfect for a blog. If you were to convert this list to a blog, you would gain the following advantages: * Better ability to follow threads. You could skim down the comments on a post and take them in much more quickly and intelligently. * Ability to aggregate the most popular posts. Ever check out www.digg.com? You can sort the posts by popularity, by week, month, or year. I've got a similar plugin going on our Wordpress chapter blog, http://stc-suncoast.org. If you look in the left column, under Popular Posts, you see what posts have garnered the most popular attention. This allows readers focus on the posts that are most interesting or significant. * Declutterization of the email inbox. I had to set up a second email address to take in all the listservs I'm subscribed to. If I had posts coming in every minute on my regular email account, I'd go crazy. So how do you know if someone posts something new with a blog? Because you're subscribed to the RSS feed (with something like FeedDemon, Netvibes, or Firefox with the Sage extension). * Universal access. If it's a blog, you can look for the latests posts at work, or while you're on vacation. If you are only subscribed via email, you have to check it pretty much at your computer. * Ability to search the site. I know you can search the list archives, but who ever remembers the URL for that? A blog would put a search box directly on the site. I've often wanted to search the site for content before I post. It would reduce the duplication of posts if members could more easily search. * Ephemeralness of posts. Couldn't think of a better word there. Basically, if you post something new, you usually look for responses for the next couple of weeks. After that, you may just not check it. But what if someone makes an excellent response to your post two months later? You will miss it, unless you carefully monitor the barrage of email everyday. On the other hand, with a blog, you receive an email notification anytime someone responds to something original that you posted. Threads can be eternal. * Scanning for topics. You can create categories on a blog, which you can then later search. One excellent example of this is www.thecontentwrangler.com. Scott has a bunch of categories you can peruse if you're looking for a specific topic. Can't do that with a listserv. * Ability to integrate other feeds. So what if the whole world doesn't use the TCP blog? No matter, you can import feeds, even the TECHWR-L feed, into the site. If you click the Blogs and Podcasts link on www.stc-suncoast.org, you'll see that I integrated feeds from other blogs and podcasts. This means that content from other sites is syndicated. (Because of the number of syndications, it make take longer to load.) If you click to read the post, you're taken to the other's site. So how would a blog work? To submit an original post, you need to register for the site. This takes about 2 seconds, but after you register and log in, the site remembers you. To make a comment, you don't need to log in or register or anything like that. You simply hit the Comment link and type your comment. You can select a Subscribe To check box to stay notified of people who respond to the thread. What about comment spam? You'll see that with sites like thecontentwrangler.com, you have to log in to comment. Maybe that's a downfall with Expression Engine. Wordpress has plugins you can install that eliminate 99% of the comment spam. The blog is incredibly easy to set up (1 hour tops). If you just wanted to experiment with it, I would be happy to set it up. Take a look at www.stc-suncoast.org if you want an example. My personal blog is at www.idratherbewriting.com. Tom Johnson (note: there are a couple of tom johnsons on this list. I'm not Thomas Johnson. I'm the Tom in Florida, who has a killer podcast at www.techwritervoices.com. By the way, if you haven't discovered podcasting, I encourage you to check it out. John, remember how I was mentioning this to you at the XML conference? I hope you're at least subscribed! I just interviewed Ann Rockley on Web 2.0, CMS, and DITA. Other interesting topics are forthcoming.) _______________________________________________ Are you a Help Authoring Trainer or Consultant? Let clients find you at www.HAT.Matrix.com, the searchable HAT database based on Char James-Tanny's HAT Comparison Matrix. 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