Bonnie Granat wrote:
> If a wiki would function like a knowledge base, I'd think it was
> terrific.
Bonnie:
What does "function like a knowledge base" mean? In what way
is that functionality different from what's already provided
by the list archives that already exist at
http://mail-archive.com/tcp%40techcommpros.com/ ?
> When a newbie came asking one of the oft-repeated question, that
> person would get a single response directing him or her to the
> appropriate topic in the wiki.
In some fantasy land, maybe. What'll really happen is... Wait,
there ARE no newbies here (or we're all newbies -- whatever),
and there are no "oft-repeated questions" here, either, so is
this actually a problem that needs solving?
Anyway, what'll really happen is the same thing that happens
now: Multiple people will respond, not just one. The only
difference will be that some fraction of those responses will
say "check the wiki" instead of "check the archives". I don't
see how that would be an improvement.
> I think it might free the list for more a more expansive exchange
> of ideas.
Ok... So if the list is for expansive idea-exchange, then is
the wiki just for frequently-asked questions? By definition,
a list of frequently-asked questions doesn't have to be
updated very often, so we don't need a wiki for that; we just
need a more-or-less static FAQ on the techcommpros.com web
page.
And if the wiki should contain MORE than just answers to the
frequently-asked questions, how will that work? Will people
be expected to cross-post everything to both the list and the
wiki? That would seem to make the wiki completely redundant.
Will people have long discussions on the list and then
carefully summarize that discussion for the wiki? Maybe, if
they have nothing better to do... But after they write up
that summary, they'll have to make a choice: Should they also
post the summary to the list, post the summary's link to the
list, or say nothing on the list?
The first choice makes the wiki redundant again. The second
is just annoying -- like leaving me a voice-mail message to
tell me you've sent me an email. The third forces interested
readers to constantly check the wiki to see if anything new's
been posted... At least for a little while, until they grow
so tired of checking the wiki that they'll just cease to be
interested anymore.
Will people post ONLY to the wiki instead of to the list?
God, I hope not... If they start doing that, interested
readers will, again, have to check the wiki all the damn time
to see whether anything new is there. There's a reason
telephones have ringers: They save you from having to pick
up the handset every few seconds to see whether anyone's on
the line.
A wiki that AUTOMATICALLY sends me an email whenever a topic
is updated is like leaving a voice-mail message on my cell
phone telling me to check the voice mail on my home phone.
What else...? Oh, right. One or two people said that they
don't like dealing with the barrage of TCP email coming in
all day long. If every list post got cross-posted to a wiki,
then, sure, they could read the list traffic there... Or they
could just learn to set up email filters, or subscribe to the
digest version of the list, or just read the list traffic on
the existing list-archive web page.
The archive page even sorts nicely by thread, so that solves
the "I get confused when someone answers an old question"
problem, too (which, by the way, might not even exist if
people would quote a little bit of the posts to which
they're replying -- for some reason, quoting doesn't seem to
happen very much on this list).
Whew. Didn't realize I'd have so much to say on this topic.
It's one that comes up frequently, though; sooner or later
on every list, someone asks why we don't also have a Usenet
newsgroup, or an IRC channel, or a blog or a wiki or a web
forum... Or a separate list for off-topic chatter, or one
for newbies, or one for experts only, or WHATEVER -- and in
my experience, every time a list owner decides to go ahead
and add that new thing, it either fails quickly or it first
kills all the energy on the list and THEN fails.
It's bad enough that we all have to subscribe to this list
AND the techwr-l list; let's not fragment things further.
-Andrew
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