Revdocs on a wiki

[David Bovill]

Good question:

On 28 Oct 2005, at 01:26, Chipp Walters wrote:

> Question:
>
> How would one manage 'wiki-bloat' where different people post so  
> much commentary about a function or handler or feature, that it  
> becomes impossible to navigate through? Would special 'editors'  
> need be appointed? If a wiki could be converted into a PDF, I'm not  
> so sure I like the idea of a single PDF document with *everyones*  
> thoughts on a topic.

The short answer is not to do a standard wiki but a structured wiki.  
This is a new area - so no accepted methods - here are my thoughts:

     1) It is a bad idea to close off the opportunity for input

     2) It should be open to everyone.

     3) It is a bad idea (with a few exceptions - ie dictionaries  
with dedicated communities behind it such as wikipedia) to allow the  
structure to evolve into something you hope will be readable

     4) Most wiki tools have terrible support for structure (see  
TikiWiki TOC) - it is against there philosophy

     5) You can use social filtering - but most tools are so far  
inadequate (ie most viewed or commented pages)

     6) Don't even try to do a conventional moderated editorial  
unless you plan to fund it properly

     7) Think of using a "page rank" type system of referencing pages

     8) Think of a quick way to allow users to indicate whether a  
page is ready to be published, or work in progress