Dave Burke : Freelance .NET Web Developer specializing in Online Communities

Don't get the Wiki as a comment threading widget. ITConversations.

I mentioned ITConversations probably about 10 times this week.  Life changing, dude.  So I'm definitely a fan.

Doug Kaye last week posted an article for input titled How Should I Make IT Conversations Self-Sustaining?  It generated a ton of feedback, including my own 2-cents.  But I don't get the Wiki here.  Doug put together such a phenomenally smart, well crafted site, I couldn't believe I was seeing a Wiki here to capture a rather lengthy comment thread when a simple form would have worked so much better.

I could have deleted everyone elses' comments couldn't I?  I don't know much about Wiki, but it didn't seem too secure to me.

Wiki or no, check out Doug's post and read the good ideas people provided on helping Doug keep IT Conversations going.

 

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Posted on 12/2/2004 9:08:00 PM by Dave Burke
Categories: Everyday
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Comments (4) -

12/2/2004 11:58:00 PM Permalink

Thanks for the kind words,  David. You've discovered the magic of wikis. Yes, someone could go in and delete the whole thing or pepper it with spam. But they don't. If you'd asked me even five years ago, I'd have told you it couldn't possibly work. But it does. OTOH, I get about 95% spam on the form-based comment feature on my blog. Perhaps the wiki is just too hard to spam automatically. (I don't have the crypto gimmick like you do.)  ...doug

Doug Kaye |

12/3/2004 4:40:00 AM Permalink

Doug, Wow, thanks for stopping by!  I THOUGHT someone could delete the whole thing if they wanted to.  I never saw it used like that before so I as a web app developer, I was curious about it.  Thanks for answering that question for me.

Dave Burke |

12/3/2004 8:26:00 AM Permalink

actually, people can and do deface wikis constantly.  The channel 9 wiki had a page for gmail  requests.  Someone created a channel 9 account, went to that page, deleted most of the names on the list, then never used that channel 9 account again.    
Wikipedia, the most well-known wiki, is constantly defaced.  It is often repaired just as quickly but not always.
the .Text wiki had a home page that consisted of a single 4-letter word for a few days the last time I checked it.

Wikis are great but they have to be monitored and shown lots of TLC.  And, like any other conversation, their value is completely dependant on the people in the room.  The more people there are, the dumber the conversation gets unless there is some way to automatically moderate things.  Requiring approval of changes or posts, for one.  Features like that are almost trivial to add but, again, they require some TLC from someone in the position of responsibility.

Shannon J Hager |

12/3/2004 10:03:00 AM Permalink

Shannon,  Thanks for sharing your perspective on this and the great examples.  Its nice to know that my initial impression of certain wiki applications, like in a comment thread, are actually correct.

Dave Burke |


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