User:ElNando888/Blog/Wiki
< User:ElNando888 | Blog
I've been having this argument a few times now. Recently, with an EteRNA player, a little before, with a member of the EteRNA staff. I guess it's time that I write down my ideas on the topic, once and for all. Then I'll just have to paste a link, whenever I need it. Yeah, guilty as charged, I'm a massively lazy guy.
Wiki... What is a wiki? Oh wait, there's that famous one right? Wikipedia! Yeah, that's the one. So I guess all wikis are just like that, maybe it's just that the other wikis are simply specialized, on a very specific topic, whereas Wikipedia is generalist...
Well, no. The content of a wiki can be of an encyclopedic type, yes. But it's not necessarily so, and wiki was not even invented for that purpose.
I'll give you an example of a totally different style of wiki: http://senseis.xmp.net
I won't tell you what this wiki is about, the wiki itself is much better at explaining that than I would ever be. I only want to invite you to have a look for a few minutes. On that wiki, you will find a content amassed over the years by a very small, but friendly and collaborative community. There's a plethora of sections. Some are informative (rules of the game, its phases, the material used to play, lists of books), other are interactive (online game on the wiki itself, the puzzles, which they call 'tsumego', comments on professional games, or even an informal discussion area they call the CoffeeMachine, etc). And by the way, none of their contributors can pretend to be an authority in anything about the Go game. That didn't stop them from creating an amazing wiki.
Once, you have visited that wiki, I hope you would understand that a wiki is a place where people can:
- learn
- teach
- blog
- discuss
- collaborate
ALL IN ONE PLACE. GetSat for discussions is quite ok, I'll admit, but in-game user profiles as blogging platforms? in-game discussions areas for labs? group interactivity on the group pages? Where do you see this happening anyway? Where are the collaborations? Maybe there are some things being actively done, but without a RecentChanges page, how would anyone know? How could anyone else attempt to join? Where is the knowledge we're supposed to be acquiring? Where is it formalized, organized, categorized, curated and preserved for the future new amateur-scientists who will join us?
In my opinion, Wiki is the perfect tool for that job. It may not be the best discussion forum, it may not be the best web authoring platform either, but for the potential benefits I can see with a wiki (look at Senseis), I'm gladly willing to overlook these details.
-- ElNando888 (talk) 15:07, 2 July 2013 (UTC)
