[EM] Re: James: Definition, electowiki

[Araucaria Araucana]

On 22 Jun 2005 at 14:13 UTC-0700, MIKE OSSIPOFF wrote:
> Does electowiki or EM have available web pages where EM members can
> post things that can't be modified by someone else afterwards? The
> modifiability of what one posts to the electowiki tends to
> discourage me from using it.

Mike --

A wiki is for discussion and consensus, not for Pronouncements from On
High Written For All Eternity Upon Stone.  See this WhyWikiWorks page,
among others:

    http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/WhyWikiWorks

I like this comment in particular (about the wiki concept and its
various software incarnations):

    So that's it - insecure, indiscriminate, user-hostile, slow, and
    full of difficult, nit-picking people. Any other online community
    would count each of these strengths as a terrible flaw. Perhaps
    wiki works because the other online communities don't. 
    --PeterMerel

:-)

Only once have I had to correct somebody else's modification of a page
I started on Electowiki.  I've modified other edits, but only to
improve clarity.

I'm probably reaching a bit here, but it appears to me that you might
be a bit of a perfectionist, which can lead to procrastination.  If
you are always seizing on the imperfection of Wiki as a reason for
avoiding it, you will never begin at all.  One way to get past the
need to do something perfectly the first time is to deliberately "Do
It Wrong", just to get it started.

Q
-- 
araucaria dot araucana at gmail dot com
http://www.metafilter.com/user/23101
http://wiki.electorama.com/wiki/User:Araucaria
Q = Qoph = "monkey/knot" -- see http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/alphabet.html