[tools-yak@collab] Re: turned on ExpandingWikiWords on my wikilog

[Bill Seitz <bill@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, I'm definitely of 2 (or more) mind on this (and many other things).

As I just summarized at the bottom of here:

I'm torn here. I agree that the [Wiki Words] approach (a) increases [Emerg Ence] and (b) makes one more conscious about how the immediate thought relates to other past and future thoughts. I can make up a Wiki Word in an item, and not create that word's page. Then months later, something else related to that will come up, so I'll post that temporal item, then happen to create that Wiki Word page, and then discover Back Links cases from the distant past (this is one reason I want to cache Back Links data and show it on every page, so that these emergent connections get recognized/strengthened). This is why I think the Free Link or HTML HREF approach is inferior. And I definitely have some concerns that not reading in Smashed Together Words mode will dilute that way of thinking. On the other hand:

• in a deep Wiki For Collaboration Ware context, I've found the creation of [Wiki Words] containing lots of individual words - these are less likely to be casually re-used in an emergent way, but they still have lots of value. And expanding them makes them a whole lot more readable.

• also in a Collaboration Ware context, I've found that some people do a lot of writing, and some other people do a lot of reading (or they do the bulk of their writing in E Mail, which I encourage as the Group Discussion complement to Wi Ki). Those people never go beyond [Wiki Newbie] level, and I think expanding names for them is a service, and may server to draw them into writing a little more.

• in a Wiki Log context, there's one central author doing 99% of the writing. And the vast majority of readers will probably have never seen a wiki before. And most of those don't want to [Go Meta] about it, they want to read the content on that page. Again, expanding is a service.

• (will try to think of other reasons)...

Eugene Eric Kim wrote:
> On Mon, May 12, 2003 at 11:24:02AM -0500, Chris Dent wrote:
>
> > Because of that, I find the expanded words oddly distracting on
> > your pages.
> >
> > One of the things I've noticed with wiki use is that their
> > difference from normal words encourages a powerful sense of
> > naming (as in we gain power when we name things). In a group
> > context, a concept becomes more known/available when it is turned
> > into and presented as a WikiWord: it is more than just a name. I
> > don't think this is something that can really be described, but
> > rather must be experienced.
> >   
>
> I agree with this, and Bill, you seem to agree with this, too.
>
>   http://webseitz.fluxent.com/wiki/ExpandingWikiWords
>
> > So, I don't think of WordsMashedTogether as ugly.
> >   
>
> I also agree with this.  I think the split format looks okay, but I
> don't think WikiWords look ugly.  I also think that there's a
> usability advantage in expressing WikiWords as camel case rather than
> splitting them, especially if you believe that the concept of
> WikiWords is a good one.
>
> -Eugene



-- 
This message is archived at:

http://collab.blueoxen.net/forums/cgi-bin/mesg.cgi?a=tools-yak&i=3EC110DE.2000804@fluxent.com