I thought I was the only one who does not have a great appreciation of Wikis. I am into web design and set ups etc – and I find some wikis rather difficult to work with!

A great example is MediaWiki: the default install tells you which PHP variable you should update in order to customize the logo. So, go ahead… do a search of the source code for that variable name. It’s not even in there! You have to first create that variable. But in which file? Dunno: no documentation.

And it is just plain DAMN JARRING, trying to read an article on more than one person, when the terms are different. When they aren’t. As in:
• XXX is “spouse”
• XXX is “domestic partner”
• XXX isn’t even FREAKIN’ MARRIED to the person they have been linked with.

Drives me crazy. And I can do that by myself.

But I seriously don’t believe that I should have the burden-of-proof in correcting factual errors (not opinions). I don’t have the time to jump through the hoops to correct information that is a matter of public record. And I don’t care how earnest they may/may not be in wanting to correct entries, I don’t care. I go by your actions and not your words.

Any of you have serious reservations about Wiki, feel free to contact me.

Yes, versioning between software releases sucks. We struggle with the same problem, and tackle it mostly by avoidance. That is, we avoid starting on the next version’s documentation until the previous has (all but) stabilised. Then we duplicate the previous version to create a new Space for the next version, and new work happens in the copy.

Still, naturally there are times when we need to update both, and this needs to be done manually. This is why I would love to see a wiki with *real* version control in the backend, that would allow branching and merging. It is really quite sad to see all the wikis that have created their own, limited version control systems. Versioning is not easy, but there is enough work out in this domain that I expect a lot better from the top wikis. I notice with interest that the Google Code wiki actually *does* use Subversion in the back end, which is a first that I know of (though it seems so obvious that I bet there are more).

Currently, wikis do not distinguish in this matter… as perhaps you have said, wikis aren’t meant for the purpose of documentation. I wish it was just as easy to migrate to a more sophisticated option.

My colleagues are world-wide, and it is the most efficient and effective means to collaborate (read, No File Sharing; no track-changes, no waiting), while letting our users have access as soon as we ’save’. I read your blog on methodology for documentation in wikis, but the Comment is closed. Any thoughts or tips would be greatly appreciated.