On Topic: 1. perl-begin.berlios.de + 2. Meta: Apology for Tactlessness

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Andy!

On 4/6/07, Andy Armstrong <andy at hexten.net> wrote:
> On 6 Apr 2007, at 17:23, Shlomi Fish wrote:
> > You say that the non-wiki parts are wiki-ish (from a "quick scan"). I
> > don't know what you mean by wiki-ish and whether it is good or bad,
> > but they are static HTML, with full control of the HTML and CSS and
> > maintained by hand. If you have more concrete comments with comments
> > to the text, and suggestions for corrections, say so, but otherwise
> > it's hard for me to deal with a vague and general criticism like this
> > one.
>
> It wasn't a criticism - just a suggestion :)
>
> What I meant is that the content of the site seems as if it would
> lend itself to being a Wiki. And if it /was/ a Wiki you'd probably
> get more people contributing to it - lower cost of entry == greater
> likelihood of driveby contributions.
>

Oh, OK. Sorry for misunderstanding you. You are right to some extent. However:

1. I still didn't take the time to learn how to customise MediaWiki to
have the site's look and feel. It shouldn't be hard, but I've been
following the path of least resistance.

2. My static HTML setup using WML+Latemp gives me full control of the
HTML. I'm not sure I can ever achieve this with a wiki. It's not very
critical.

3. I can get hosting at yi.org, wikia or whereever, so I guess I
shouldn't worry about it.

4. I am worried a bit about the site becoming changed back and forth
only to reach a certain compromise. For example, the common Perl
crticism was removed from the Wikipedia Perl entry. Plus, when I asked
that my perl6-critique article (
http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/perl/perl6-critique/ )
be added to the Perl 6 wikipedia page for completeness sake, someone
commented that it was too disinformative and wrong, which started an
active discussion. I believe the wikipedia should link to such
resources even if they are wrong, and just for the record, my opinion
on perl 6 has changed a bit since then. (And you should also read
Schwern's comment).

4b. When I wrote -
http://www.hackers.org.il/mediawiki/index.php/A_Brief_History_of_Linux_in_Israel

I said <<< While it has many problems, such as a large amount of
terrorism, high taxation, lots of road accidents, too many government
monopolies... >>>, and then someone changed it to <<< such as a large
amount of terrorism, [and continue] >>>, which was misleading because
Israel has much more severe problems that that.

I ended up not noting any problem, which while being a compromise was
a bad one. I think that if I want to maintain the edge in a wiki, then
it will require a lot more work, than having one or two dictators, and
a few people in charge of various sections. Otherwise we may end up
with either a lot of mediocracy, or a lot of unhappy people.

I could be wrong, though.

5. That put aside - I can give it a try and if it doesn't work -
restrict editing the wiki only
to a few people. But I'm a lazy leech and am maintaining my inertia.

-------------------------------------

That put aside: may someone unban my shlomif at iglu.org.il address, please?

------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/

Electrical Engineering studies. In the Technion. Been there. Done
that. Forgot a lot. Remember too much.