RFC: Website maintenance

[plussier at mindspring.com]

In a message dated: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 08:56:00 CST
Linas Vepstas said:

>I have some reservations about wiki's in general, though.  If you have
>ever used any, you will note that they are invariably badly organized 
>and ugly looking  to boot.  They still need a strong editorial hand to
>be worthwhile.   I did see some related tool faq-o-matic or something
>like that, that was not sinfully ugly.  I'm thinking the best looking,
>and most usable, would be a slashdot-like thing, e.g. phpnuke, or
>whatever.  It avoids the problems that wiki's have.

I feel the same about wikis in general.  However, with a strong 
editorial hand, they can be quite organized.  But it will require 
determination and vigilence of the person(s) maintaining the site.

FAQ-O-Matic on the other hand, is designed to be strongly organized 
and less free form than a wiki.  But again, it too has the 
possibility to creep out of control.

It boils down to this: both are tools which are meant to assist in 
solving different types of problems, but neither is a complete 
replacement for a human.  Technology is seldom the answer to that 
which basically a human behavioral problem.  i.e., people have a 
tendancy to be sloppy, and these tools will allow that behavior :)
-- 

Seeya,
Paul
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