[Pmwiki-users] Information gems regarding PmWiki

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 12:20:28AM +0100, Jean-Claude wrote:
> The following in-depth visit of a part of the wiki engine clearly 
> explained by Patrick himself is an example of invaluable information. 
> But within a few weeks or months it will get lost within the archives 
> of the difficult-to-browse stream of mails. It is a pity. 
> [...]
> Since we have a wonderful tool (PmWiki!) which is just perfect to put 
> things in files and themes where they belong and therefore become very 
> easy to retrieve, may I suggest that we use the mailing list to announce 
> subjects, and to provide an appropriate link to the PmWiki site where 
> the explanation should be developped, kept and organized ?

In many senses I agree.  But traditionally wikis have not been good
replacements for threaded conversations such as those that take place
on a mailing list.  In wiki-circles this is known as ThreadMode, and it's
described/discussed at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?ThreadMode, with an
excellent description of many of the problems of ThreadMode wiki at 
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HowToWriteAndEditThreadMode .  

Plus, for me at least, I find it's a lot easier for me to compose 
explanations in an email or mailing list context than a wiki one.  
This is probably just because I've been used to doing it that way 
for so long and it's hard for me to switch.  Instead, what I try to
do is go ahead and write in the environment that seems most comfortable
(sometimes email, sometimes wiki), and then after the information has
been developed a bit the information is moved over to a wiki format.
This has happened quite a few times in the past: PmWiki.Audiences,
PmWiki.Size, and PmWiki.PageLayout all started as email messages that
were then copied into wiki pages (and ultimately included in the
distribution).  

Also, I find that information on a mailing list tends to invite more
commentary and response than if it's in a wiki page, and that's pretty
important to me at the moment.  I have a few ideas about attaching 
threaded conversations to wiki pages, similar to what is done at 
Slashdot and many other news sites  (yes, Glenn, I'm *still* working on 
this one, sorry :-), but that appears to be a ways off yet.

In the meantime, here are some other ideas:  First, perhaps we should
find ways so that useful information generated in the mailing list
discussions can migrate over to wiki pages.  I haven't been as good about
keeping up with this as I'd like to be but will try to do so in the
future.  Certainly whenever someone asks a question that causes me to
search the archives I take that as an indication that the information
needs to be put in the wiki (this is how I generated the PmWiki.FAQ), 
and others are welcome to take the initiative to post things into the
wiki as well.

It would be interesting to try to do this with this message and the
regex message that prompted Jean-Claude's excellent comment.

Second, I'll find ways to make it easier to search the mailing list
archives--probably a separate search facility reachable through an
AdvancedSearch page or something like that.

Anyone else have other ideas or comments?

Pm