[pmwiki-users] Wiki farm confusion

Sandy sandy at onebit.ca
Thu Mar 16 15:13:21 CST 2006


"Wiki farm" meaning "a group of wikis using the same installation" is 
quite common. Google comes up with 34,500 hits.

Wikipedia:
A "Wiki farm" refers to a server or a collection of servers that 
provides wiki hosting, or a group of wikis hosted on such servers.

Looking quickly at other uses, it can be anything from what PmWiki calls 
a group, all the way up to what PmWiki calls a field, with lots of 
mixing and matching of features.

So, that's what at least some of the newbies will come in expecting.

Interesting how many quote Wikipedia (or vice versa?), and how many are 
PmWiki installations. Still, there are enough others to show it's not 
just those two sources.

"Wiki field" generates a lot of stuff irrelevant to the discussion. 
Doesn't seem to be used as part of the farm metaphor. Most common 
computer use is field in a form.

Sandy



Joachim Durchholz wrote:
> The Editor schrieb:
> 
>>Would appreciate any feedback on the barn / field idea.
> 
> 
> I think it's going too far into agriculture ;-)
> 
> The main problem with the farm/field confusion seems to be terminology.
> 
> Farming just isn't a recognized metaphor, so it needs to be explained 
> (i.e. in what ways is a wikifarm similar to a real farm, and where and 
> how does the analogy break down) - and this need to explain destroys the 
> whole point of having a metaphor (namely giving people a simple picture 
> to work from).
> 
> Also, "farm" isn't a good metaphor. There are too many aspects to 
> farming (and even more if you happen to be a farmer). A good metaphor is 
> small, so that the reader doesn't have to guess (or read a lengthy 
> explanation) which aspects of the farm are meant.
> 
> However, it seems that the terminological confusion is being addressed 
> (up to and including radical proposals that want to replace the 
> terminology with something else).
> 
> Just my 2c.
> 
> Regards,
> Jo





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