FirstWikiNotesAAA
Since I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing when it comes to wikis, I figured Brian Lamb's Page Titlearticle The Way It Was Meant To Be would be a good place to start. I was right, since I learned quite a few things:
- The way the internet was originally intended to be set up was for everything to be a wiki
- This meant anyone would be able to change anything on any page
- The whole internet would be a wide-open possibility to anyone with access to the web
While this may have seemed like a very grand vision, it's easy to see that this may not have been the best idea with the birth of trolls and spread of misinformation. However, this idea lives on in wikis, proving that it is a feasible and functional idea.
- Wikis are set up to be accessible to people with even minimal knowledge of computers
- Wikis use markup language that simplifies HTML to a degree that a person wanting to edit the wiki only needs to know a few simple text commands to meet his needs
- Wikis are constantly evolving and never finished
- Pages can have multiple editors, meaning multiple sources for information
- Information comes from all over the web, and uses links to connect the wiki itself to that information-- even to other wikis
- Wiki entries will sometimes be purposely left unpublished with the idea that someone else will be able to complete them
- Your work on a wiki is safer than you think
- While it is true that anyone can come in and edit your text, the wiki saves previous versions of each page, meaning that it's simple and easy to restore the page to your previous version
- Because of the community created by several people working together towards a set goal, there will often be a multitude of people ready to protect the cumulative work of the group