I just read about 1/4 of this Slashdot thread, and reading it presents a pretty good argument (IMHO) for a Wiki.

I found a few good comments at the beginning, but then tens, hundreds, thousands of comments that did not add anything useful to the discussion. On a wiki, each new writer builds on what the previous writer said (or builds to the contrary) I'm not stating that clearly at all -- try a different tack:

• When everyone agrees, a wiki "document mode" document is wonderful (compared to a thread with thousands of replies saying the same thing, or minor variations thereof, or just not adding anything new to the discussion).

• Even when everyone doesn't agree, some judicious early refactoring (before the discussion is complete) can make things much better -- I'd suggest refactoring along these lines:

<the following is fabricated, I thought of talking about keyboards because that's what the Slashdot thread that got me into this rant mode talked about>

"This discussion is about keyboard layouts. People have weighed in on Dvorak vs. Querty keyboards. The following four heading are intended to capture the arguments for and against Dvorak and Querty keyyboards.

• Dvorak keyboard pros
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah

• Dvorak keyboard cons
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah

• QWERTY keyboard pros
  • It's easy to spell QWERTY
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah

• QWERTY keyboard cons
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah

The following are summary arguments:

• For Dvorak keyboards

• For QWERTY keyboards

During the discussion, some subtopics were raised, including:

The Windows key:

• Why the windows key is good
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah
• Why the windows key is bad
  • blah
  • blah
  • blah

Next minor topic:

• For

• Against

Finally (and what I was looking for), there should be a list (summary and enough detail to make use of) various keyboard tricks that were suggested throughout the discussion:

• How to use xmodmap to remap the blah key to blah so that blah blah blah

Anyway, do I sound like Slashdot thread frustrate me? Well they do, and I don't know why more people don't recognize the superiority of a wiki for those kinds of discussions. Anyway, thank you for flying USAIR

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• () RandyKramer - 18 Feb 2003
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