[R-wiki] Wiki pages in other formats - caveats

[Paul Johnson]

I would respectfully disagree.  The Wiki is for editing, not
necessarily for presentation.  We have to remember that 99% of people
who will stumble into the Wiki are new users who probably won't want
to add content.  It is very unhelpful to have to point and click to
see every little thing, and people quickly become bewildered/confused.

I'd rather just show users an output document, such as a new and
better alltips, and in the preface of that document, we should make
sure experts know they can add stuff.  We should make sure that any
other "all in one" output points back to the wiki, preferably with
"edit this content" links.

And then the alltips document could be re-generated frequently to
reflect the Wiki content.  Depending on how much CPU you can spare, we
could regenerate it for each and every addition.

PJ

PS: I'm still asking for feedback on the markup and presentation  of
the newest alltips here:

http://pj.freefaculty.org/R/alltips.html

in light of Philippe's concern, I'm going to see what I can do about
putting in "edit this item" links for everything.  I've not done that
with this particular Wiki/CGI framework, but I've done it with others
and doubt it will kill me.

On 6/19/06, Philippe Grosjean <phgrosjean at sciviews.org> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just want to mention a problem with providing wiki pages in a
> different format (many people ask for the R tips in a single HTML or PDF
> page). Accessing tips, or any other pages, in a different format
> **breaks the potential to edit easily the original pages**. It is the
> strength of the Wiki (every reader can easily become an author) that is
> lost. All people that prefer to read the R tips in a single HTML, or PDF
> page will **not** tend to contribute to the writing of those tips (they
> could even ignore totally the original Wiki site). We could then arrive
> to the situation that a limited number of "wiki freaks" actually do the
> work (in editing the Wiki pages) for a large group of readers being pure
> passive consummers of HTML or PDF "digests" of these pages.
>
> It is a little bit (with some exageration!) like if R was **not** Open
> Source and only the R Core Team had access to the code, and then, they
> spread only binaries. R would never be what it is without the Open
> Source approach (meaning easy and direct access to the code; just type
> the name of a R function in your running R session, for instance).
>
> For the Wiki, it is the same: the Wiki can only grow if people use it as
> it should be: reading pages **directly in the Wiki**, and being only one
> button click away (the 'Edit this page' button appearing on any Wiki
> page) from contributing to it,... otherwise, we got much less
> contributors and the Wiki dies from a lack of fresh material to keep it
> alive.
>
> Those days, Internet is widespread enough to be considered as widely
> available. So, it is not a major drawback to have to connect to the R
> Wiki site to read those pages. Moreover, I made much effort to get a
> better navigation, especially in the tips sections... and I received no
> comment on it, so, I consider that everyone is happy with the new
> sidebars navigation system ;-)
>
> To conclude: **do prefer reading the R Wiki pages in native format,
> rather that in HTML or PDF "digest" form!** It is the whole Wiki concept
> that depends upon your acceptation of this approach: to be always one
> button-click away from editing what you are reading.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Philippe Grosjean
>
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-- 
Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas