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

[John Maindonald]

There's another point.  The way I use such lists is to quickly scan  
it to
see if what I want is present.  Or, I may just be browsing to get an  
idea
of the style and content.  I do not want to have to click repeatedly  
to do
this.  A broad idea of what is there is useful background once I get
around to adding my own contributions.

Adding "edit this item" links seems a very good way to go.  I would not
want it to kill you, though; you are doing too useful a job!
John Maindonald



John Maindonald             email: john.maindonald at anu.edu.au
phone : +61 2 (6125)3473    fax  : +61 2(6125)5549
Mathematical Sciences Institute, Room 1194,
John Dedman Mathematical Sciences Building (Building 27)
Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200.


On 23 Jun 2006, at 8:00 PM, r-sig-wiki-request at r-project.org wrote:

> Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:56:21 -0500
> From: "Paul Johnson" <pauljohn32 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [R-wiki] Wiki pages in other formats - caveats
> To: r-sig-wiki at r-project.org
> Message-ID:
> 	<13e802630606220956x661a160egdb0eff3aa407ae0e at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> 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