HypermediaInMeatballDiscussion

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The story so far: on CollaborationBooster FridemarPache argued not only that some Wikis ought to allow scripting (and other funky hypermedia), but that this MeatballWiki in particular should have it. Now read on...

(I have removed many signatures and rewritten stuff. I wanted to separate the issue of "should hypermedia would be provided?" from "should it use HTML syntax?". Especially as the latter is rather general. -- DaveHarris)

Pro

Hypermedia Wiki are on topic here, and it'll be easier to discuss them if we can embed examples of what is being discussed.

We need hypermedia to market the site.

Without hypermedia and literary programming we are not at the cutting edge of collaborative work. It is not just glitz.

If you can't draw, program or sing, you don't have to try. Those of us who can, should be allowed to, if we think it will add value.

There's not a lot of damage you can do with scripting/hypermedia that you couldn't do by deleting all the content.

Con

One of the problems with using anything more complex than text is the ability of the community to support it. Not many people are capable of drawing (e.g. myself as evidenced by the MeatballLogo) or making good scores. Text is pushing it because many people can't read or write very well, but more people are willing to lie to themselves about this than the others! Anyone can write a novel, right? -- SunirShah

Allowing Java applets, JavaScript and arbitrary script programming raises security issues which plain text does not. I don't want to get a computer virus off this Wiki. That would a be a worse vandalism than merely deleting Wiki's content.

Hypermedia is just a distraction we don't need. It's a tricky area to get right and a bad implementation could compromise this wiki's core value. It makes everything more complicated for everyone.

If you want to produce a demonstration you will be better off building another entire Wiki instead of embedding it in this one.

Hypermedia added purely for marketing is merely glitz. This site is about content rather than form. Glitz would attract the wrong kind of people.

Other Comments

Of course Hypermedia components should be embedded in a lot of structured text to avoid the MetaBaby anarchy. -- FridemarPache

The current practices of existing wikis are summarized in RawHtmlWiki.

See also: CollaborationBooster, RawHtml?, RawHtmlWiki, ContentOverForm