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MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | CategoriesTo make Wiki pages more useful for the audience, it needs some effort of the wiki authors to constantly improve the content and the form of the involved pages.
Please note that this page is still highly incomplete. There is also no agreement on anchored subtitles.
To reduce the effort of later refactoring, we can use the following elements, listed under Overview:
Overview
- 1. Syntactic Elements
- 1.1. Anchored Subtitles
- 1.2. Segmented Pages
- 1.3. Table Of Content
- 1.4. Appropriate Link Density
- 3. Pragmatic Elements
- 4. Missing Issues (to do)
1. Syntactic Elements
1.1. Anchored Subtitles
Each contribution can be marked like this one (look it up in edit mode). Thus it becomes:
- quotable from places, internal and external to this page.
- refactorable, if need be
- more readable for faster skimming
- ForestFire safe, i.e it prevents to produce too many shallow pages
- table of content ready, i.e. appropriate for generating a table of content
1.2. Segmented Pages
Besides Anchored Subtitles [1], which takes some more initial effort, there are other alternatives for lazy authors, to segment their contributions, like separation lines, signed paragraphs, italicized text, indentation, table notation, etc. . However this decreases the later effort of refactoring the page only a little bit. On the other hand, these lazy preparations are valuable in combinations with Titled Anchors. [<] [top] [>]1.3. Table Of Content
To make a Table of Content, out of a series of Anchored Subtitles, all it needs, is to set the tag <toc> in front of this series. If you want to have some extra convenience for external deep links into such a structured Wiki page we can use such a back link: [<] [top] [>]1.4. Appropriate Link Density
It is a subtle problem, how many links should there be on a page. Authors have to find a tradeoff between offering:- an essay-like contribution with as few as possible links, to allow a fast read
- a work-in-progress contribution with as many as possible useful links to help collect context and connections between different communities, inviting collaboration.
2. Semantic Elements
... [<] [top] [>]3. Pragmatic Elements
... [<] [top] [>]
4. Missing Issues (to do)
- StyleGuide -- General questions of good writing style
- OrderChaos -- just a start on the topic of systematic refactoring
- PageIntroduction -- make visible what the page is intended for
- GimmeFive -- take care that what you create is not too shallow
- ...
Conversation
FridemarPache: As initial author of this page, my thanks goto LionKimbro, SunirShah, HansWobbe, HelmutLeitner, ChrisPurcell for inspiring this hopefully growing page, applying the principles, we collect and formulate together.
HelmutLeitner: Fridemar, I think that the "optimal link density" may be in vain, because there are so many different page types and styles.
FridemarPache: Helmut, thank you for your thoughts and links, I am just studying. To accomodate to it, I reorganized the topical framework and reformulated Optimal Link Density into the more general [Appropriate Link Density]. By the way, I applied WikiBlogging to the whole page, including your contribution. Reason: From reading your numerous articles in the wiki, I was encouraged to do this, as you signalled this spirit. If you disagree, I remove your parts ( what would mean additional clerical work for me )
HelmutLeitner: Fridemar, you need not ask about these things. You are a respected peer among peers, working in wiki spirit. Maybe your ideas are challenged, but your goals and intentions, your quest for social and technical innovation, are not.
FridemarPache: Helmut, we share the respect for each other and beyond.
..:..
CategoryStyle