DiscussionBoardVsWiki

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I assert that Wikis are nearly categorically superior to DiscussionBoard?s (in a technical sense of what they can do, not a social sense that includes what sort of effect they have on a community). DiscussionBoard?s seem to be almost a special case of a Wiki. Specifically, a Wiki in which all comments are signed, no one edits any previous comments, and no new pages are started except when a new topic is introduced would seem to be a discussion board. DiscussionBoard? is suitable for a time-based exchange that involves a few people. Wiki pages can be distilled into content-based information.

There are still a few features that DiscussionBoard?s have that Wikis don't:

true threading (i.e. you can hide/expand a subthread)
can handle very large volumes of posting (in a Wiki, you would have EditConflicts)

But compare to the features that Wikis have over discussion boards:

LessRedundancy; redundant comments or even topics are merged
hyperlinked structure
you can always change your comments later, so you are less inhibited
can update old comments or add to others' uninformed comments (i.e. if someone has a list of search engines but they don't know about google, you can add it)
more assurance that YouWillBeHeard

I believe LessRedundancy is by far the most important and powerful.

Compare WikiAsMailingList.

Also, for a particular application, one might find incidental features that current DiscussionBoard? software happens to be better at than current Wiki software; for instance, a certain look and feel, the quality of email notification, "Post" and "Reply" interface. But this is an implementation issue that does not affect the superiority of the ideal Wiki to the ideal DiscussionBoard?.

(note: elsewhere on this site what I call a DiscussionBoard? seems to be called a WebLog. I prefer to reserve that term for sites whose "topics" are generally centered around a certain WWW link that is posted (for example, i call SlashDot a DiscussionBoard? and RobotWisdom? a WebLog).