Re: [school-discuss] Wiki spam

["Micheal E Cooper" <mcooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If I could add my own two cents, I think what the initial reply was saying
is this: requiring registration on a wiki is against the whole idea of a
wiki because it shuts some people out.

My opinion is that, while requiring user registration before posting on
Wikipedia would be against the idea of Wikipedia, the philosophy of the
wiki technology itself does not reject restricting access.

Wikipedia and many other wiki's emphasize the decentralized paradigm of
offering a body of pages that anyone can modify. However, the wiki itself,
if I am not mistaken, was initially created as a way for a community of
users to quickly (hence wiki) and easily create and modify pages together.
Restricting that community is not against the idea of a wiki, and
unfortunately, because of undisciplined, inscrupulous, or just bored
people trying to abuse open wikis, it seems to be becoming more and more
necessary.

> On Wed, Nov 02, 2005 at 12:42:25PM -0500, Bill Barowy wrote:
>> ????  Who were you (michael dean ) responding to?
>>
>
> What I'm confused by is how a forum would replace a wiki, in terms of
> functionality.
>
> It's like saying one should use a chat hotline instead of the dictionary.
> (Or... okay, that's a pretty lame analogy, but...  my point is, while
> somewhat similar, the purpose of a wiki and a forum are _totally_
> different.)
>
> -bill!
>