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: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 11:56:21 -0500 > From: "Paul Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [R-wiki] Wiki pages in other formats - caveats > To: [email protected] > Message-ID: > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 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 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 >> >> _______________________________________________ >> R-sig-wiki mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-wiki >> > > > -- > Paul E. Johnson > Professor, Political Science > 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504 > University of Kansas _______________________________________________ R-sig-wiki mailing list [email protected] https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-wiki
