Category Archives: Wikipedia

Do You Make These Mistakes with Wikis? 9 Ways To Build a Wiki That Doesn’t Suck

September 12, 2007 –

Wikipedia and Wikis

There’s something about the hint of fall in the air that has always appealed to me. It’s my favorite time of the year, and as the seasons change I find the motivation to apply change to my own life. Last month I had the epiphany that I’ve been far too busy and I need to get a handle on the way I spend my time. The Internet is buzzing about using David Allen’s Getting to Done system to be more productive. There are a hundred and one different software tools you can use with the system; for the past week I’ve been using a personal wiki software called d-cubed/d3 gtd to do it.

Astute readers may guess from the title that there’s a rant coming up, and I want to prefix to say that I have nothing against d-cubed/d3 gtd. It’s good software. I respect Tom, the guy who built it, and appreciate what he’s done and how he’s available for help. I’m still using and enjoying d-cubed/d3 gtd. No, my beef is with the entire foundation behind d3: that dark Hawaiian voodoo called wiki.

  • What’s a Wiki?
  • Why Do Wikis Suck?
  • 9 Ways to Make a Wiki That Doesn’t Suck
By engtech | Also posted in Technology, Writing Better Documentation | Comments (8)

Wikipedia Loses the Google Juice

January 23, 2007 –

Wikipedia is a trusted resource and it is commonly used to define terms or provide additional information. It has a large audience, a lot of traffic, is very trusted by search engines, and anyone can easily edit a page and inject a link. This makes it a huge target. It’s hard to surf through Wikipedia without finding a questionable link or two. Today, Wikipedia is finally taking a stance on spam and they’ve decided to deter spammers by using the rel=”nofollow” tag on all external links.

But they’re wrong and it isn’t going to work. Here’s why and what they can do to REALLY fix the problem.

By engtech | Also posted in Technology | Comments (8)

On Wikipedia, Blogging and the Anti-blog Bias

December 05, 2006 –

(hat tip to Nicholas Carr who writes about Wikipedia quite often)
When every blogger first starts out they get the bright idea to add links to their articles on Wikipedia, treating it as a public directory instead of an authoritative resource. Adding links to blogs is very much considered inappropriate behaviour, and they will track down [...]

By engtech | Also posted in Becoming a Better Blogger, Technology | Comments (8)