From: Tom Counsell <tamc2@...>
Date: 2005-02-16T02:56:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Wikis (spawned from Re: Printing why's (poignant) guide to ruby IIRC)

In case it is of interest, I've been experimenting with having a folder 
in my imap mailbox that I drag interesting email messages that I wish 
to archive to.  A script then periodically checks that mailbox and adds 
messages to my wiki.  The wiki doesn't need wikiwords, but instead 
makes links automatically whenever the title of a page is mentioned, so 
it forms a (for me) useful blur of a wiki and a mailing list archive.

If you would like to play,  a rough first attempt at the code is hidden 
away in the current release of Soks - 
http://rubyforge.org/projects/soks/  - (look in 
soks/lib/helpers/mail2wiki.rb, activate by calling from your wiki 
start.rb file). I'll put some documentation up when I've polished the 
code ready for the next release, in the mean time e-mail if you need 
instructions/help.

Interested in your thoughts / feedback.

Tom

On 15 Feb 2005, at 17:08, Ruth A. Kramer wrote:

> I wamted to reply to the comments on wiki vs. mail lists but I 
> misplaced
> the original post--I think it was in the "Re: Printing why's (poignant)
> guide to ruby IIRC)" thread:
>
> IIRC, the poster preferred mail lists because he thought it was easier
> to search (archived) mail lists for information.
>
> I find searching archived mail lists very difficult, at least with the
> "normal" search tools provided by mail archives.  (I haven't used 
> Google
> much for that purpose, but if the archive is indexed by Google, things
> are much better.)
>
> On the other hand, there are a lot of ways to look at (and use) a wiki.
> Wikilearn is (has been, and will be again) my attempt to capture
> snippets of useful information and find them again easily, and not just
> for myself but for everyone on the web.  Although someone could "read"
> WikiLearn, that is not the normal approach I intend--WikiLearn is
> indexed by Google, just go to Google and search for whatever you
> want--hopefully (I know), sometimes you will get a hit on a WikiLearn
> page, and, with more luck, it will be the resource that "hits the spot"
> with just the information you need.
>
> So, for me a wiki is a way to quickly write a web page and put it where
> Google can index it.  (It is about the quickest way I know about, so
> far, but one of the reasons I'm here is to learn Ruby so I can write 
> the
> next wiki like thing which will be even faster (the reason I've
> curtailed my additions to WikiLearn in the last year or so is because
> creating pages (on TWiki in particular) is just too slow.
>
> Another advantage of a wiki is that if I start a page and have some
> errors or omissions, anyone can come along and correct those problems.
> Further, you don't have to quote my text, you can just insert your own
> comment (signed or unsigned depending on good wiki practice and perhaps
> as customized for a particular site or type of page) at an appropriate
> place.
>
> Furthermore, that can minimize the amount of text you have to read
> through to get an answer.  I'm sure we've all seen the email threads
> that go back and forth for 20 posts and finally develop a short,
> succinct answer--but many of the posts quote so much other material 
> that
> you go crazy trying to find that answer.  (This can happen in wikis 
> too,
> but that is not the goal, and, for example, if you haven't been 
> involved
> in the (wiki) thread but come along and see that situation, the goal is
> that you delete all that intermediate information and make a "nice"
> transition from the question the short, succinct answer.  On the other
> hand, some threads result in a difference of opinion, with more than 
> one
> "acceptable" (or "irrefutable") answer--then the refactored version of
> the page could say something like, "40 people weighed in on this
> subject, 22 felt the world was round, 16 believe it is flat, and 2 have
> held out for other views". ;-)
>
> I don't know how to edit an email thread to create such a summary. ;-)
>
> regards,
> Randy Kramer
>
> PS: I don't know if I mentioned that Google was indexing WikiLearn 
> about
> once every two weeks, I haven't checked recently, it may be more often.
> There is a local search "engine" to search entries since the last 
> Google
> crawl.
>