[bt-devel] A tip for wiki editing

[Jonathan Marsden]

Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:

> It might be useful to add information like "Eelik 19:50, 25 February
> 2009 (UTC)". I don't add these manually, I just write ~~~~ (four tildes)
> and the wiki engine replaces it with user name and time. Then it's easy
> to see who has made the edit and when.

Then if I edit a paragraph or a set of instructions that you wrote, and
then someone else edits that further to correct my spelling or not a
special case... we end up with a lot of signatures??

I suggest adding a signature *only* when:

 (a) you write in the first person "I did X and Y happened", or

 (b) when what you write is something that you suspect is controversial
or likely to be disagreed-with.

The rest of the time, I would suggest treating the wiki as being a fully
shared community medium, contributed to by the community, and not
worrying about attribution.  When it really matters who said what when,
click on the history tab to see exactly who edited the page and when.
This approach keeps the wiki content uncluttered and so more readable.

Of course, the history is made more useful if those who edit actually
write something in the Summary line (that describes their change) when
they make edits ... most edits on this wiki, unlike most other wikis I
have edited, currently have no summary lines! :)

Jonathan