Chat, also known as Thread Mode, belongs on chat servers. One should clean up Thread Mode, and Omit Needless Words, to make content easy to read.
Is there a page detailing, or serving as an index to, a set of patterns for refactoring Thread Mode into Document Mode?
It is useful in many instances to facilitate Collaboration, to question assumption of fact, to clarify and elaborate, and to build consensus. Used in that way, Thread Mode can lead to the building of Really Valuable Pages, the Opening up of Walled Gardens and of incomplete or unclear ideas to integration with the rest of the wiki.
It can be fruitless and frustrating if the threads show no sense of ComingTogether, no Coherence, no LeadingToConclusionsAndAgreements, no Only Say Things That Can Be Heard, and no AgreementToDisagree. If a Thread Mode page or several related Thread Mode pages cannot be refactored into a Single Page Dissertation or a SplitofSupportedContentions (perhaps even by splitting to two or more pages), then it should be considered for deletion (with suitable notice of course).
See original on c2.com 