From: Wiki History
I occasionally suggest how this site should be used. My Good Style suggestions have been here since the beginning and are linked from the edit page should anyone forget. I have done my best to discourage dialog in favor of dissertation which offers a better fit to this medium. I've been overruled. I have always and will continue to make small edits to any page for the sake of brevity, clarity or decorum. I encourage others to do likewise. -- Ward Cunningham.
As it turns out, that hasn't occurred for many years.
See also: Good Style, Wiki History
Discussion:
How can we support this style recommendation of Ward for Wards Wiki?
See Wiki Author.
If Mr Plato lived today, he might be the first one to create a state-of-the-art dissertation based on an online dialogue, or better, multilogue. -- Fridemar Pache
Note that Plato's Dialogues were authored and were not ad hoc discussions or debates, i.e. dialogue was used as a literary and philosophical device. Some are more like screenplays and soliloquies.
What is an example of a dialog vs. a dissertation?
This page is an example of a dialog. How would you turn it into a dissertation form that still works? I don't know.
Are dialectic and dialogue the same thing?
Can a Wiki dialogue be a transient state on the way to a collaborative Wiki dissertation? (transient implies the initial dialogue not dialectic disappears)
It's not a Platonian Dialogue yet. Let's get inspired by him. -- fp
One reason that we don't see dissertations on a Wiki Forum yet has an economical background, that can be verified on www.dissertation.com 
. But that doesn't exclude that on a special purpose Ecommerce Wiki such a dream can be realized, even in combination with ongoing dialogs. -- fp
See Dialectic Mode for an intermediate approach.
See also "Plato and His Dialogues" eawc.evansville.edu
See original on c2.com