Thread Mess

The key to a good page is that it's short, to the point, and generative of other pages. Thread Mess encourages the development of Wiki As Drama at the expense of Wiki As Exploration.

Cleaning Thread Messes, especially your own, is being a Good Wiki Citizen. Especially if you find yourself about to add comments to a mature Thread Mode discussion, first consider refactoring it. Just make certain the thread is mature - it's all played out and cool.

The traditional way to do this is to separate the old threads into a page of their own called Discussion. That way anyone who feels particularly attached to some particular edit can still find it easily and Re Factor it wherever they think it fits better.

This is important because often Thread Mess occurs when contributors add content that is almost on-topic for a page, but subtly misses the point that the Wiki Nature is trying to make; that is, the Thesis Antithesis Synthesis can't happen because there is too much noise. A page may contain very good content that is still noise to that page. If one comes across misplaced content cluttering up a Thread Mode discussion it is one's duty to move the good stuff to where it can be useful.

Then leave a note to show what the removed material was and where its new home is located. Lousy content -- chatter, drivel, and other fluff -- can be moved to a Discussion page without any mention at all. If it had value, it'll show up again.

If the discussion is very long, or if it recurs, also consider Page Versioning.

Discussion moved, of course, to Thread Mess Discussion.

And: Convert Thread Mode To Document Mode, Refactor By Condensing Question Answer Pair, Refactor By Extracting To Page, Refactoring Wiki Pages, Refactor While Respecting Signatures, Summaries On Top Discussion Below, Use Facts To Complain, Plain English, Gentle Reductionism, Thesis Antithesis Synthesis, One Wiki Style, Deletion Discussion

Category Wiki Maintenance

See original on c2.com