The problem with WYSIWYG is that it goes against the concept of separating content and presentation.
[SNIP]
I certainly will concur that not having WYSIWYG *does* turn off a certain segment of the population, a segment which is deeply ingrained with the idea that they can make a page look "just right"
I've been listening to this *exact* same debate since the 1980s. It's as wrong now as it was then.
Don't *ever* underestimate the barrier to entry that complex systems create. In a world where most people can't get a digital clock to stop blinking 12:00, do you really expect that the wiki's technocratic interface is acceptable. GUI's and WYSIWYG democratize content.
I'm a wiki power-user and I utterly detest the interface. I have a 19" monitor at work and a 30" at home, but dragging the resize doesn't change the editor so I have to pick the smaller size so it doesn't disappear off my screen when I change monitors. Single mouse clicks even millimeters away from what I want will result in navigations that throw away edits, as will many keystrokes that the browsers bind to navigation -- and of course it's different for each browser which makes such mistakes very easy to make (thank god for Mozilla, I can't count the number of edits it's cache has saved me). I create links without any idea of whether or not they work without opening another browser and testing them out. Citations are so complex I simply ignore the entire cite system and just use ref. Spell checking is a function of the browser, as is find in the editor, so I have my choice of Mozzilla's terrible checker, or Safari's lack of in-editor find. I have absolutely no idea how to create working template links other than by cut and paste from other articles that I have to hunt for, and each one has it's own unique and incompatible syntax.
It's abysmal. It's so bad that I've taken to cutting the content out into a 3rd party text editor for editing. Not a wiki editor mind you, a plain text editor. I'd kill for a system that gave me a good offline WYSIWYG editor with a palette of includable content templates. On the Mac.
Maury
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