[Mediawiki-l] Apple's Wiki Server brings WYSIWYG to wiki

[Christiaan Briggs]

On 8 Aug 2006, at 4:46 PM, Gary Kirk wrote:

> I'm sorry, but I just don't understand how it is hard to  
> use...sure, tables might be a little difficult, and having images  
> how you want them too, but for simple editing it really isn't,  
> especially with the edit bar.

I'm not surprised that you don't understand Gary. Part of my job is  
system admin and support. The system admin part means that I  
understand a reasonable amount about how computers work. The support  
part means that I understand a reasonable amount about how people  
work when they're confronted with computer systems.

One thing I've noticed is that people who work a lot with computers  
can become impatient and unsympathetic towards people who don't. They  
can also tend to forget what it took to learn what they know. I've  
also noticed that they can develop an attitude of "well this is just  
the way computers work, I learnt to use it so so can you." My  
attitude is that computers should be tailored to work with human  
beings, not the other way around.

People who have lives that don't revolve around the internet or  
computers generally don't have the time or inclination to learn wiki  
markup, and they certainly don't have the time to relearn it every  
time they want to use it, which is what happens. Wiki markup is not  
like riding a bike. It's easily forgotten. To say it's "hard" is a  
misnomer. The main problem is that it's time consuming.

In my office I am presented with the argument from people that they  
have enough things to learn and keep up with with regard to our  
computers systems without having to learn another language. And, the  
answer is (and should be) they don't have to. And they won't have to.  
When Apple releases their new Server OS, we'll install it and they  
can forget all about wiki markup and start participating in the  
production of content ... which is the whole point.

Christiaan