On Wed, Aug 30, 2006 at 06:27:32PM +1000, Nick Jenkins wrote:
The more interesting question is: If people can find a way of adding this type of functionality to the default install (but disabling it by default) so that it doesn't impact you, should it be added?
Why not?
Worst case: if you want to add something that the development team feels is so fundamentally incompatible with their ethos (or, more likely, so complicated and prone to increase suppot load :-) that they Just Won't Put It In, either fork, or, more likely, just maintain it as a patch/dropin, and track the releases. It's *still* easier than writing all of MediaWiki yourself.
On the plus side, it'd most likely lead to more deployments of the software, and hence more people familiar with the syntax, and more people familiar with wikis in general, and what people get used to at work they tend to use at home too (with potential positive impact). On the negative side, maybe it's seen as complicating the software, and endorsing a feature that's opposed to the fundamental aim of open knowledge.
Well, at the risk of pissing people off, I'm gonna come down on the "who gives a shit" side of that.
Someone has to be more Catholic than the pope, for progress to happen -- but that's rms' job.
IMHO.
Cheers, -- jra