Nobody Reads Every Page

Only really obsessive people with lots of (maybe too much...) time on their hands read every single new Wiki page. Most of us just scan the RecentChanges list for interesting page names or for the names of our favorite authors, and skip the rest.

When people find new pages that don't seem to fit in wiki, they are likely to delete them.

Therefore,

Never assume that readers have read related pages or understand why you have written a particular page. If it's important to have contextual information or to state your assumptions, give the page a very meaningful name and add an appropriate introductory paragraph. Add links to related wiki pages.

But,

Don't repeat the same introductory information on a set of related pages. On each such page, provide a link to a single page that explains what the purpose of the group of pages is. Also, while nobody reads every page, you can assume a general familiarity with the major wiki topics (software development, patterns, ExtremeProgramming).

Contrast with ReadTheWholeWiki

CategoryWiki