The Little Wiki Way

If you see a problem and feel the need to fix it, then fix it. If you can't fix it, make it easier for the next person. If no-one else sees it, make it easier to see. But if the problem is still not fixed after all that, work harder to ignore it in the future.

Copy copy copy copy. Imitate in every which way. If you see something cool, copy it. If you made something up, someone is eventually going to copy it, so just embrace it. If they don't quote you, oh well, it must have been too much work to both flatter you and promote you at the same time. Just remember, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and sometimes a little encouragement goes a long way.

-- MichaelLidman

The consequence of this a useless wiki filled with nasty cruft everyone's ignored. FixYourWiki instead.

Or, maybe the fault lies with you in that you perceive as "cruft" that which no-one else does.

How do you define cruft? Isn't it up to the reader to decide what is more or less convincing?

A problem that everyone must "work harder to ignore" is cruft. Don't ignore it, fix it.

The author never knows exactly what the reader is after. That there will usually be more then one reader of a page, which makes complete anticipation of a reader's needs nearly impossible. Sometimes the reader will only read the top of the page. Sometimes the reader will follow a link to another page. Sometimes the same reader will read the page more then once as the page changes. There is no limit to the ways of approaching the wiki. It is really up to the reader to decide which method is the most efficient for their own needs. TheLittleWikiWay is about sharing the responsibility of making the wiki both efficient and comprehensive. As an author, if it's difficult to read or get to your point, then use TheLittleWikiWay and make it easier to for the next person who comes along. Noise is just another way to say that the information is harder to get to. So in that sense, making it easier IS reducing the noise.

You're right in that an author never knows exactly what a reader desires. However, that's not an excuse for not creating a coherent page. While you may desire religious information, that's not a good enough reason to add OffTopic religious material to a page about programming.

If you are looking in this or any wiki and have trouble finding something, try using Google to search the wiki. You can do this by doing something like 'site:c2.com monkeys'. If that search yields mostly cruft, then create a page called WhatAreMonkeys? and link to only the best information on monkeys. That's TheLittleWikiWay.

What is the benefit of saving a search result as a new page?

No typing required, just cut and paste. Remove the results that are of no value. The benefit is that the next person to come along has a pruned set of links to search through to help him in his quest.

You never know the whole wiki. You only know the part that is infront of your face. Therefore there is no point in talking about the value of the whole wiki.