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Topic: WikiWords (Read 4225 times) previous topic - next topic
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WikiWords

Hi.

Finally I want to start contributing content to the wiki.

I've read some of the introducing topics and browsed a bit there. What I'm unsure about:

Let's assume I want to write something about how to set up EAC + lame. For what command line to use I want to link to Recommended Lame settings. I can do it like this:
"If you want to use a different command line, you should use one of the RecommendedLame settings"
OR
"If you want to use a different command line, you should use one of the 'recommended lame settings'__.
__ link"

The 1st version is easier to write, but the second one easier to read and better to find using the search. Because of this I'd prefer to use the 2nd version, but it seems like so far everywere the 1st version is used. Any reasons for this I've missed?

Cheers tigre
Let's suppose that rain washes out a picnic. Who is feeling negative? The rain? Or YOU? What's causing the negative feeling? The rain or your reaction? - Anthony De Mello

WikiWords

Reply #1
Quote
Hi.

Finally I want to start contributing content to the wiki.

I've read some of the introducing topics and browsed a bit there. What I'm unsure about:

Let's assume I want to write something about how to set up EAC + lame. For what command line to use I want to link to Recommended Lame settings. I can do it like this:
"If you want to use a different command line, you should use one of the RecommendedLame settings"
OR
"If you want to use a different command line, you should use one of the 'recommended lame settings'__.
__ link"

The 1st version is easier to write, but the second one easier to read and better to find using the search. Because of this I'd prefer to use the 2nd version, but it seems like so far everywere the 1st version is used. Any reasons for this I've missed?

Cheers tigre

I'm sorry I haven't seen this thread before.

I agree with you though ppl use wiki words because it is faster and more wiki style.
But whatever you do is fine with me as long as you use wiki functions.

WikiWords

Reply #2
WikiWords should have almost no impact on searchability.  The reason for this is that the actual content of the page should be sigificantly more relevant to the search than the actual link to the page.

If you have a page: RecommendedLameSettings, the content within that page will probably also have the words "Recommended Lame Settings" or at least a combination of these words which will almost certainly show up as being more relevant.

Besides this, people who use wiki's regularly should be used to wikiwords, since nearly all serious wikis rely on this method.  Not all of them do, but the vast majority of the wikis which have been created and driven forward with the originally ideology of how a wiki should work, usually rely on this method.

I believe there is also another reason for this sort of convention.  If you are using a WikiWord, then it is often much clearer that the link leads to somewhere else within the wiki itself, whereas "Normal Links" are used more to link to sites outside or to arbitrary, non-wiki pages.

It's really not that hard to conform to the wiki system.  It seems a little awkward at first to someone who has not used it much, but it has been created the way it is often for good reasons.