thomblake comments on Proposal: Use the Wiki for Concepts - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 April 2009 05:21AM

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Comment author: thomblake 22 April 2009 03:46:49PM *  1 point [-]

This is a good point. One of the features of TVTropes (helped by its wiki format) is that you can get a short explanation of any linked concept right at the top of the page. This is a good argument for why the wiki is what one should link to first, instead of the post explaining it on LW. Should wiki articles start with a short, definition-like summary?

ETA: I agree with Vladimir_Nesov below. Abstracts are key.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 22 April 2009 03:50:37PM *  2 points [-]

Ideally, long blog posts should also start with an abstract, like any other publication, and contain a systematic review of related material in one of the sections.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 22 April 2009 06:22:03PM 1 point [-]

It was the whole point of the above proposal that wiki articles are the short, definition-like summary and the blog posts are the long, original arguments.

Comment author: thomblake 22 April 2009 06:28:09PM *  2 points [-]

Then I disagree. A wiki is good because it can be rewritten and improved upon incrementally, but the blog posts should not be changed after the comments have started since they're in a sense historical. If we have a standard argument in favor of something, it should go on the wiki, even if it hasn't been so clearly or succinctly stated elsewhere.

Or maybe we're just assuming different values for 'short' and 'long'.