On Sat, 8 Apr 2006, Zafer Aydogan wrote:

> I just wanted to inform you, that the Wiki Service at wiki.onetbsd.org
> will be shut down in the next couple of weeks, due to inactivity of
> it's users.

   Would it be a lot of work just keeping it running?  It seems like such a 
shame just to close it down.


> In my opinion the lack of articles were the main problem of the Wiki.
> Since most of the visitors are coming to get information or to correct
> information, instead of to write new ones.
>
> As I am not all knowing and have not too much spare time, the articles
> I wrote were limited.
>
> My dream of an evolving database with useful information didn't worked out.

   Maybe I'm missing the point somehow ... but what's the problem?  It's up 
and running, after all.  It's not going to start rusting away, is it? 
And with the wiki up, at least there's a chance someone will find out 
about it and start to contribute.  If you shut it down, that chance is 
zero.  You say you finally did solve the spam problem, after all...


   I guess there's a bootstrap problem here.  Without (much) useful 
content, people won't know the wiki exists, or care much about it.  If 
they don't know it exists, or don't care, they're not going to add any 
information.  If noone adds information, there's not going to be anything 
useful on the wiki; and we're back at the start.  But this doesn't mean 
that the wiki is fundamentally a bad idea!

   It might be the case that the audience is too small for the wiki to ever 
reach the "upward spiral" scenario though.  In which case it's no use 
having it.  But how do we know?


   I would suggest you keep it around for a while more.  (Please?)  If it 
turns out that it's a lot of work just keeping it running, then by all 
means, kill it.  But give it a chance.  If it was a good idea having it 
yesterday, it should still be a good idea having it today.

   Or maybe it really was a bad idea.  I hope not.


MAgnus