I had never actually sat down and thought about why wikis are called wikis, so I consulted Wikipedia on the matter. I love the idea of the WikiWikiWeb. Any of you faithful readers (hah, readers) who are familiar with the wiki wiki machine know why. Apparently wiki wiki means "hurry quick" in Hawaiian, at least according to Wikipedia.
Anyway, in the course of wasting some time today, I came across the Extreme Programming Wiki. Now this wiki is a serious wiki. It has been edited by a million people, everyone keeps making up their own terms and articles and pages and adding to the "concept" or whatever. And you know what? It's a really bad idea. With the exception of a partially well written page on Test Driven Development, there is practically no useful information on it. Just a bunch of opinions and stuff people just made up. I mean, if ever there were a medium I would shine in, it would be something where you can just make everything up as you go along. My life is pretty wiki-like. But that doesn't mean I would want the general public to think that everything I make up is actual fact. Just like I wouldn't want anyone to think the way I use the word ninja (as an adjective, as in "my ninja writing abilities") is "actual English", despite it having caught on a bit in Monson back in the day.
So I'm going to state this for the record: if you just make something up, it is not a fact. If something is your opinion, it is also not a fact. I get quite persnickety about facts, so just don't confuse what is a fact, people. It will make me much happier.
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