man, the problem of discords being information black holes is making me wonder if there's actually some way to encourage people to do better documentation--it feels like one of the major issues right now is how fucked SEO is and how Fandom Wikia dominates while being, like, an affront to nature, while Fandom and other wikis generally have somewhat inaccessible and opaque IA. My job now is like literally doing information architecture and documentation, and people tend not to realize that even IS a job... but part of it is because it CAN be so intuitive that anyone can do it, with the right tools. It makes me wonder, could some of this be mitigated by a tool and/or set of best practices? Most Discord servers have moderators--is it possible to shift the culture such that being a Moderator also means stewarding information, without adding additional unpaid burdens? I feel like I sound kind of tech-bro-ey here, saying, "Ah, we just need more technology--", but what I want to consider is like, more of a behavioral or cultural shift, as facilitated by an easier platform. If anyone has tools that were useful for documentation, would love to hear...
- it/he
- unrealward.itch.io/
antidisciplinary fun haver, cartoon mad scientist, objectpilled surrealist, universal collector, lover of perversion, spiritually nullo
art @unrealward
in reply to @index's post:
So my take fwiw is that this really ISN'T a technology problem - it's a money problem.
Wikia is free. Discord is free. Running a wiki install or a forum or anything else costs hosting and maintenance effort. It's a fundamental principle of capitalist hell life that when something is free, there will be more of it.
A way to look at this is that without these devils bargains, many projects might not exist. If GitHub and Discord didn't make it absolutely zero-cost to create a collaborative project and a place to discuss it, perhaps there would simply be far fewer projects, overall. The question is how to get people to use something that's free, but better. The trouble is that we're already very deep in the chicken and egg problem.
Firstly because, now that free things exist, they will always be the default; no replacement that costs money or effort will ever succeed.
Second, and i really do very firmly believe this: the biggest, most overwhelming barrier to entry for someone using an online resource is having to sign up. Anonymous wikis are always going to be nightmares; require registration though, and 99% of your potential contributors will decide it's not worth the effort. Discord is already on everyone's computers. No registration step required to join your project; very little investment.
Third, any free service will last only until it becomes too expensive and irritating for the providers, no matter how well intentioned, to support further. At that time it will be sold to the most mediocre bidder, who will cover it in ads.
In the face of those problems I don't see great solutions. The technology is there, but the forces of rent-seeking, plus everyone having exhausting day jobs, make it impractical for many to leverage.
Extremely late reply, but this is very insightful. Signup certainly has stopped me from a lot of things! Much to think about…