There are pros and cons for newsgroups and Wiki systems. Let me try; feel free to add directly to this list or to challenge it. We can learn from these lessons and improve TWiki accordingly.

• Newsgroup Pluses
  • Simple to use once setup.
  • Looks and feels like e-mail.
  • Messages are threaded.

• Newsgroup Minuses
  • Can't cross-link postings. Actually you can do that with most clients by a drag & drop operation, but most people don't know / don't bother.
  • Can't change a posting once sent. Many times it makes sense to fix some existing text after a topic has been discussed / clarified.
  • Each posting is a seperate message, you need to click-click-click through the messages to get the big picture.
  • Users rarly change the subject, so all the treaded messages tend to be Re: Something over and over again. You have to click on each message to see if there is something that interests you.
  • The discussion often wanters to different topics, so the subject does not reflect the message.
  • Content usually expires after some time (though it can be configured to never forget)
  • Only text based, HTML messages are not used and usually not welcomed.

• Wiki System Pluses
  • All relevant content is on one page, you only need to scroll, no click-click-click operation to read a topic.
  • Good context of content. This is because WikiWords foster cross-linking of topics.
  • A discussion that wanders off-topic usually results in a new page that is linked from the old one.
  • Fixing existing text is possible and encourraged.
  • Rich text that include graphics is possible (I don't mean the M$ stuff, what I mean is bold, italic and so on).

• Wiki System Minuses
  • First learning step, user needs to grasp that linking is based on WikiTopics.
  • Need to edit the page to add content, would be more intuitive to add text to an existing paragraph.
  • No automatic signature / date when adding content to an existing topic.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Jan 2001

Would an AddToTopic feature make a wiki more newsgroup-like?

-- KristopherJohnson - 12 Apr 2001

A bit late, but see CommentPlugin for an implementation of AddToTopic.

Also, I created a NewsGroups page before realising this page existed... Your set of pro's and con's is much better!

-- RichardDonkin - 14 Feb 2002