The International Association of Pedants would like to make it known that “wiki” is a technology.
It is not short for Wikipedia.
I’m at a loss for why people feel that they are forced to use the wrong phrase in an effort to save themselves the pain of typing those extra five letters to actually properly identify their source. We don’t say “oh, I read it on Board” when we mean the Straight Dope Message Board. Why, then, did I stumble across six posts in just a few minutes that all use “wiki” to mean “Wikipedia?”
Gah.
Okay, got it out of my system now. Sorry to rant*. Carry on, nothing to see here.
I hope you’ll notice that I put this in MPSIMS to save Giraffe from having to move it as an insufficiently rantish rant for The Pit.
But I read and update Wiki all the time. Most people I know do not say or spell Wikipedia. The website is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page. Notice the Wiki in there. It is a common usage.
If you type a search phrase in Google and include the word wiki, it points you to a wiki article quicker than wiki can.
If you search on Wiki in wikipedia you get http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
It wiktionary you get: Noun
wiki
Any website based on any kind of Wiki software which enables users to add to, edit and delete from the site’s content quickly.
So your point while valid is hopeless. Next you’ll be mpsimsing people who use Google as a Verb.
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that within the rant* the OP didn’t even mention what wki actually means? Thankfully Jim was here to pick up the slack.
*-using the term loosely.
Second time I posted this today and for totally different reasons: Following is a list of Wikipedia editors and their SDMB usernames. Please add yourself if you belong on this list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Teeming_Millions
You know as a Computer Programmer I find that calling “wiki” a “technology” instead of “an excellent example of Freeware code” is quite a disturbing habit.
Sorry, “Wiki” is short for “Wikipedia,” whether you like it or not.
It is also a technology. This sort of thing happens quite a bit in English, and also with engineering acconyms and abbreviations.
IIRC, abrevs. are used quite a bit 'round here.
TTFN.
So, could someone from the International Association of Pedants give a cite to somewhere that Wiki is used other than Wikipedia? I’ve never heard of it in any other context.
From What Exit’s linked Wikipedia page (where garygnu undoubtably noted that there is no mention of “wiki” as an abbreviation of “Wikipedia”), you can find their list of wiki sites.
Hey, now. You know as well as I do I could change that using wiki.
Furthermore, the 'pedia doesn’t have to say it to make it true.
My point was that abbreviations (etc.) can mean different things to different people. Fiat alone can’t change this.
I see no reason why one can’t use context to figure this out.
Would you be OK if Wikipedia was abbreviated using a capital “W”?
(for the record, I write out the whole word, in most cases)
The fact that some people use a word in a particular way does not make it “right.” English is a language notoriously susceptable to such abuse, which is why I identified my outburst as pedantic. I’m well aware that I’m swimming upstream with this, which is another reason I felt it mild enough to go in MPSIMS rather than The Pit.
I use non-Wikipedia wikis more than I use Wikipedia.
And, for wiki=Wikipedia loyalists, how do you distinguish between different Wikimedia projects?
It would be almost like using “Beta” instead of “VCR.” (Poor analogy, I know, because Wikipedia will not become obsolete because of a competitor, but it’s the best I could do.) Wikipedia may be the only wiki you are currently familiar with, but there are many others (and there can only be more on the way). Using “wiki” instead of “wikipedia” is inaccurate, and it impedes communication with people who are more wiki-literate.
I mainly use Wikipedia and of course it is the most famous and most publicized and the largest. I do use other Wikis. To Wiki is becoming a verb that means to look it up.
English is a living language.
**To Google ** is already accepted. To the point where in a high level Microsoft meeting they were talking over some do technologies and one of the Techies in the meeting said “give me a second and I’ll Google it”, causing a Marketing VP to cringe. (This is probably just an urban legend but a it might have happened)
I use “to wiki” to mean “put something on a wiki and edit it that way, rather than talking about how we should write it.” (“to wiki [something] up” is to put it up on a wiki (n.) page, so that we can wiki (v.) it.)
Honestly, I do use it that way. And I will continue to.
By the same token, the fact that some people would prefer that other people not use a word in a particular way does not make it “wrong.”
If you’d like to convince people to change their habits, telling them they’re just plain wrong is not usually the most effective way to do it.
What abbreviation for Wikipedia would you prefer? People will abbreviate it, you know. They abbreviate you as U, so they’ll damn sure lop off 5 characters just for the heck of it if they want to.
Well how do you feel about Google as a verb? It is a good recent example.
I agree Wiki as a verb can go many ways, we will have to wait and see. But I think we are in agreement it will become a verb. I’ve got one more because of some recent news stories.
Wiki (v)
To look something up
To put it up on a wiki (n.) page, so that we can wiki (v.) it.
To smear someone on the internet using a publically edit internet site.
