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Stack Overflow is a Wiki
- michael_dorfman 18y agoSorry, Joel, it's not. Or, more accurately, its users don't use it that way. Unlike Wikipedia, where articles tend to gradually converge on some "consensus-reality" version of "the truth", Stack Overflow encourages each user to add another answer to the growing detritus, and the voting (as has been pointed out numerous times) tends to reward the earliest answer that is in the neighborhood of accurate, at the expense of later, better answers. If Stack Overflow actually functioned more like a wiki, I'd be more inclined to spend time there.
- petercooper 18y agoIf Stack Overflow is a "wiki" then so is a blog where comments are ranked in order of score.. so, no, not a wiki then, really. Also, wikis don't usually require you to earn points to do stuff. Wikis are easy to get involved with, you can usually contribute semi-anonymously, and articles gradually improve and converge on agreed content. Stack Overflow doesn't offer any of that.