The Living Philosophy Wiki May Just Be My Personal Philosophy Wiki for Now
December 2, 2006
It has been over four months since I started the Living Philosophy Wiki. I don’t regret starting it and leaving it wide open. That didn’t hurt anything. I have come to the realization, though, that nobody much will be attracted to the wiki until it has more content. It will not have more content until I add more content. The only content I can add to it will be my own personal philosophy. Well, that’s not the only content I can add to it. I can add my summaries of other philosophers, but that would be a wasted effort. That already exists. I want to start something new.
Because of that chain of thought, I feel freed to be personal. In being freed to be personal, I will be able to write. I have been frozen all this time, ever since I started the wiki. I never got beyond creating a framework consisting of the biggest questions. My own questions, along with the blank pages, then proceeded to intimidate me!
Well, no more of that for me. From now on, I will simply write notes in the wiki as philosophical thoughts pop into my head. I intend to keep a record in this blog each time I add a significant note to the wiki. Over time, unlike with a blog, I will be able to go back, develop and polish my initial notes. Also unlike a blog, the notes will all link to each other over time. The blog will show a record of what prompted the thoughts that I added to the wiki. It will not duplicate the wiki content. The blog posts will record what I was thinking or experiencing before I added my wiki note, then link to the philosophical contributions in the wiki.
There is one disadvantage that I can think of, but I’m willing to accept the trade-off it presents to me, because something is better than nothing. The disadvantage will be that I will personally influence the wiki more than any other contributor to it. I will have been there first. Whoever comes after me will be reacting to me, whether they agree or disagree, unless they go off into an area not yet charted in the wiki and do their own thing. I will have prior claim to the wiki.
Eventually, I hope to attract more people to share administration of the wiki with me, and I hope some of them have philosophies that differ from my own. For now, there is one other administrator besides me, and she and I do not agree about everything. She has a very transpersonal perspective; while I’m prone to getting pink with conviction from time to time.
[...] After considering all of the above factors, I have come full circle, back to the place where I was when I wrote that the Living Philosophy Wiki may just be my personal wiki for now. There is one difference this time, though. Now there are going to be other philosophy wikis out there, besides mine, and they will be “where it’s at”. With that in mind, I have let go of the last of my hesitations about personalizing my philosophy wiki. In fact, I have decided to change its name to the DreamFishery Philosophy Wiki and to change the whole way that it’s organized. For now and for a long time to come – and maybe always – it’s going to be all about the weird thoughts that I get as I write The Myth of Merula. Not only the writing of the Myth of Merula, but also the fiction research I do along the way – research that may or may not wind up actually getting used in The Myth of Merula – will feed into the philosophy wiki. People will still be able to participate in adding and editing content to it at any time. They may or may not ever feel motivated to do so, to any great extent. Either way, I will be content. Of course, I will always hold out the hope that a conversation will ensue within the wiki and that it will lead to content greater than I could have imagined or written alone. Other Posts Categorized as Living Philosophy Wiki:More Than One Way to Skin a Wiki – December 11th, 2006The Living Philosophy Wiki May Just Be My Personal Philosophy Wiki for Now – December 2nd, 2006A Little Bit of Philosophy about Perfectionism about Philosophy – July 22nd, 2006Living Philosophy Wiki – July 15th, 2006Other Posts Categorized as Wikis:Rounded Sassy MediaWiki Skin Available for Download – January 14th, 2007New Rounded Blue Edition MediaWiki Skin Available for Download – January 13th, 2007More Than One Way to Skin a Wiki – December 11th, 2006Cool Open-Source Hardware and Machines – December 2nd, 2006Wiki on Feminist Science Fiction and Musings on Legolas – July 21st, 2006Living Philosophy Wiki – July 15th, 2006Campaigns Wikia – July 7th, 2006 [...]