“Look at this great article I wrote,” is a natural thing for any author to say, but it’s also a statement that doesn’t reflect the wiki attitude of shared authorship. Comparatively, “Look at this great article that we created,” is a statement that reflects how most people involved in a wiki feel about the content that was created. This genuine feeling of shared authorship and ownership of the content is something that is profoundly unnatural at first because we’re all trained that writing is a solitary process, reflecting only the contents of our own minds. When you get involved in a thriving wiki, though, this attitude can fade away and leave you with a sense of collective pride in having helped create something that is much larger than any one person could do alone.

When you compare wikis with most word processing programs or content management systems, you see how easy and simple wikis really are. Wikis have only a fraction of the functions of more complicated systems, but less functionality leads to way more content because wikis remove the barriers to involvement. Making everything as easy as possible is an essential wiki attitude.

Wikis are lifeless unless someone takes action by creating and posting content, but we’re all sometimes afraid to publish. What if my article isn’t any good? What if it’s wrong? What if somebody doesn’t like it and says something mean about it? Just toss those fears in the trash can, friend. Throwing content up there to see what happens is an essential wiki attitude. Don’t worry whether it is bad or wrong or provocative. Other people on the wiki will let you know soon enough, and they will probably be pretty nice about it.

One common barrier that prevents people from putting content on a wiki deserves special mention. Frequently, people don’t feel comfortable putting up a piece of content until it’s “done.” On wikis, content is never “done.” Even if you think it is done, it ain’t done. After you post something, the community will probably make it better. So why wait until you are done to get help from others? Posting unfinished content is a key wiki attitude, one that reflects that Japanese concept of wabi-sabi: the beauty of imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete things. As soon as you have a good start on an idea, outline, or draft, get it on the wiki and see how other brains react to it.

Do not be shy. Do not be afraid of offending somebody by changing his content. Do not be worried what others will think. To be bold, to take action, to make corrections, to get involved, and to make it happen are wiki attitudes that get people involved and give a wiki a sense of motion. Without bold community members, nothing happens on a wiki, and it withers and dies.

When people are new to a wiki, they don’t know all the necessary wiki attitudes. They don’t know that they should be bold, post unfinished content, and adopt all the other wiki attitudes. How will they know? How will they learn? You will teach them. Set an example to others who are new to a wiki. If someone sends you an e-mail that should instead be on the wiki, post it for her and tell her. Direct her to content you have posted. People become part of a wiki community by imitating others. Be an example for others to imitate. Take the message to them.

Say that you are one of the cognoscenti for your wiki. You were there when it was founded. You helped write some of the early content and recruited others to join the fun. Now new kids are joining the party, and you have been setting an example for them. But wait, they aren’t doing it just the way you did. They have new ideas and are starting to write pages that seem a bit strange and to change some of the things you wrote long ago. Yes, you must be bold and unafraid to disagree. However, in your position of respect as a wiki champion, you should not be too quick to quash the energy of the newly hatched community members. Letting it all happen is a good policy.

After you become a wiki expert, you will see just how much you can do with each page of your wiki. You can add tables. You can e-mail content. You can put in forms and treat pages like databases. The problem with all these powerful ways to craft wiki pages is that they are at war with the simplicity that makes wikis succeed in the first place. When people try to edit a page with a lot of structured wiki elements, they can get scared. Remember that adding structure to wikis can wait. Don’t be too hasty to introduce advanced wiki elements until you are absolutely sure that they will provide a big payoff and not chase people away.

Structure of wiki pages is not the only thing that can wait. After a community gets going, powerful urges emerge in the founders to direct the work of others. When you look closely at communities in advanced stages, such as Wikipedia, you find quite a bit of structure to the processes that run the site. Well-defined roles exist as well as governance processes for resolving disputes and making policy decisions. Remember that structure should emerge from the bottom up — not be inflicted from the top down.

This last attitude applies to those who would be wiki champions and brings together the spirit of many of the attitudes expressed in this chapter. Even if you’re the person who started the wiki, don’t act like that gives you special rights to be the boss. Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, is a master of understatement in his leadership of the Linux development community. When eager programmers would ask him, “What can I do to get involved with Linux?” or “What part of Linux should I work on?” his answer would usually be, “Let me know when you find out.”

In suppressing the urge to give people direction, even to those who wanted it, Torvalds strengthened the community he founded by allowing each individual to find his or her own way to the right activity. If he himself directed them, they might end up doing the wrong thing and bowing out. So, if you are lucky enough to create a useful wiki, don’t be the boss. Rather, be just another member and follow the community where it goes.