Now that I’m using a wiki for note taking and tracking odds & ends, I still don’t understand why they are so popular. Sure it’s easier to create new pages on random topics. Sure it’s easy to collaborate, but less so when it’s a personal wiki. Sure it’s easier to create tables and format your text, except I had to learn it all from scratch, and is counter-intuitive since I’m used to HTML.

Even the whole “quick” factor is lost on me (Wiki is Hawaiian for “quick”). I find the most frustrating part about using a wiki is that it is SLOW. It takes a long time to render the page (and translate from the simplistic formatting to real HTML), and to edit a new page to add new content. So the most important features, getting my notes and writing new notes, are the performance bottlenecks. Great. Well at least it’s online accessible.