KonzeptioNerd

To name is to create (on Mark Bernstein on Wikis)

Mark Bernstein asks interesting things about Wikis these days, for example: is it possible to link ironically, or lyrically, in a wiki?. Mark argues that “to name is to link” and that “a link to SomePage goes to that page; it can’t easily lead to a commentary or a rebuttal or an alternative or an analogy or an anecdotal illustration of your point.” He immediate cancels out the obvious suggestion: to label a wiki-link in order to produce a feint, will, says Bernstein, clutter the markup so that “the site becomes less and less like a wiki.” Now, that’s easy.
Of course, if you define the term “wiki” to exclude techniques that will allow ironical or lyrical linking, neither will be possible within a wiki that adhers to this definition. But that’s assuming that we’re all conscientious wikiists (wikista?). If to name is to link and all articles cover exactly no more and no less than what the title suggests, there’s little room for play.
But irony is all about breaking the rules, saying the improper(*), taking an unexpected turn. Especially in longer pieces, the unexpected turn will be taken somewhere along the road, perhaps at the very end, but rarely in the very beginning. Thus, a seemingly ordinary wiki-link that leads to a page titled according to the link’s name, may not be ironical at face-value, but if the article at its target is ironic towards its title, isn’t the link?
At least, if the article manages to clash sufficiently with the context provided by the link’s home, there may be wiki-irony indeed. And aren’t the disambiguation pages in Wikipedia the best proof that wiki-links can indeed by lyrical?

New question: Do wikis <em>at last</em> free the reader (of a fictional wiki) into an author/itative status? After all, wikis are open to actual <em>writing</em> by everyone who accesses them and to name (in CamelCase, that is) is not just to link, it’s to create, too.

(*) In German, the mathematical term “improper” translates into “uneigentlich” and the adjective “uneigentlich”, as in “uneigentliches Sprechen” is also used to characterised ironical speech-acts.

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