Blogs rot. Wikis wait

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Blogs vs wikis as formats

  • Many see value in hybrid models: chronological “bliki” setups, wiki-like personal sites, and “digital gardens” that mix posts with evergreen pages.
  • Some argue the poem is metaphorical: blogs feel disposable and linear, while wikis invite ongoing revision and interlinking.
  • Others push back: both blogs and wikis can be updated; rot comes from neglect, not format. Dates and “last updated” markers matter a lot.
  • Blogs are praised for clear time-bound context; wikis are criticized for ambiguity about what “last edited” really means.

Health of the wiki ecosystem

  • Outside of Wikipedia, many feel wikis have stagnated or declined, especially old independent ones.
  • Counterexamples: gaming wikis (e.g., Minecraft, Runescape, Arch, OS dev, cppreference, specialized hobby wikis) are cited as thriving niches.
  • Some note Wikipedia activity peaked long ago but argue that’s partly because the “easy” articles are done and now it’s mostly maintenance.

Fandom and commercial hosting

  • Fandom-hosted wikis are heavily criticized: intrusive ads, autoplay video, unreadable mobile layouts, SEO spam, privacy issues, and poor “wikiness” (bad infoboxes, navigation).
  • There is an active movement to leave Fandom for wiki.gg, self-hosting, Miraheze, etc., but search engines still often rank Fandom higher.
  • Browser extensions and redirects are recommended to find independent wikis.

Personal wikis, tools, and UX

  • Many run personal wikis (MediaWiki, Vimwiki, TiddlyWiki, Obsidian + Quartz, static-site generators) for notes, code docs, and “living” pages.
  • A recurring complaint: self-hosted wiki software is heavy or fiddly compared to a simple static blog.
  • Discoverability and structure are hard: default MediaWiki/DokuWiki installs feel “empty” without curated ToCs, categories, and cross-links.
  • Several want better UX and even LLM-assisted navigation and categorization.

Information rot and social vs technical factors

  • Multiple commenters say both blogs and wikis rot; the core issue is ongoing maintenance, attention, and community, not platform.
  • Others argue technical design strongly shapes user behavior, so some “social” problems (participation, discoverability) are partly technical.
  • There is interest in semantic/structured approaches (e.g., Wikibase/Wikidata) to share knowledge across languages and reduce duplication.