Editing Philosophical Research:MediaWiki and functional programming (section)

== Programming and signifiers ==

templates give you the power to decide what signifiers mean and what signifiers must be used to invoke a particular meaning

people do not want to be unpleasantly surprised as to what a signifier means

there is a certain finality to every single thing that is said. including every single particular remark inside a particular wiki edit

in everyday communication it is not natural for the meanings of somebody's words to suddenly and spontaneously be replaced, particularly two days after they said them. people expect every remark they say to make perfect sense inside its own context in the past even after time has passed and the current context of everything has changed

this means you have to be careful to design things in a way that people expect, and once you have established a particular definition of things, try very hard not to change that particular promise