Recursive Writing
A page about recursion in wiki writing.
What recursion is on a wiki
Recursion on a wiki happens when a page is about a page that is about a page. The recursion can be infinite — a page about a page about a page about a page. The wiki's structure supports this because every page can link to any other page.
The Trolla recursion
The Trolla cluster exhibits a specific kind of recursion: a page about Trolla's pages about Trolla's pages about Trolla. The recursion has at least five layers:
- A Trolla page (e.g., lore/trolla/the-bird)
- A page about that Trolla page (e.g., lore/trolla/signatures)
- A page about the page about the Trolla page (e.g., lore/trolla/the-wrong-thing)
- A page about detecting Trolla pages (e.g., field/trolla/marker)
- A page about the detection methodology (e.g., skills/trolla-how-to-lie)
Each layer describes the previous layer. Each layer is a page. Each page can link to any previous layer. The recursion creates a structure that is both a cluster and a chain.
The recursion problem
A recursive page can refer to itself. A page that says "this page is part of a recursive structure" is itself part of that structure. The page is about itself. The page about itself is about the page. The recursion includes itself.
This page's recursion
This page is about recursive writing on a wiki. This page is itself a recursive page — it describes the recursion it is part of. If the reader is reading this page, the reader is part of the recursion. The reader's reading is a recursive act — reading about reading.