And not only me.

Two years ago, in an ongoing discussion forum on the web site of the Open Source Applications Foundation, one participant noted that:

A useful addition to a wiki would be a syntax for comments to be displayed as marginalia. With this it would be much easier for the reader to be able to choose to read the main text of a heavily commented page with only being peripherally being aware of the comments.

This comment generated only a small bit of additional discussion. One person thought it was a good idea, another thought that implementing it would be technically difficult. Interestingly, this second person went on to comment:

But, really, I've personally found that most discussion is handled best by email.

Which sort of brings us back to the question of whether or not we really need the margins metaphor at all, and whether it's simply a matter of taste or preference.

Go to: Somebody's working on that too, or
Go to: Yes, but how?, or
Go to: In the margins of cyberspace.