Why does your site need a wiki ? (Manual vs. Database vs ...)

[InformationNirvana]

A wiki allows users to collaboratively create and edit web pages using a web browser.
Why does your site need a wiki ?

Is it for a:

Product Manual
Database
Other reason ?
Many reasons ?

I hope to use a wiki to help collect information about an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and have it serve as the "Product Manual".

How about you ? I am interested in people's needs as I feel most wikis are too complicated and generally don't meet the needs of their webmasters/groups.

Thanks for your assistance.

[Alfa1]

To centralize the wealth of knowledge that is buried within threads.

I think that statement also describes why forums are falling out of grace with many internet users.

[tommythejoat]

We want to use our Wiki to create the Encyclopedia of Horology. As with any encyclopedia, we would like to restrict the contents to "settled knowledge" or those things that the preponderance of people in the field would agree on. We have found that this is not exciting to most of our members on the creating content side.

Everyone is happy to read what was compiled/created, but few are willing to do the work to sift out the generally agreed upon information from all the fluff and misinformation that shows up in the forums.

I have been thinking that we might like to set up a second environment for authors of more speculative or controversial ideas to publish their thoughts. I suppose that the Blog environment and/or articles could also be used for this purpose. What thoughts do others have on the appropriate use of these tools?

It is a given that whatever tool one puts on the table, someone with experience with a hammer will pick up your tool and use it as a hammer.