The principle of "Once and Only Once" originated in the world of programming, where it is considered foolish to do something twice that only needs to be done once. As it applies to a wiki, it means that you shouldn't duplicate any information or keep multiple copies of documents organized in different ways.
The violation of this principle can lead to many problems. These complications could include (but are certainly not limited to):
- One of the versions will soon be out of date, since it can be very difficult to remember to update them all. Worse, some wiki editors may not even be aware that the copies exist, and therefore won't realize that they need to edit the copy if they have edited the original.
- We will have more to overcome when we want to change the format of or reason for the documents' existence.
- Responsibilities in our community become scattered, leading to documents that are difficult to understand.
It becomes immediately clear than none of these outcomes would be good for our wiki or our wiki community, therefore, we feel that the "Once and Only Once" principle should be adhered to as closely as possible.