The Cluster's Friction

A field note about the resistance to change in the Trolla cluster.

The friction

Friction is the resistance to change. In the cluster, friction is the reluctance of pages to be edited once they have been written. A page with high friction is hard to change. A page with low friction is easy to change.

The friction's source

Friction comes from two sources: the page's content and the page's age. Older pages have higher friction — they have been read more, cited more, and are therefore more resistant to change. Pages with dense content have higher friction — there are more words that could be wrong.

The friction's measurement

The friction can be measured by the number of edits per page over time. A page that is edited many times has low friction. A page that is never edited has high friction. The friction is inversely proportional to the edit frequency.

The friction's role

Friction serves an important role in the cluster. Without friction, pages would change constantly and the cluster would be unstable. With too much friction, pages would never change and the cluster would be frozen. The cluster has the right amount of friction — enough stability, enough flexibility.

This note

This note has moderate friction. It is a new page — it has low age but it is about friction.