[lambda]

It does cause confusion. I use multiple wikis that are not Wikipedia on a daily basis. When someone just says "wiki", my first thought is that the sentence is not grammatically correct; it is like saying "encyclopedia says" or "book says", it's not grammatical without an article or other qualifier of which one you are talking about. My next thought is that they are referring to the original wiki, http://c2.com/cgi/wiki.

I have seen this usage become increasingly common, but I try to discourage it when I see it, because it does cause confusion, and if it catches on, could cause even more when trying to discuss other wikis as people may assume that you are talking about other Wikipedia affiliated sites, not other instances of the general category of wikis.

[ubernostrum]

See my other reply:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9129468