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I said:
"It assumes the reader got to the topic via some directed pursuit, and there is some logical way to satisfy that pursuit."
And you said:
"This is the defining characteristic of the second definition of topic. It essentially treats navigation as a separate pursuit outside the scope of topic design. It assumes that the quest for the correct document has been successfully completed before the reader opens the document. Topics are not nodes in a network but leaves on a tree. Document design therefore takes no account of the possibility that the reader may not have the correct document."
I never assumed such a thing. I assumed there was an intentional act the reader executed to get to the topic. That's all. Why can't a topic be a node in a network AND a leaf on a tree? Or rather, leaves on many trees? Which would then make trees hyper-nodes in a hyper network.
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