Why must a knowledge base be simple to maintain?

Anything you create, including a knowledge database, should be simple to maintain. Maintenance costs money and time, and high maintenance systems are typically poorly designed systems.

For knowledge database systems in particular, however, a second thought comes to mind: those systems must be simple to use. The typical user of such a system is confused, possibly inexperienced, frustrated, or both, as this person suffers from a problem (the one that he or she hopes the knowledge database can solve).

In order to assist this user, rather than add to confusion and frustration, ease-of-use should be a primary design goal in developing knowledge database systems.