Big Wiki Fire Of Double Ought
Big Wiki Fire Of Double OughtIn the first quarter of 2000 the original wiki was moved to http://c2.com/cgi/oldwiki and a new wiki started at http://c2.com/cgi/wiki. All that existed was a simple WelcomeVisitors page. Everything else grew from that.
Lots of WikiZens were upset initially after the big fire. After a day or two to cool off most folks realized this was a second chance. ThreadMode was quickly shuffled off to *Discussion pages, pages were summarized and shortened, and nobody missed the folks that left. The few pages that were copied verbatim from the old wiki were soon refactored beyond recognition.
Ward was able to install a new code base and a new look in the transition. The superior karma of the new code permeated the atmosphere after the fire.
The big WikiFire was soon seen as the beginning of the SecondWikiRenaissance.
-- EncyclopaediaGalactica, 432FE
"Always be prepared to scrap your first version."
An extreme form of KillTheHostage.
Unfortunately, the new WikiWiki, methodogically correct though it was, didn't have quite the quality of the old wiki database (I can't remember the name of the quality, because its page on the new wiki was refactored into seventeen sub-pages). A hacker crept into to c2.com and removed the write-lock on the oldwiki, and many of the wiki lurkers quietly changed their urls and kept on with the old, organic, emergent wiki, rather than the brand new gleaming modularized, componentized, refactorized version.
Whereupon the ExtremeProgramming devotees decried the changes as a huge exercise in BigDesignUpFront WaterFall thinking, abandoned the new wiki en mass, and Ward changed the Wiki URLs back to normal on 1 April 2000.
'changed the Wiki URLs back to normal' means that the old wiki database was used again? What happened to the new? Was the work done on the new pages merged into the old pages? Or the other way around?
Since arriving on Wiki (late in 2000) I've come across this page a couple of times, and I've always assumed that it's a fictional story, and that the page was created to make a point in some argument that was taking place, presumably sometime before (or at least early in) 2000, but I've never been entirely sure. (Of course, the dates 432FE and 1 April 2000 do both seem to support my current interpretation). As time goes by, of course, the story becomes more and more shrouded in mystery. Is there, by any chance, some WikiElder? out there who would be willing to enlighten me?
Some people used to think that we'd all be better off if a large amount of what appears on the Wiki were deleted. The idea didn't catch on. Although, ironically, there was much written about it.the idea was to start over, with a clean slate and without the history that was, at that point, highly emotional for a lot of people. The old pages would remain available, but all new discussion would start from, as it were, page one. -- AnonymousDonor
It's now being deleted. If you don't like the weather, just wait a few years.
The story is true (I've been here since 1998), as is the original WikiMindWipe (which was in summer 1999). One day in early 2000 I came here, and everything was gone for some reason. Then a couple months later I came back, and things were restored. I never understood what happened, but this page seems to explains that experience. -- AnonymousDonor
In fact the BigWikiFireOfDoubleOught is entirely fictional. So is AnonymousDonor's contribution. And so is this one. And the next one.
I disagree. This contribution is fictitious.
The idea emerged during the discussion of the WikiMindWipe, when the metaphor of a forest fire was proposed. It has now become part of the collective WikiMemory?, I suppose. The page was originally set a few months in the future. I hate to dispel the mystery, so feel free to DeleteMe.
Heh. Joking aside, what actually happened was that the old wiki, which included most of the valuable DocumentMode and HighSignal? pages, was taken offline over a copyright dispute between WardAndKent. If you have the first edition of Ward's book you'll still be able to read it on the accompanying CD-ROM. Ward was permitted to leave all the pages where live threads were going on, and everything that was on RecentChanges at the time. Surprisingly few WikiZens ever noticed. Most assumed that the lost pages were just gone in the WikiMindWipe. But if you remember the old stuff - WardOnXp?, RonJeffries' CoachingPatterns?, PeterMerel's TrueSecretsOfZen?, CfourProjectCancellation?, WikiBaseWar?, all the gorilla pages, not to mention KentBeck's poignant announcement that he'd never set foot on wiki again - well, you know how much we've lost forever.
Can you name 5 C2 persons, besides Ward, who come here often and also have been around this site in the last century? Are you the only one left?
"Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, the lone and level sands stretch far away."
The wiki plugin to mozilla. But it's better not to talk about it - there are still folk with frayed nerves about the whole thing.
Sounds a bit like the WikalongExtension. (Sorry, but nobody ever said this wiki thing was going to be smooth sailing all the way.)
Everything else grew from that?
What does that mean? Quite a few pages have last update date of 1998, etc. Were these all live threads? What constituted a live thread?
More interestingly, anyone still got that CDROM? Did the license then (pre 2000) prohibits CDROM copying? I am interested in tying WikiServer software to PortalSoftware. -- dl
Suspect you were caught in an AprilFoolsDay prank. Nothing like this ever occurred. There was no dispute between WardAndKent. There was no mozilla gorilla. Though that sounds like a pretty good name for something google oriented. And none of the pages the prankster quoted ever existed. There is no secret wiki on CDROMs and there was no WikiMindWipe. It's all just a childish practical joke.
Now wait a moment there. There certainly was a WikiMindWipe. And there was a CoachingPatterns? page with lots of content by Ron. And I did read something on the XP mailing list about Kent not doing his thing here any more. Most of PeterMerel's OffTopic EasternWuss stuff was moved off to WhyClublet around that time ... now I don't know about any gorilla, but the rest seems like it's fairly likely. Maybe the gorilla wiki was called something else. Monki? Anyone know whether some version of TheWikiWay had a CDROM?
TheWikiWay wasn't published till 2001. And my first edition has no CDROM. If there was ever a CDROM it could only have gone out with galley proofs in 2000. Who here got review copies? Was there a CDROM with them?
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