Stop Harassing The Gnomes
Stop Harassing The GnomesThis is a little piece of WikiHistory, so please don't delete this page.
The Gnomes change from time to time, since the wiki is so big and lately many more people come and go and being a gnome is often hard work and a task often resisted if not appreciated. Some stuff new visitors leave, like "This is a cool place", "Testing to see if this works", etc., were it not for gnomes, would remain, taking up valuable MindSpace? of the annoyed readers in potentially high numbers. Another of their tasks involves challenging new creators of "signal" as to whether or not what has been added or edited is "OnTopic" or "OffTopic" (whatever that means at the time), whether it duplicates or is like another page in the sense of the title if not the content, or whether the sense of the page matches the title.
C2 defined what wikis were to become; it should remain that, a defining work. Gnomes can aid in preserving that sense of a Wiki Pattern. On the other hand, gnomes should also be monitored and challenged if they depart from sensible, meaningful editing and deletions. While it is hard to do, gnomes should guard against imposing a personal bias and opinion which makes it seem that they have an agenda or that they are out to "get" someone they may personally disagree with. Difference of opinion should not be a gnome's criterion for work done in removing "noise". One group of people's "noise" may be another group's "signal". Many who have been around a long time know that eventually, if not initially, the "noisemakers" and the harmful gnomes go away, leaving nothing useful as record of their having been here except a bad reputation. While helpful "signal-makers" and useful gnomes leave a record of their having been here with improvements, higher SignalToNoise ratios, and a good reputation.
I would really like to put out a call to all those who feel it is their duty to harass the WikiGnomes. Please stop. It is a little ridiculous. Every once in a while somebody gets upset because a piece of content near and dear to them gets deleted/refactored. They then start ranting and raving at whoever seems to be the most active WikiGnome at the time. A while ago it was SunirShah and now it's FrancisHwang. Pages like HisIncessantCleaningOfTheWiki point to the fact that the people complaining are either ignorant of how WikiWiki is supposed to work or that they have chosen to fly in the face of tradition and demand that these outrageous acts of housecleaning be curbed.
Wiki should support anybody trying to increase signal and/or decrease noise. There have been numerous discussions over the years about what exactly is noise and what is signal, but in the end, all of those discussions have become moot as detractors get fed up and move on and the WikiGnomes just keep doing what they always have: cleaning up behind less responsible/motivated WikiZens.
So a big ThankYou to the FrancisHwangs and the SunirShahs of wiki. Thank you to those who would preserve and prune and help wiki to grow in a clear environment. If you disapprove of deletions/refactorings you can always change the pages back: that's what wiki is about.
I just hope Francis never stops HisIncessantCleaningOfTheWiki.
Every now and again, a WikiGnome who has been acting in GoodFaith (AssumeGoodFaith), and trying to do their best for the wiki in general, gets severely savaged. Please think twice before attacking your gnomes lest they depart, never to return, and the wiki becomes untidy, overgrown, and a less pleasant place to visit and work. -- WoundedWikiGnome
Seconded. There are many users who are deleting or ruining good content, but Francis and Sunir don't belong to that group. By its nature, wiki content is impermanent; those who can't live with that should use a medium other than wiki. Also by its nature, wiki contains a lot of junk, and we should be grateful that there are those who are willing to clean it up. -- KrisJohnson
Fourthed. I really admire FrancisHwang and HisIncessantCleaningOfTheWiki (and i have their first two albums). -- TomAnderson
(Several people agreed. If there is to be further discussion we could IncreaseSnr? by just listing them: KrisJohnson, TomAnderson, BrentNewhall, MatthewAstley. I will leave those others to delete their own if they see fit.)
We can be more constructive than "StopHarassingTheGnomes". If you don't trust them to do only good work, CheckUpOnTheGnomes?. They're human, and they can make mistakes, especially when doing some thankless, monotonous task on many pages. The GnomeWatchers? (MetaGnome?s?) can make a few random SpotChecks?.
I trust the gnomes will not be offended by the checking up. Apart from anything else, they won't know it is being done unless a mistake is found.
CheckUpOnTheGnomes? is something that plenty of people are already doing. Francis, Sunir, et al have never had any problem with people undoing their changes, asking about specific deletions, or pointing out mistakes. Unfortunately, some wikizens have resorted to using insulting language to describe their activities; this is the "harassment" that should be stopped.
Yes, you knew that. I guessed that some others might do it, since I do sometimes. Obviously the moaners haven't thought of it ... so that's why I wrote the above. Of course, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it read. *g* [I believe this was my comment -- MatthewAstley; [FixYourWiki, one day]
These days the disconnect doesn't come from that fact that some people distrust my edits, as much as the fact as they are questioning my (or anybody else's right) to make them at all. There seem to be many newcomers who would like to treat Wiki like an unedited zine or something, and the idea that anybody else would presume to pass judgement on their content is offensive to them. Wiki's difficult to grok, so I'm a little sympathetic. But I also think that if you're possessive about your words, stop spending all your time online and go write a book. The world needs more books. -- francis
Hmm, TheSeptemberThatNeverEnded for the wiki? Wouldn't that be a shame. Ah, hopefully the slightly larger than average ActivationEnergy? for participating (and lack of immediate high profile distribution, except among RCJs?) might help. I'm about to digress onto a well worn path, aren't I?
Still, I disagree with Wiki's difficult to grok, (unless you mean ToGrok in the full sense, but that's not the point) because it's fundamentally very simple.
Is this perhaps a DeleteWhenCooked page? Archive the sentiment at VolunteerHousekeeper or somewhere close by? -- mca No it should stand on its own. It is a plea for understanding and the result of an historic event in C2's history, when Gnomes first appeared and started their thankless tasks.
When did the Gnomes appear? Have they always been here, as francis says? You imply a definite point of arrival. -- AnonymousDonor
To be more precise, none of the names on this page are the original WikiGnomes. Gnoming as an activity is as old as c2 itself; it's just that at some point gnoming became more controversial for some reason. -- francis
Could it be because of the size of the wiki over time and the need for more aggressive (thereby controversial) gnoming? I see you still read the wiki, have you stopped gnoming?
That could very well be the reason. It's also quite possible that because wiki maintenance requires a lot of implicit trust, WikiDoesNotScale?.
Personally, I'm still active here, just not as active as I once was. I do gnome from time to time, but not nearly as much as I once did. -- francis
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