Tom Leylan Mind Wipe

This MindWipe was logged as RecentEdits, until awareness was raised by manually copying and pasting the list of affected pages into RecentChanges. --RandyStafford

Tom has made no secret about who or where he is. A simple search on Google or any number of other search engines will yield web page, email address, mailing address, and telephone number.

If Tom is going to hang around, he should try to participate in the discourse in a constructive, respectful, conciliatory fashion. --RandyStafford

My actions were not "stealthy". In each case the panic introduced was tempered by others who said "he didn't screw up the pages." Anybody can plainly see that some of the subjects actually got more visits (and follow on messages) as a direct result of my bringing them into RecentChanges. --TomLeylan

Historically, WikiMindWipe(s) have been traumatic to the WikiCommunity, and have resulted in a loss of content. --RandyStafford

I posted inserts in the places where I thought the flow would be lost. In many cases I could make the determination that the flow was not affected. I didn't want to burden everybody by having every edit show up in the RecentChanges page. It was not Sunir's post that made me pull my pages but I think the debate about my reasons is much more constructive than anything I could possibly offer. --TomLeylan

I've appreciated your contributions. You've added valuable perspective to a number of insightful pages here. Unless you make your reasons for leaving known, people will come to their own conclusions. --RandyStafford

Tom, please give us your reasons. It is my personal belief that wiki is for growing intelligence and friendliness. By the way, thank you for your re-inserts. -- FridemarPache

Yes, some of the deleted lines on KeepYourHeadDown were mine. When I first noticed I started to say something to Tom, then looked back and realized the page was better for having some of my parts removed. How can I complain about that? And the flow, while a bit disturbed, doesn't seem any worse to me. It rambled before Tom's changes; now it rambles more concisely. -- WayneConrad

Much of my content which was deleted could also have been considered surplus once what it was in response to had also been removed. However, I was somewhat alarmed at first; perhaps some explanation (just a short note saying who did what and why) would have been suitable. Maybe we could make such an explanation (for large refactoring) WikiPolicy?. -- MatthewTheobalds

OK, he wiped ethically. I've looked at the EditCopy of every affected page. He must have had his reasons. It's over. I confess to being alarmed at seeing what looked like a MindWipe in progress, after having witnessed the original WikiMindWipe. --RandyStafford

If you can mind-wipe yourself from Wiki -- delete all your contributions -- and not hurt the Wiki... doesn't that mean your contributions were worthless? (wrote GP)

Not necessarily. Your contributions could have caused other people to improve their contributions. This is not entirely unlike LeaderShip - does a leader produce anything? Not directly, in most cases. -- OleAndersen

Aren't these mindwipe things a bit melodramatic?

Yes, they are. But hey - everybody likes a good melodrama once in a while. On a more serious note, they have the potential to be just plain dramatic, in the same way that a book burning is dramatic.