Ward Interventions

WardsWiki is usually left alone by Ward himself. At times members of this community have seen his hand at work and this page is to note instances where Ward has given some clue of his preference, so other WikiGnomes can choose their subsequent actions with this additional knowledge.

StanTheMan (may 05) A disabled person added his page which was subjected to delete. Delete and restore occurred a few times. Later Ward came in and only removed a paragraph on his link to his own web site. I think this particular action showed Ward has flexibility in applying judgement on new pages.

In a recent poll of interested parties my opinion was found to be at one extreme. Specifically, I thought this site was about programming first, and the interests of programmers second. I'm willing to accept that the site has diverged from my intention. I'm not willing to see it distroyed by foolishness, though I will admit that it has come close to that. Regarding Stan, I noticed that the page had been unsuccessfuly deleted several times so I didn't just delete it. But I removed the hyperlink so that the post's usefulness as WikiSpam was abated. I'll delete it a month from now if I think of it. -- WardCunningham

Actually, I watched a bit as that page evolved, and it wasn't just undeleted. It looked like the author was making an attempt to turn it into a home page conforming, more or less, to local conventions. Even a RealNamesPlease request was honored by providing a real name, although the author didn't realize that the page name ought to be changed, too. Whether one takes this as a wiki novice correcting a mistake or an attempt to disguise blatant advertising is a matter of one's degree of cynicism, I suppose. I thought your last edit was a nice compromise versus deletion. -- DanMuller

Another person. I acted in preventing the delete of StanTheMan page, and after seeing Wards explanations I took it upon my duty to watch it grow, or delete. As this moment (end Jun05) I have deleted the "unique" page and put comments into the persons homepage. -- actioned JuneZeroFive

What is "about programming"? -- from Ward's words above

Is it primarily "algorithms /languages", or is it more about "application of programming ideas"?

I think the majority of the world thinking of programming as activities related to the creation of applications to serve business needs.

When I think of patterns, I think about where the deployment of a particular pattern make sense, compared to the alternative. In that sense I am (and the majority of IT practioners are) better aligned with the mechanics and not engineers. Engineers are much appreciated, especially those with skills in "Applied Mechanics".

My experiences at C2 tend to suggest there is a strong bias favoring the theory side, at the expense of practical significance of programming. My perception is of course biased as usual. -- DavidLiu

I think there is a comparable amount of content dealing with both theoretical and practical knowledge. Everyday practical content tends to be short-lived though. Frameworks and languages come and go in relatively short time-spans. Wikis work best when the content can be gradually refined over time, perfecting the message. If the message itself is changing very fast, it takes a lot of effort to keep it up to date, with no effort left over to perfect the message. -- MichaelSparks