Refers to those who indiscriminately destroy Wiki content by removing or rearranging it. Those who indiscriminately destroy Wiki content by adding to it are called something else.
WikiVandals start at the top of RecentChanges and work their way down. WikiButchers just pick some page or bunch of pages they dislike, or some correspondent or topic they dislike, and commence DisagreeByDeleting.
Many Wiki participants keep locally archived copies of material on Wiki. Your attempt to destroy the conversation will prove futile. If you have anything to say, contribute; otherwise, go play somewhere else.
To what extent does this conflict with WhyWikiWorks? If someone has to keep a backup to prevent a page being butchered, does this mean that Wiki only works because people have to struggle to make it work? I assumed that Wiki works because WikiButchers were rare.
Wiki works both because the butchers are rare and because those who care exist. In the end, we will outlast any WikiVandals.
How do people save pages? Do they just paste them into their favorite word processor? Do they have programs that archive them automatically?
You can also find recent history at: http://c2.com/wiki/history/
Ok, but if I deleted this page now, nobody could see it for minutes/hours! I still hardly can believe that this works, but it seems so... And if it really does, it means a victory of democracy to me.
Sometimes content gets moved, not deleted. The contributions of SchizoidGibberishWikiAuthor, for example, are so unique and special that they may be moved to that page just to make them more easily accessible for analysis. >;->