Wiki Refactoring Stories

Stories for Wiki Page refactoring.

These stories are offered respectfully to serve as guidelines for how wiki pages should be refactored. Refactor them.

A WikiPage generally has at least one topic. Ideally it would have at most one, with pointers to related topics. Refactoring to this style without loss of content is always appropriate.

If a WikiPage has zero topics, it should be very short.

A WikiPage may have as its purpose to support a conversation. Such a page can be refactored by moving consensus items to the top or to another page. This is risky, unless there really is consensus. Therefore refactor consensus only if you are sure there is some. (Or, summarize the main points of both sides at the top.)

A WikiPage may have as its purpose to make a point, e.g. to express a pattern or even a pattern language, or to recommend a book or web site or software package, or to impugn a software company. It is never appropriate to change the point of such a page. There are two cases:

An authored point-making WikiPage should be refactored, if at all, only to clarify the author's point. Often, only punctuation and spelling improvements should be made. Refactoring by other than the author is problematical. Questions below the line may be appropriate. A WikiPage expressing an authored strong emotion should rarely, if ever, be refactored by anyone other than the original author.
An open point-making WikiPage should still be refactored gently, so as not to change its meaning, but anyone on the same wavelength is free to do so.

Some WikiPages are offensive to the common sensibility. It is tempting to empty them. This is usually inappropriate - they are better left alone.

Some WikiPages are restatements of another page you may know about. For example, WikiMind was a legitimate page to create, but it was already discussed in ThingsOnWikisMind. In this case there are two things you can do:

At the very least, put a PlainEnglish "See also", referring to the old page.
At the very most, take all the discussion to the old page, put a redirect on the new page, use the reverse link to find all references to the new page and change them to the old page. Note that in the above example sentences containing WikiMind would not be likely naturally to accommodate ThingsOnWikisMind and still be readable, without considerable editing. This could require editing of contributions signed by people who take grave exception to their words being tampered with in any way. (It's okay if they say OpenAuthor on their home page. It's worth checking. At least three authors on Wiki already do this.) Take all of this into account in choosing which name to consolidate the content into. This will involve checking the reverse links of both pages and the grammar and author of each reference. It's not particularly easy. But don't worry, mistakes are only sometimes punishable by death. [IronyWarning, this is saying that in the current climate I find it very difficult to imagine this sort of refactoring. I started off genuinely trying to give some tips from my experience and ending up reminding myself why I don't attempt such refactoring these days. Sorry for a negative note to intrude on such a positive page. How many people have in fact thought about the implications noted here? -- RichardDrake]

Profanity is generally not accepted unless it sounds really cool.

These stories all have exceptions. Except this one.

CategoryWikiRefactoring CategoryWikiMaintenance