PaulStoffregen
Well-known member
With the upcoming addition of a Wiki, I'd like to discuss roles of editors and policies for editing content. Please keep this thread about editing & editor roles. Use the original thread for general discussion of the wiki setup, and this thread Defragster started for specific content suggestions.
Arduino's wiki, I believe, is a great example too little editing for a massive amount of content. Much of it is outdated, and finding anything involves very long lists of links, many with poorly composed descriptions. We may never have nearly that much content... but I'd like to plan for success.
I've made minor edits to some pages on Arduino's wiki. I've watched as others did the same. Usually the tendency when editing an existing page is to tack on some extra stuff. Almost nobody deletes anything on a page, even if it's obviously outdated info, where they're not the primary or original author.
To really make this work, I believe we need some designated editors who are empowered to make substantial edits to any page. Maybe some edits will look like the stuff seen on Wikipedia, where an editor adds a colored message like "the following info may be outdated, please update it if you know the material". I don't believe we need rigid style guidelines like Wikipedia, especially at the content page level, but we really do need dedicated people who are entrusted with being able to edit pages. They shouldn't feel inhibited to simply delete stuff that's obsolete. They shouldn't need to ask for anyone's permission to make substantial changes, like breaking a page into two separate ones, or consolidating 2 pages, or a variety of other pretty meaningful changes to the original content.
The information architecture is also an area where we really need editors. I do not believe anyone can envision in advance exactly what the top-level and mid-level categories need to be. It's going to change over time as the wiki grows. Restructuring things takes initiative and risk. Descriptions and links often need to be made more clear. Again, we really need some people who are designated to make those decisions.
There may be all sorts of other issues too. The honest truth is this is my first time trying to set up and establish a wiki, so I really don't have a good feeling for how all this stuff should work. What I do know is wikis on other sites usually have too little content, or far too much content that feels like an unstructured mess. Let's talk about these issues and how we can administer this wiki as well as possible.
Arduino's wiki, I believe, is a great example too little editing for a massive amount of content. Much of it is outdated, and finding anything involves very long lists of links, many with poorly composed descriptions. We may never have nearly that much content... but I'd like to plan for success.
I've made minor edits to some pages on Arduino's wiki. I've watched as others did the same. Usually the tendency when editing an existing page is to tack on some extra stuff. Almost nobody deletes anything on a page, even if it's obviously outdated info, where they're not the primary or original author.
To really make this work, I believe we need some designated editors who are empowered to make substantial edits to any page. Maybe some edits will look like the stuff seen on Wikipedia, where an editor adds a colored message like "the following info may be outdated, please update it if you know the material". I don't believe we need rigid style guidelines like Wikipedia, especially at the content page level, but we really do need dedicated people who are entrusted with being able to edit pages. They shouldn't feel inhibited to simply delete stuff that's obsolete. They shouldn't need to ask for anyone's permission to make substantial changes, like breaking a page into two separate ones, or consolidating 2 pages, or a variety of other pretty meaningful changes to the original content.
The information architecture is also an area where we really need editors. I do not believe anyone can envision in advance exactly what the top-level and mid-level categories need to be. It's going to change over time as the wiki grows. Restructuring things takes initiative and risk. Descriptions and links often need to be made more clear. Again, we really need some people who are designated to make those decisions.
There may be all sorts of other issues too. The honest truth is this is my first time trying to set up and establish a wiki, so I really don't have a good feeling for how all this stuff should work. What I do know is wikis on other sites usually have too little content, or far too much content that feels like an unstructured mess. Let's talk about these issues and how we can administer this wiki as well as possible.