Hi all, I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the author/maintainer of that page like in: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS The name that appears at the bottom is not adequate because it could be someone who has just corrected a typo. In fact, that entry can be eliminated once the contact info has been given on the page. The whole purpose of this is of course to make it easier for people to send in corrections / questions / tips / accolade etc etc. For pages that do not have an appropriate maintainer, the wikimaster's info can be provided (we all know who that is :-) Akemi
On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Akemi Yagi wrote: > I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the > author/maintainer of that page like in: > > http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS ... an author and an artist sign their work - R
On 10/24/07, R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com> wrote: > On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Akemi Yagi wrote: > > > I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the > > author/maintainer of that page like in: > > > > http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS > > ... an author and an artist sign their work > > - R Just like you did for that article ;-) Most pages are without an autograph right now. You would suggest that the wikimaster should go ahead and sign all nameless pages on behalf of the author? Ralph, what would you say? Akemi
On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Akemi Yagi wrote: > On 10/24/07, R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com> wrote: >>> http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS >> >> ... an author and an artist sign their work > Just like you did for that article ;-) Most pages are > without an autograph right now. You would suggest that the > wikimaster should go ahead and sign all nameless pages on > behalf of the author? not at all -- the author/artist makes that decision; who wants to sign (or worse, have a attribution added to) bad work? But adopting a policy preferring that a 'subject matter' area maintainer, 'brand' their interest and 'accountability' for parts of the work makes sense to me. - R
On 10/24/07, R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com> wrote: > On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, Akemi Yagi wrote: > > > On 10/24/07, R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com> wrote: > > >>> http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS > >> > >> ... an author and an artist sign their work > > > Just like you did for that article ;-) Most pages are > > without an autograph right now. You would suggest that the > > wikimaster should go ahead and sign all nameless pages on > > behalf of the author? > > not at all -- the author/artist makes that decision; who > wants to sign (or worse, have a attribution added to) bad > work? But adopting a policy preferring that a 'subject > matter' area maintainer, 'brand' their interest and > 'accountability' for parts of the work makes sense to me. > > - R I believe we are thinking the same thing but... The whole point of providing contact info on each wiki article (or section of it) is to make it easy for anyone to send in comments. Artworks can be as bad as the artist desires, but CentOS articles must be kept as best as they can be. We want to keep the information accurate and up-to-date. Some url's and links need constant updating. This is not always easy. Someone recently e-mailed me a nice tip for one of the wiki pages I wrote (I "happened" to have my name on that page). This helped me improve the content. The wiki's principle is participation of anyone who wants to contribute. With the way it is set up now, it is rather difficult for people to figure out how to get their voice heard. Naturally, it would be best if the maintainer's name appears on the page. But wherever this is not practical, displaying more general contact / feedback info will help. Akemi
Akemi Yagi wrote: > Someone recently e-mailed me a nice tip for one of the wiki pages I > wrote (I "happened" to have my name on that page). This helped me > improve the content. Perhaps a link at the bottom of each page that goes to a form, with a submit action to this centos-docs list might be a better idea to solve that problem. I dont understand why people must resort to private communication for everything. -- Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219@icq
On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 11:24 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote: > Akemi Yagi wrote: > > Someone recently e-mailed me a nice tip for one of the wiki pages I > > wrote (I "happened" to have my name on that page). This helped me > > improve the content. > > Perhaps a link at the bottom of each page that goes to a form, with a submit > action to this centos-docs list might be a better idea to solve that problem. I > dont understand why people must resort to private communication for everything. Or discussion pages :). -- Daniel
On 10/24/07, Akemi Yagi <amyagi@gmail.com> wrote: > The wiki's principle is participation of anyone who wants to > contribute. With the way it is set up now, it is rather difficult for > people to figure out how to get their voice heard. Naturally, it > would be best if the maintainer's name appears on the page. But > wherever this is not practical, displaying more general contact / > feedback info will help. > > Akemi Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. No one quoted my bottom line above, so I'm doing it myself :-) This is because, despite some opposing views, we seem to agree on what I wrote above (except for the maintainer stuff). Personally, when I have some comments on a wiki page (not just CentOS wiki) and if I see the name of contact, that would *encourage* me to write. So, I came up with the idea of putting the name of the author/maintainer. Apparently others do not feel the same way, and seeing the author name may actually prohibit them from taking an action. The objective here is to come up with methods to collect people's contributions -- the methods that make them feel comfortable making contributions. I think that offering more than one avenue will be good. For example, if sending to the centos-docs is the only choice, that would discourage some people. As for the CentOS wiki, I always ask the author when I notice something to be corrected or added IF I know that page is being maintained by a particular individual. On the other hand, if the page is of general type, I will go ahead and edit it as mentioned earlier by Johnny. Although not written as a policy, I guess that is what we have been customarily doing. And perhaps, each author or maintainer should decide whether or not they "sign" their page as orc_orc ..err .. R P Herrold said. Akemi
Akemi Yagi wrote: > Hi all, > > I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the > author/maintainer of that page like in: > > http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS I strongly disagree. By adding the name of a person on there, you basically say that this page is $OnePersonsPage and other people should stay away. The whole idea of a wiki is to have edit access for as many people as possible. A link to the changelog should be plenty, if people want to work out where to send the changes if they dont have edit rights - there should be a policy and howto page for that in the wiki, perhaps link to that page from the bottom of each content page. > The name that appears at the bottom is not adequate because it could > be someone who has just corrected a typo. In fact, that entry can be > eliminated once the contact info has been given on the page. This is like going back a few steps from the idea of a wiki to the idea of html static pages. What problem are you actually trying to solve here ? > The whole purpose of this is of course to make it easier for people to > send in corrections / questions / tips / accolade etc etc. I see it go the other way, make it more strongly associated to one person, and thereby discourage edits by other people. -- Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219@icq
On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 11:23 +0100, Karanbir Singh wrote: > I strongly disagree. By adding the name of a person on there, you basically say > that this page is $OnePersonsPage and other people should stay away. The whole > idea of a wiki is to have edit access for as many people as possible. I can only agree. Even it is not the intention to keep people away, people will feel like they have to consult with the author on every edit. This works against the goal of wikis: providing complete, correct, and understandable information. IMHO people who don't have edit access to a page, should send corrections to the list. As an author I am far more comfortable with that. Pretty often, I don't have time to handle such corrections/suggestions. On the list, others can pick it up, and if someone provides useful fixes, give edit access. -- Daniel
Karanbir Singh wrote: > Akemi Yagi wrote: >> Hi all, >> >> I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the >> author/maintainer of that page like in: >> >> http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS > > I strongly disagree. By adding the name of a person on there, you > basically say that this page is $OnePersonsPage and other people should > stay away. The whole idea of a wiki is to have edit access for as many > people as possible. Actually ... I think I disagree with that. When an author commits something to the wiki, the author still maintains the copyright. As such, they are responsible (to some extent) for the content. In a shared environment, that is maintainable by others, BUT, I think giving acknowledgment to the original author is something that should be done. I don't think that putting something in the wiki makes it a free for all and just anyone should be able to update it. Especially for How-Tos and Article type content. Now, we do have a very restrictive edit policy at this point and we have had no problems that I know of to date ... but I think acknowledgment is a good thing. We are not going to get many "Real Authors" to post here if we have a policy where by everything is owned by the group and they get nothing in return. > > A link to the changelog should be plenty, if people want to work out > where to send the changes if they dont have edit rights - there should > be a policy and howto page for that in the wiki, perhaps link to that > page from the bottom of each content page. > >> The name that appears at the bottom is not adequate because it could >> be someone who has just corrected a typo. In fact, that entry can be >> eliminated once the contact info has been given on the page. > > This is like going back a few steps from the idea of a wiki to the idea > of html static pages. What problem are you actually trying to solve here ? > >> The whole purpose of this is of course to make it easier for people to >> send in corrections / questions / tips / accolade etc etc. > > I see it go the other way, make it more strongly associated to one > person, and thereby discourage edits by other people. Well as an example ... do we want someone who knows nothing about DRBD changing the detailed article written by Arrfab ... I don't think we want that at all. I would check with him before I changed anything on that article, and I think that should be standard policy. Now for some things, like the CentOS in the Media page, I agree that there is total sharing and that is good. I don't feel the same way for Articles that are technical in nature though. Thanks, Johnny Hughes -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 252 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature Url : http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-docs/attachments/20071025/28cffe5e/s...