Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Silverback (talk | contribs) at 03:29, 1 October 2004 (changed statusquoism order to be consistent with extreme to extreme (spectral) ordering which is easier to understand). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Here are my observations of different underlying philosophies of Misplaced Pages which may underlie conflicts. People with different views on these spectrums may be stuck in a conflict which is actually a meta-conflict.

Disclaimer: This is just me rambling.

The first of these continua employ standard Wiki terms. The others I just made up.

Eventualism vs. immediatism

Extreme immediatism

• The key is to make Misplaced Pages a useful and reliable Internet resource as of now.

• Any edit which is problematic should be reverted on sight; there is no time to fix it while live.

• New ideas for changes should be developed in a sandbox.

Moderate immediatism

• Articles should be in as good condition as possible when they are live.

• Dispute notices should be avoided unless there's no clear "right" version to post in interim.

• Reverting poor writing and unbalanced coverage is appropriate. Cleaning it up would be too tricky and take too long.

• Sandboxes are most geared towards proposed major edits.

Moderate eventualism

• It is worth maintaining articles in good condition, but not to the extent it would stymie their organic growth through the Wiki process.

• Edits should only be reverted if they are unsalvageable or at least hard to salvage.

• Poor and biased writing should be addressed, but unless there is no content should not simply be erased.

Extreme eventualism

• The process of free, continuous editing will in the long run make articles better and better.

• Only vandalism should be reverted. Anyone who makes an edit has something to say which should be respected.

• Poor and biased writing and misinformation will be corrected in due time. Relax.

Statusquoism

Extreme statusquoism

• An article should not be altered in any potentially controversial way without prior justification.

• The removal of controversial content, say pending fact-checking or discussion, should be reverted until justified in Talk and agreed upon.

• The burden of proof is on anyone who wants to make a change. Unless they're reverting.

Moderate statusquoism

• The state an article has been in for some length of time is the benchmark.

• Edits which add controversial material should be reverted until justified in Talk.

Moderate anti-statusquoism

• Edits should not be reverted unless they are truly just troublesome.

• Poor writing is not a problem; later editors will fix it up.

• If an edit is so controversial that it should be reverted, an explanation should be given on Talk so the author can respond.

Extreme anti-statusquoism

• Edits should not be reverted unless they are basically vandalism.

• Poor writing, biased coverage, and questionable information is no problem; in time, later editors will fix this up.

• Similar to eventualism.

Communityism vs. encylopedianism

Communityism

• Misplaced Pages should be made a welcoming place for newcomers who wish to participate.

• Actions which might be seen as rude and disrespectful to others should be avoided, even if avoiding them temporarily negatively affects the content.

• Personal attacks should not be tolerated.

Encyclopedism

• The sole purpose of Misplaced Pages is to build an encyclopedia; social interaction is a byproduct of no importance.

• Treating people respectfully and being nice to newbies is only desirable inasmuch as it encourages contribution.

• Personal attacks are no big deal. Indeed, it is hard to say they're bad at all if it makes an editor who is wrong back off.

Authorism vs. anti-authorism

Authorism

• Articles, or sections of article, often have a distinguished "main author" who is primarily the writer of the article.

• The original author should be regarded as having more clout than others in how it should be organized and flow.

• While major changes by non-authors should require justification, the original author should feel entitled to reorganize his own prose.

• An article may require inquiry as to "original intent" from the author before changes are made.

Anti-authorism

(I'd like a punchier name for this.)

• There is no author for articles. Although one person may seed an article, each one is a community effort.

• Once an article text has been submitted, the submitter has no special privileges vis-a-vis future edits to that text.

• There is no "original intent" other than what is in the text and perhaps notes on the discussion page.