[Bf-docboard] an alternative to restricting access

[bsod at hiddenworlds.org]

> I'm sorry I didn't make the meeting (I won't be able to make next
> Saturday's meeting either), but I read over the log.  I'd like to throw
> my two cents in as well.
>
>> 3. Wiki writers
>> The current way of granting writing rights won't work in longer term. It
>> was decided that granting of writing rights should be changed towards
>> merit based system similar to CVS commit rights in Blender source. This
>> means that the new users provide "patches" as in additions to the wiki
>> that will be reviewed by the wiki team. To provide easier reviewing, it
>> was suggested that a tracker should be created for this. The tracker
>> could also contain work list. It could be used to assign work to the
>> writers and to coordinate efforts.
>
> I agree with the previous few responses to the above quote: restricting
> access is detrimental to the wiki.  I propose 1) give free access to
> everyone, and 2) have a group of editors review the 'Recent Changes' to
> the wiki . . . the same group that would have been reviewing patches
> anyway.  If, on the odd chance, someone's contributions are harmful to
> the wiki, those editors should reserve the right to restrict access to
> that user.  And to actually do something about this rather than spout
> empty complaints :), I'll volunteer to be part of that editing group.
>

As I mentioned in my last post, this issue is not so much problematic
contributions, it's the continual pollution of the article structure.  At
some point this needs to be addressed, or all the time that this group of
editors have is going to be spent on rearranging the wiki structure.

Unfortunately, Blenderwiki will not operate like wikipedia.  The ideals of
a wiki don't stand up so well in a small userbase.  So whilst there may be
a dedicated team of editors, we will never have the continual upkeep that
something like wikipedia has.

I'm really not sure that complete free access is a good idea, however
simply reviewing the Recent Changes list is probably not going to work
simply because everytime a page is saved a new entry is made in the Recent
Changes menu. Personally I save every few minutes while working on the
wiki and from having looked at the recent changes page, other people do
too.  Maybe another option would be to have new writers place a category
descriptor at the bottom of each page to they modify until the
admins/editors are happy that they are competent.  Something like
[[Category:NewWriterReview]] I suppose.

Ultimately the biggest problem we have is that new people are not familiar
with the structure and namespace layout, and they don't read the writing
instructions, especially if they are already familiar with mediawiki, and
I feel this is something we need to address.

> I wholeheartedly agree with the need to assign work, or have some sort
> of sign-up sheet.  Ideally, readers should be able to tag a page as
> 'incomplete' and then that page automatically shows up on the To Do
> list.  That way, writers just check the To Do list, starting from the
> top, and slowly crank through it.

I've actually started implementing this plan.  I've created a template
that can be embedded with {{Incomplete}} notation which puts a small
warning at the top of the page saying that it's up for review and adds it
to the Review category.  I created this to start removing the many
{{Warning}} template instances all through the wiki which tell people not
to edit the page because they are currently being worked on.  I've sifted
through most of those pages now and removed the Warning template and
replaced it with the Incomplete one if the page hasn't been modified for
some time. No point restricting editing if no one is working on them.

This way we can check the review list by going
tohttp://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/Category:Review which will be
especially useful for tracking areas that need work, unfinished parts, and
for meeting discussions.

If a page is not incomplete but needs review anyway, add
[[Category:Review]] o the bottom of the page so it shows up in the review
list but doesn't show the Incomplete banner.

If you do either of these things, please make a note in the relevant
Discussion page for why the article is on the review list.  That way when
we do come to review it in meetings etc, we know what the issue is.

>
> What about prioritizing that To Do list?  How about this: any wiki
> reader could check the To Do page, and give a To Do item a bump up in
> priority (I need info about Pivot Points, but it's near the end of the
> list! *bump*).  I'm not sure what kind of voting functionality the wiki
> has to implement this.  But if we had something along these lines, the
> user community would determine what is important to write, and we
> writers can better focus our efforts.
>

I don't know how this can be achieved, mediawiki has no inbuilt provision
for this, though an extension could be built to handle it.  I suggested in
the wikipeople meeting that perhaps a tracker was a good idea, essentially
just a bug tracker so that issues can be reviewed to editors and
prioritised.

-Tim