The PageMaintainer is a person with privileged authority in leading and reworking a page. This privilege is granted by the WikiCommunity. The privilege is for the duration of a conversation, and revocable.
PageMaintainer: LionKimbro
PageMaintainerExpectations
The PageMaintainer, roughly speaking:
- Leads conversation, and determines a ConversationProcess on the page.
- Is responsive to reasonable and cooperative requests. If someone doesn’t like some aspect of the organization, they can simply ask, “Well, why not do it this other way?” and a civil maintainer who agrees will rearrange things to go the other way.
- Is responsible for reworking findings into the DocumentMode, by whatever reworking goals the PageMaintainer holds.
- Deletes or archives comments after reworking.
Some specific cases:
- If someone asks a question as PageMaintainer, and if the conversation goes good, but then starts to drift, the PageMaintainer can say: “This thread has gone OffTopic, and we should go back to our main question.” If someone balks, and argues, “This is a wiki, everybody is equal here, who are you to say what we should talk about?” …it is expected that the Community will shun this person and this argument, because the Community has granted the PageMaintainer leadership for the conversation.
- If someone asks a question as PageMaintainer, and if the conversation is good and also diverges in many places, the PageMaintainer can rework in only those parts of the conversation that were relevant to the initial question. If someone claims, “Wait, we talked about X, Y, and Z as well; This must all be reworked in!” …it is expected that the Community will shun this person and this argument, because the Community has granted the PageMaintainer reworking authority, so that content will be reworked at all; It is not the burden of the PageMaintainer to keep track of every single idea, or even a majority of ideas. If someone else would like to rework ideas onto another page, or assist the PageMaintainer (with due deference) in reworking content in, the person may do so.
On CommunityWiki, we want and need leaders, and this means giving them the space to lead, in their own unique way.
Participant Expectations
People other than the maintainer (“participants,”):
- Discuss, in ThreadMode at the bottom of the page, or wherever and however the PageMaintainer decides discussion goes.
- Heed the PageMaintainer, should the maintainer request a change in direction.
- May apply their own edits to the DocumentMode, but are expected to politely defer to the PageMaintainer, should a disagreement arise.
- Should exercise their RightToLeave (the conversation,) should they find it’s not a conversation they want to hold, as maintained.
Some specific cases:
- If a PageMaintainer is abusive, a participant should appeal to the community, on a DatePage or NamePage: “PageMaintainer Foo is being abusive, on page X, here’s how:”, and describe the nature of the abuse. The community will then decide what to do. Deference should be given to CommunityMembers? first, and then OccasionalContributors?.
- If a PageMaintainer has overlooked something, just bring it up in the discussion on the page: “Well, why not do it this other way?” The PageMaintainer may be swayed, and change his or her system. But the Page‘Maintainer may not be swayed, in which case it is probably best to go along with the prior system.
Limits to Flexibility
PageMaintainer-ship is largely selected self-voluntarily. Someone says, “Here’s a new page, and I am it’s PageMaintainer.”
It is possible for flexibility to become “over-extended”, or pushed beyond it’s benefical limits. For instance, if a “troll”, or person with destructive intentions decides to insist upon being given permission to disrupt or cause dysfunction within the community by demanding “flexibility”. In such a case, a community can fall back on it’s fundamental structure, co-created by trusted community members, to decide when flexibility is being over-extended. CommunityWikiBylaws is an example of a structure that is intended to make a decision such about what is seen as beneficial, or non-beneficial by a community.
Keep in mind that there are some expectations about page creation (alone, much less adding PageMaintainer to it) on this wiki, that are not quite articulated. Page creation alone is a sensitive subject; It’s recommended that people who are brand-new do not create pages at all (save a NamePage, or a DatePage,) and it’s recommended that those who are comfortable creating new pages, but still relatively new (6 months,) not create more than 1 page a day. Even then: Be responsive, pay attention. People who have been here longer feel into when multiple pages can and should be made.
The PageMaintainer is made to encourage leadership and experimentation. Lead and experiment! But if CommunityMembers reject an experiment for some reason, be receptive. It my be best to try the experiment somewhere other than on CommunityWiki, (it may be beneficial to ask the community for direction, technical support, and participants,) and then report back on how it goes.
Chain of Authority
- “In… social arrangements online, the social arrangement works only when the amount of people… that want it to work outnumber those that do not. … Social arrangements/agreements are only sustainable when the community is engaged in enacting and using them. (This is the secret behind SoftSecurity: It absolutely requires an actively engaged community.)” – (SamRose)
Where does the authority for a PageMaintainer come from?
If I call myself a PageMaintainer, what’s backing that up?
- First, there are CommunityMembers?, OccasionalContributors?, and CommunityWiki customs, which determine who may or may not back you up.
- Should it be the case that CommunityDoesNotAgree, if there is an escalation, it would likely be to CommunityWikiBylaws.
- From there, it’s likely based in control of the wiki software itself: CommunityMembers? with the wiki password, AlexSchroeder.
- Further out, there are state, national, super-natural laws and powers.
PageMaintainer has only been around a brief time, and as of this writing (2007-01-18,) we have never seen a situation arise where we’ve needed to check this.
Special Exception: No Deference on CommunityWiki Policy Issues
- “But this brings up a very interesting issue… If a page which has a PageMaintainer contains normative speech (i.e. “On CommunityWiki, we think you should do this”), then in effect the PageMaintainer has more power than others on the policy issues addressed on that page. … make it an expectation that text addressing policy issues is to some extent exempt from the PageMaintainer process, i.e. the maintainer can’t stop people from changing portions of the page which make normative suggestions.” (BayleShanks)
PageMaintainer expectations do not apply when CommunityMembers? and CommunityWikiAssembly members discuss CommunityWiki norms or policy.
See Also
PageMaintainerSeries
Discussion
Articulating PageCreation?. Yikes.
Newcomers are always asking, “When can I make a page? Why can so-and-so create 3 pages at once, but I can’t? Why did so-and-so, who is new, make a page, and nobody cared? Why are my pages almost universally rejected? Isn’t this wiki? Isn’t this egalitarian?”
Ho boy.
Other then that, I think the first version of this page is done.
Comments? Revisions? Suggestsions? Questions? Recommendations? Other feedback?
Two comments.
First, I was about to make a comment concerning a disagreement with an issue of policy which is stated on this page (see second comment). But this brings up a very interesting issue, more interesting than what I was originally going to disagree with, so I’ll say it first. If a page which has a PageMaintainer contains normative speech (i.e. “On CommunityWiki, we think you should do this”), then in effect the PageMaintainer has more power than others on the policy issues addressed on that page. My personal opinion is that the best thing to do is to make it an expectation that text addressing policy issues is to some extent exempt from the PageMaintainer process, i.e. the maintainer can’t stop people from changing portions of the page which make normative suggestions. On the other hand, we could decide to do the opposite, and explicitly support the status of a PageMaintainer as being a little bit in charge of whatever issues of policy are addressed on the page.
Second, I think newcomers should feel free to create pages immediately, provided they don’t create too many, and provided they realize that the page might be ignored or even immediately deleted (on the other hand, new page creation shouldn’t be promoted to newcomers above posting on existing pages, as it’s more rewarding to have someone respond to what you write, and that’s more likely if you post on an existing page; but if someone wants to create a new page anyway, heck, why not).
Whoah; Interesting!
First, I agree with your first thoughts about PageMaintainer not applying on CW policy questions. I disagree with the alternative (“On the other hand, …”)
I personally do not see PageMaintainer operating at the level of CommunityWikiBylaws, and more, rather, at the more social level of CommunityExpectations. That said, I think it’s worth mentioning in here.
Re: newcomers; I’m inclined to agree with what you just said.
There are other “newcomer issues” to answer.
I would advocate:
- the page creation policy you just said, with some more specific limits (1 page for first appearance, then no more than 2 pages in a day, and no more than 5 pages in a week, for the next month, to give something roughly matching our pacing) – I feel we also need something to the effect of: “These are limits, but not guarantees of acceptance.”
- OrientationCall for new people
- assigning someone, (a CommunityMember, active, and most likely to be sympathetic with the person,) to be in private communication with the new person, to help answer questions, explain things that happen (“why did people respond with X, when I did Y?”), and otherwise help people make sense of the first experiences here, without having to expose themselves to the entire community
But we should probably talk about these things on another page, I’m thinking.