This page covers a current WikiGardening focus: ThreadMode discussions and the RefactorOk tag (along with DeleteOk). A section of WikiGardening chat is included below as a reference.
The goal of this refactoring is to improve the wiki by, slowly and carefully, summarizing ThreadMode conversation. In the process, RefactorOk will be deprecated in favor acknowledging traditional WikiRefactoring guidelines.
This page is both an announcement and a place to gather input on if or how to procede with this refactoring. As a sandbox for beginning to think in terms of DocumentMode editing, please AvoidSignatures and ThreadMode discussion on this page; instead, if you want to clarify a statement, add more statements, or edit or delete redundant statements, please do so directly.
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Timeline: Start in a few days, after this page has had a chance to be read.
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Take it slowly.
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Refactor your own stuff first.
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Choose one or a few pages, starting with less controversial pages, and begin refactoring them.
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Get familiar with refactoring.
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Get other wiki users familiar with the style of refactoring, get their input on the success of the initial and ongoing pages, and be sure to get their input on whether the refactoring includes all sides of discussion.
<AaronSw> popping up a level, i think we should get agreement on names and refactorok <AaronSw> i think we should flip around RefactorOk and make it NoRefactor <bitsko> can you expand on "agreement on names"? <AaronSw> so that refactorok is presumed <rubys> +1 to NoRefactor <Isofarro> AaronSW: good suggestion <AaronSw> agreement on names: what to do with signed comments: discourage, refactor, etc. <sbp> +1, already been proposed, not sure why it's not been implemented yet <danja> +1 to NoRefactor <bitsko> "what to do with signed comments and No/Refactor/Ok", can that be restated as factoring between ThreadMode and DocumentMode, or is that something different? <danja> I like modes <bitsko> modes are fine, the question is more to where they appear <AaronSw> I consider ThreadMode as a problem to be fixed; i.e. the discussion should be cleaned up and summarized <danja> Thread & Doc are intermingled quite a bit - separation might be a good first step <danja> i.e. improve XXX and XXXDiscuss split <sbp> the problem with cleaning up and summarizing is that you're bound to lose a lot of the information in the original thread. splitting off discussions and then summarizing and linking would be better <AaronSw> if you agree with my position (threadmode is bad) then there's not a lot of point in /Discuss separation <sbp> then again, the discussion can still continue which means that the summarization will go out of date... but you want the threading to continue <AaronSw> bound to? I don't think that's true <bitsko> that may be a matter of the newness of our wiki <bitsko> iow, a mature wiki wouldn't do that but maybe ours should <Isofarro> sbp: Yeah. How about moving the Threads to a Discuss page, replace with a summary, and link the summary to that particular discussion... I know its a bit of work. <bitsko> I've added, and refreshed: <bitsko> * What to do with signed comments <bitsko> * suggestion: flip around RefactorOk and make it NoRefactor <sbp> why would it not be true? if you change the structure so radically, you're bound to lose some of the subtleties, nuances and connotations of the original discussion at the very least; but you'll probably end up losing a lot of the discussion too. plus, if the summarizer is biased in his or her approach of the discussion, some people points of view may be omitted, the story not told quite as truthfully, etc. <bitsko> to capture the original refactoring suggestion. is there a suggestion specific to ThreadMode/DocumentMode? <danja> I don't think ThreadMode is bad, just needs keeping separate <AaronSw> well, that's not my experience, sbp. <danja> sbp - true, and linking would avoid upsetting people by deletes <AaronSw> these are technologists, not shakespeares <Isofarro> danja: Yeah, that's the upside, and it may avoids the endless loop of rediscussion. <sbp> so what? technologists work by debate and facts, and you can leave parts of the debate out and misrepresent them, and you can leave facts out and distort them in summarizations <danja> until Refactor switch has been made, it's more polite to link <Znarf> +1 separation between thread & document for the moment <bitsko> lets hold off on the detailed discussion and keep to adding to the list <AaronSw> so a) don't leave out part of the debate and b) if you see it left out, add it to the summary <AaronSw> the goal is to get people modifying the summary instead of discussing <bitsko> refreshed with: * Seperate Thread and Document mode <AaronSw> if you want to discuss, you can do it on the mailing list <AaronSw> but the wiki is meant to be a living document, not a chatroom <danja> Aaron - I disagree - both can coexist <bitsko> are there more bullets to add re. thread and document mode? <AaronSw> I'm not saying they can't coexist, i'm just saying I don't want them to <sbp> nope. I think we can move on :-)