Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Sounds kind of interesting but there are some questions to ask first.
- How would this group interact with the rest of the editors?
- What sort of guidelines are we possibly looking at?
- How exactly do you ensure adherence to the wiki standard of spelling, grammar, and formatting via this group?
- How do you make sure the editors are being educated and it is sticking?
The thing with editing the way it is you never really know what are going to get in our editors and most editors develop a sort of individual style that can still adhere to the wiki's standards. That and spending a lot of time cleaning up the wiki and demonstrating the correct way to edit would get very tiring fast. The spelling bit kind of sounds like it is the purview of The Help With English Thread.
The more I think about this the more it sounds like gathering up editor volunteers to clean up pages that have become problematic. Namely it almost sounds like the Short and Long Term projects sections only with the added burden of educating editors. I also recall a few schemes have been brought up in the past in regards to educating editors. Nothing that I recall got very far besides the editing tips.
edited 29th Aug '15 3:51:37 PM by TuefelHundenIV
Who watches the watchmen?
Such things as how to handle Example Indentation, what to do if you see possible natter (you know, when in doubt and all that rot), etc. (among other, more mundane stuff). Members of the SGF Task Force will convene in a single thread and report any crimes against spelling and grammar and whatnot. Whoever shall respond to the report will then send the offending party a message detailing (politely, of course) where they went wrong and what they could do to fix it. The SGF Task Force will, of course, respond only to complaints about problems caused by formatting enforcement.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
So basically what the collection of experienced editors normally do anyway.
Who watches the watchmen?
Um. Isn't this the job of policy pages?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
It is, but it's not a bad idea to have a group of seasoned editors who point new editors towards what to do. It can always be hard to learn the customs of a new site.
Reality is that, which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -Philip K. Dick
The imaginative Christian Asperger
Not to mention many tropers still having problems discerning what's okay in spite of the policies stating what they are.
Part of my reason for proposing the SGF Task Force, mind, is that formatting enforcers such as Chaotic Novelist and mlsmithca appear, at least to me, to be Bothering by the Book in regards to formatting rules. My intent is to make sure this sort of activity is curbed. Nothing wrong with adhering to formatting rules, of course. It's the mistakes the enforcers tend to leave behind, potentially affecting the readability of the page(s) in question, that got me worried and wondering if they're doing their job right.
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Still does not sound like something that needs a team running around the site to do what is already done by the editors at large in the first place. While the problem is education of the editors, by the time they make their first edit it is a bit too late whatever damage is done is done and could be a minor clean up to a full page train wreck.
While I do appreciate the need to address the problem of editors as a whole not being evenly educated or experienced on how to edit and format this would just be addressing the symptom not the source. Finding a way to ensure editors are reasonably educated about the site before they ever make their first edit would be far more effective in tackling this problem in the first place. I recall there were a couple proposals along those lines a couple years back. One of them included a relatively simple edutainment themed test. I believe the remains of said test basic layout are still somewhere on the site.
There was another possible solution that could help but at the time was not feasible without re-working software to alleviate one of the concerns. I need to try and remember the proposal so I will get back with you on that.
Who watches the watchmen?
I'd like to suggest an SGF Task Force (SGF being short for Spelling, Grammar, and Formatting) dedicated to keeping This Very Wiki clean. See, some of the top formatting enforcers (for want of a better term) don't do a very good job, to put it lightly, with balancing formatting with spelling, grammar, and readability, and that's caused us a lot of trouble in the past (particularly on pages under the Western Animation namespace, as I have observed). The task force's functions will include teaching about proper spelling and grammar, spreading the Gospel of Formatting, and demonstrating the many varied ways to correct formatting properly using spelling and grammar principles (among other things), among other spelling, grammar, and formatting-related duties.
edited 29th Aug '15 3:05:44 PM by ryanasaurus0077