FIRSTwiki: Sysops

[Astronouth7303]

If you are a registered FIRSTwiki user, please go check out the Nominations for Sysops.

The current Nominees are:

• Brandon Martus
• Phrontist
• Astronouth7303

The current Sysops are:

• Maxlobovsky (max)
• SilverStar
• Mrawls (Mtrawls)

PLEASE NOTE: Only vote/nominate if you are logged in. If an IP address appears as the contributor, we will assume you are an anonymos editer and act apropriately.

[Brandon Martus]

Hah. I think I forgot to log in when accepting. Whoops.

[David Kelly]

I dont think FIRSTwiki type of thing will EVER work. It's way to easy for people to abuse it. I think it's a good thought, but these types of way open sourced/ commenting type of things will never work. I dont know how other wiki's prevent abuse, but I think its something that will never fly.

[Astronouth7303]

We just had a case of that. He's now blocked.

[PS: 1110 Pages, 71 users]

[mtrawls]

Originally Posted by David Kelly

I dont think FIRSTwiki type of thing will EVER work. It's way to easy for people to abuse it. I think it's a good thought, but these types of way open sourced/ commenting type of things will never work. I dont know how other wiki's prevent abuse, but I think its something that will never fly.

This was addressed somewhat in this thread. Specifically, you might refer to this wikipedia page. Basically, there are more good users than bad users. Anyone can revert the edits done by vandals, and sysops have the power to ban persistant vandals from creating their havoc. There'll be problems, sure -- humans innately suffer from human nature -- but we'll be there to fix it. Just look at Wikipedia -- it's an open sourced/ commenting type of thing, and it has worked out and is working out quite wonderfully.

[Max Lobovsky]

To add to what mtrawls said, Wikipedia is larger than any other encyclopedia in many measures. There are hundreds of other wiki's on the web. It is becoming standard practice to use wiki's for creating documentation for software. It isn't exactly something new we are doing here. Just new to FIRST.

As wiki users say again and again to skeptics, just try it for yourself, you will soon understand.

[phrontist]

Originally Posted by David Kelly

I dont think FIRSTwiki type of thing will EVER work. It's way to easy for people to abuse it. I think it's a good thought, but these types of way open sourced/ commenting type of things will never work. I dont know how other wiki's prevent abuse, but I think its something that will never fly.

Ha! I find it kind of funny the way different people react to the wiki concept. It seems people who have a "liberal" mindset fall in love with it, while those who would be more "conservative" think its doomed to failure. :-) I'm just guessing by your sig David, and I mean no offense. I just find it humorous. Rationally though, I thought wiki was doomed to failure.

Personally, I think wikipedia's success is fairly good proof that its not.

[mtrawls]

Bah! I'm pretty darn conservative myself, and I like the wiki idea. IMHO, your acceptance at first depends on your exposure and your inclination to technology (esp. OSS). To the non-computer programmer types out there, you do have to admit that an open content system like FIRSTwiki seems doomed to failure -- it's quite amazing, however, that this isn't the case. Of course, if you've been exposed to other projects and seen them work ... or seen them fail, that affects your opinion too. I think you're just noticing (from a sample size of 1?) that computer people and OSS people in general tend to have libertarian/liberal leanings ... but not all.

(And for the record, I'm more of a libertarian, but I lean more to the conservative end of the spectrum than the liberal end ... typically a lot more.)

[Max Lobovsky]

Interesting that you say that, ESR writes in the Jargon File that Linux/GNU/OSS/whatever advocates lean more towards conservative. Libertarian I am, and conservative I lean. I think there is an association between logic/science minded people and conservatism, but there is not a relationship between OSS and liberalism.

[mtrawls]

Perhaps I just read slashdot too much.