OrthodoxWiki talk:Administrators

Talk pages

I wanted to drop a note to clarify my philosophy about Talk pages. It is my understanding that all changes are, in a technical sense, archived. All changes that are made on any page can be viewed and previous versions can be restored. The kind of archiving that Andrew speaks of is a way of moving a bunch of the previous discussion to another place, but archives it in such a way that it is "searchable." It is not that I am against that kind of thing. In fact, in the science laboratory (I am a Biochemist) we are taught to never delete anything.

Let me summarize my thoughts

• When I made one of my first posts on a discussion page, I was somewhat bewildered by the 10-15 headings. I wasn't sure whether to post on the top or the bottom (conventions vary). As I read the previous discussion, it was clear that a number of the issues had been discussed and addressed. I just didn't see the point in keeping them in a prominent place.
• Ask my wife, I tend to hoard things. I guess part of my concerns stem out my own issues and the desire to handle paperwork and get organized. Handle things once, dispose or file things that I'm done with, etc.

Thanks for listening. --Joe Rodgers 20:53, 28 Jun 2005 (EDT)

Jumping in

Hi Joe et al,

I've haven't followed this thing too closely, so forgive me if I stumble over some details. I don't think we necessarily need to keep every little thing, and your point about revision history is well taken. However, I do think we should be careful about what to delete, and I am in accord with Rdr. Andrew's suggestion that we archive long discussions into subpages. If the discussion is worth keeping around, it's better to keep it in this kind of archive rather than merely the revision history, which, as I understand it, is basically for things which can be forgotten (but exists in order to track, restore, replace, as well as for reasons of security). Given this perspective, I'd say let the admins do the pruning (deleting) of the discussion pages, but feel free to archive if you think a page has gotten too long. Have I missed anything?

It's good to have you onboard, and I'm personally grateful for your contributions. You mentioned some other things we can talk about too -- like whether comments should be added to the top or bottom of discussion pages. It can certainly be helpful to articulate these things. What I've been doing, and I think others have as well, is treating most discussion pages more like a forum format and adding new comments at the end (notably, this is the default when using the MediaWiki '+' button). IMO, This works best because discussion naturally flows down a page. However, on pages such as current events or OrthodoxWiki:News that contain time-sensitive, or at least time-dated material, I've been adding new things to the top, more like a blog. This puts the emphasis on the newest thing.

Best wishes & Yours in Christ,

Fr. John 22:28, 28 Jun 2005 (EDT)

P.S. I smiled at the hoarding article. Just don't show my wife!