[CentOS-docs] wiki and author/maintainer name

[Johnny Hughes]

Karanbir Singh wrote:
> Akemi Yagi wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I think that every wiki page should have a name(s) of the
>> author/maintainer of that page like in:
>>
>> http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/JavaOnCentOS
> 
> I strongly disagree. By adding the name of a person on there, you
> basically say that this page is $OnePersonsPage and other people should
> stay away. The whole idea of a wiki is to have edit access for as many
> people as possible.

Actually ... I think I disagree with that.  When an author commits
something to the wiki, the author still maintains the copyright.  As
such, they are responsible (to some extent) for the content.  In a
shared environment, that is maintainable by others, BUT, I think giving
acknowledgment to the original author is something that should be done.

I don't think that putting something in the wiki makes it a free for all
and just anyone should be able to update it.  Especially for How-Tos and
Article type content.  Now, we do have a very restrictive edit policy at
this point and we have had no problems that I know of to date ... but I
think acknowledgment is a good thing.

We are not going to get many "Real Authors" to post here if we have a
policy where by everything is owned by the group and they get nothing in
 return.

> 
> A link to the changelog should be plenty, if people want to work out
> where to send the changes if they dont have edit rights - there should
> be a policy and howto page for that in the wiki, perhaps link to that
> page from the bottom of each content page.
> 
>> The name that appears at the bottom is not adequate because it could
>> be someone who has just corrected a typo.  In fact, that entry can be
>> eliminated once the contact info has been given on the page.
> 
> This is like going back a few steps from the idea of a wiki to the idea
> of html static pages. What problem are you actually trying to solve here ?
> 
>> The whole purpose of this is of course to make it easier for people to
>> send in corrections / questions / tips / accolade etc etc.
> 
> I see it go the other way, make it more strongly associated to one
> person, and thereby discourage edits by other people.

Well as an example ... do we want someone who knows nothing about DRBD
changing the detailed article written by Arrfab ... I don't think we
want that at all.  I would check with him before I changed anything on
that article, and I think that should be standard policy.

Now for some things, like the CentOS in the Media page, I agree that
there is total sharing and that is good.  I don't feel the same way for
Articles that are technical in nature though.

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes

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