NoRespectForHistory

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Rant form

Some NewBie chump "discovers" a wiki and after a couple months thinks he's an expert on the WikiWay.

aka Lurk before you leap.

Compare SacredSite for a communal way to respect history.

Alternatively, as the community changes, new members come to feel they are representative of the community as a whole. However, as older contributors leave, the older community is no longer represented in the discussions (bad FairProcess). Due to WikiNow, though, their contributions remain vivid and current. Consequently, unless someone like the Founder sticks up for their positions, the community may violate the trust in which the older contributions were made. This should be important to the new contributors as it was the strength of the old contributions that drew them to the space in the first place.

Since only one or two people know about the older times, it is their words against the rest of the community. The first couple times this may be accepted or even considered valuable. As the community diverges from the original sentiments of the site, though, this tension becomes exacerbated, perhaps into a SeparationOfPositions?.

If there is no one to stick up for the older contributions, there may be less conflict for the short term, even if there have been ethical violations. The risk of a WikiMindWipe increases, though, if an older contributor returns to see his or her words abused. The older the contributions, the more central they may be to the structure of the community. This is dangerous to the community. But maybe not more so than having an albatross around its neck.

And yet sometimes the older values are better.

Change in Wiki norms is not the problem. The problem is an attempt to impose a new norm without at least some consensus and without an understanding of why current norms exist.

Symptoms:

Minor to severe contrast between the style of contribution of a new participant from existing content
Older contributors will give subtle or obvious suggestions about current norms

Consequences:

If there is no resolution, either the newcomer leaves or the "old timers" do. Or, if they both stay, the conflict escalates.

Examples:

Off topic pages are a part of this but are usually squashed pretty quickly
Attempts to introduce signed and time stamped contributions on WardsWiki and MeatballWiki (see Wiki:ConsiderTimestampingYourWriting, TimeStamp)
Judgment of actions made years ago in the perceived current context, before the newbie arrived, as was perpetrated (and now deleted) on Wiki:WikiMindWipe.

As opposed to someone who has been around a wiki for a while and chooses to judge newbies as insufficiently schooled in the WikiWay? What is next, WikiTruth?? Perhaps a WikiReligion?? --MikePence

OneTrueWikiWay? is probably another problem but one I've seen less of than NoRespectForHistory. --JasonYip

The funny thing about this to me is that I became an "expert" on wikis shortly after I began writing on WikiWiki (I lurked for a few months), and Patterns, and so on. Now I run MeatballWiki, and I definitely preach a type of OneTrueWikiWay?. I even mutated the original forms to some more extreme personal version. For instance, sometimes I feel that MeatballWiki is "more wiki" than WikiWiki, especially with the emphasis on SoftSecurity and BarnRaising. And I've generalized Patterns into something I call Resolutions. Maybe I just have no respect for anything! -- SunirShah

I probably only lurked a couple months myself. I wouldn't tend to call myself a WikiExpert? but I would say that I have strong opinions on what the WikiWay is about. This suggests that it's not an issue of lurk time, as the rant form suggests. The rant form still serves as a pretty accurate description of the gut reaction I feel when I enounter another case of NoRespectForHistory. There's a distinction as well from changing a wiki from within a wiki and running a different style of wiki. New wikis shouldn't necessarily have as much respect for history. -- JasonYip

I think it's really a matter of no respect for others. Clearly if you come in to any organization with a shoulder load of assumptions and then begin directing people already there, you will meet massive resistance. It's fair to start your own organization in any way you feel is right, but you can't just bullishly run in breaking china everywhere you turn. -- SunirShah

NoRespectForHistory

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