WhyClublet

MeatballWiki | RecentChanges | Random Page | Indices | Categories

A wiki that asks the question Why?

As of August 2002, it has 2467 pages (comma count 2,153). See also BiggestWiki.

Wiki:WhyIsNowClosed - apparently since August 2008, according to them.

December 10, 2002. WhyClublet seems down. Further, apparently they have FishBowled the site in a similar way as OrgPatterns? is and GreenCheese used to be. cf. Wiki:WhyClublet claims Why:WhyIsNowClosed (if that linked worked).

Does anyone know about the circumstances? Why has Why been closed? Is this temporary or permanent? -- HelmutLeitner

Richard claims that it will be until the next year. Apparently only Keith and Ward knew about fishbowling before Richard did it, but apparently Why has been having a lot of trouble lately as people have been leaving on bad terms. As usual with Why, the truth is hard to discern.

Keith here. For the record, Why isn't fishbowled as I'd understand the term. As to closed, anyone can ask Richard for a password, and potentially receive one. You guys over here with the lock on "wickiness" will have to tell me if that constitutes closed. Quite what policy he's using to determine who gets a password I don't know, not having bothered to apply myself.

In my opinion, what's happened is that certain individuals who in the past have noticed how easy it is to get a really good rise from Richard by certain consistently effective chain-yanking techniques were having another go, and he descided that enough was enough. Where does the blame lie? Buggered if I know. Added to which, Richard had been unhappy with the tone and content of Why for some time. What would have made him happy is difficult to skry out, since his statements on the matter have been less than clear. Personally, I was finding that Christian content was swamping all other kinds, and conspiracy-nut modes of discourse ditto. Also, that my contribution to the forum was increasingly devalued, for difficult to understand reasons. So I jumped fractionally before I was pushed. (Oh, yeah, that reminds me: you might want to find someone else to be the bus tour rep for Why)

The aim, I understand, is that Why continues for the moment almost as a weblog while Richard and a few selected associates untangle, extend, clarify, and generally tidy up to their satisfaction the existing content. Why will then reopen to approximately anyone with a broswer sometime between one and thirteen months from now. What it will be for, at that time, I've no idea. And neither, I suspect, does Richard.

"Next year" might mean that it reopens in January, but Richard also writes "a year is not too short". I think this is a bad precedent. To close an open wiki without discussion in the community damages the trust of wiki contributors in the stability of our systems and rules. -- HelmutLeitner

I don't think so. Richard has rarely done anything I would agree with, and if you're measuring wikis by roughly what we do here, then it would seem Why was very non-wiki indeed. Of course, the CommunityExpectations of a given wiki are upto its community, I suppose, so there's no guarantee it has to be anything we claim it has to be. This is the same debate as WikiPediaIsNotTypical, and I think it's an empty one. The only thing we can say, really, is that our way is what we recommend, but we could be wrong as well. Then again, if you're really concerned about the image of wikis in general, I'd worry more about WikiWiki. -- SunirShah

And as to the general problem -- the stability of systems and rules -- there is none. The only solution is a RightToFork; then at least the content and the community can move elsewhere. -- AlexSchroeder

CategoryOnlineCommunity

WhyClublet

Discussion