Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 18:42, 6 April 2011

Welcome to this sandbox page, a space to experiment with editing. You can either edit the source code ("Edit source" tab above) or use VisualEditor ("Edit" tab above). Click the "Publish changes" button when finished. You can click "Show preview" to see a preview of your edits, or "Show changes" to see what you have changed. Anyone can edit this page and it is automatically cleared regularly (anything you write will not remain indefinitely). Click here to reset the sandbox. You can access your personal sandbox by clicking here, or using the "Sandbox" link in the top right.Creating an account gives you access to a personal sandbox, among other benefits. Do NOT, under any circumstances, place promotional, copyrighted, offensive, or libelous content in sandbox pages. Repeatedly doing so WILL get you blocked from editing. For more info about sandboxes, see Misplaced Pages:About the sandbox and Help:My sandbox. New to Misplaced Pages? See the contributing to Misplaced Pages page or our tutorial. Questions? Try the Teahouse! Sandbox navigation Information About the sandbox Misuse of the sandbox Misplaced Pages sandboxes Misplaced Pages sandbox Misplaced Pages talk sandbox Template sandboxes {{Template sandbox}} {{TemplateStyles sandbox}} {{X1}} {{X2}} {{X3}} {{X4}} {{X5}} {{X6}} {{X7}} {{X8}} {{X9}} {{X10}} {{X11}} {{X12}} {{X13}} {{X14}} {{X15}} {{X16}} {{X17}} {{X18}} {{X19}} {{X20}} Draft sandboxes Draft sandbox User sandboxes User sandbox User talk sandbox User warnings sandbox Module sandboxes Module sandbox File sandboxes File:Image page sandbox.png File:Image page sandbox2.png File:Image page sandbox3.png File:Image page sandbox4.png File:Image page sandbox5.png File:Image page sandbox6.png File:Image page sandbox7.png File:Image page sandbox8.png File:Image page sandbox (API upload test).png File:Image page sandbox.jpeg My sandboxes My sandbox Test wikis Test Misplaced Pages Test Misplaced Pages 2

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Misplaced Pages is the seventh most visited website in the world. It boasts 18 million articles across over 200 languages, with 3.5 million in the English edition. Having recently celebrated its tenth anniversary, Misplaced Pages has solidified itself as the most popular reference work in use today. Despite this, it has taken much criticism for its writing practices and consequent reliability. Phrases such as “I read it on Misplaced Pages, so it must be true” have entered the vernacular as gags, alluding to the questionable verifiability process that goes relatively without scrutiny, considering the online encyclopedia’s cultural impact. The reputation of Misplaced Pages is far from immaculate—after all, the site’s slogan defines the project as “the 💕 that anyone can edit”. Intended as a welcoming banner, it has been misconstrued as a self-admission of the site’s perceived unscholarly attitude. The use of “anyone” has resulted in widespread misinterpretation as to how the encyclopedia is written. Experts are inherently trustworthy, but Misplaced Pages asserts that it is written by “anyone”. There are a couple of problems with this assumption. First of all, just because anyone can edit, it does not mean that anyone or everyone does edit. Secondly, that anyone can edit works both ways. While people do add whatever they want, others revert them almost immediately. With its popularity, a community has emerged behind the scenes and Misplaced Pages faces something of an identity crisis as both an encyclopedia and a forum in which to discuss it. In spite of the project’s platform of transparency and scholarly attitude, the editing process has become more complex and editors are becoming disenfranchised with editing, instead turning to give themselves status within the community for the betterment of the encyclopedia or not.

Many readers of Misplaced Pages have made an edit or two, fixing a typographical error or adding a piece of anecdotal knowledge, but contrary to popular belief, Misplaced Pages is not the sum of a series of small edits that culminate on a global scale; rather, Misplaced Pages is mostly the sum of a relatively small community of editors who contribute the bulk of information. The small edits that are contributed by everyday people are exactly that: small. There may be 14 million registered users, but only 5000 contributors are making over 100 edits in a given month. These users are diligent, extremely dedicated and revert nonsense edits within seconds. With this small community running the world’s foremost piece of reference, they have developed a multitude of editing policies and guidelines and policies and guidelines for how to discuss such editing. The editors, contributors or “Wikipedians” have developed an internal language of jargon and shortcuts with which to communicate in a timely fashion. These thousands have varying editing rights, titles and de facto hierarchical positions. The community is a social network with user pages and awards. While discussion is largely presented formally, abbreviations are commonplace. Overtime, inside jokes have sprung up and other items may be missed by a casual reader, despite a presence in plain sight. The community’s glossary lists over 400 entries. As a great deal of Misplaced Pages takes place behind the scenes in discussions about formatting, the legitimacy of sources and the policies on vandalism and the likes, knowing the vernacular of the community is crucial. Writing an article is only half the battle—if even that much.

There are also a number of accepted policies and guidelines. While these are generally followed, Misplaced Pages is edited by people and personalities manage to shine through in discussion. Misplaced Pages always welcomes new users, but new users cannot just jump into being a respected member of the community. Through time, one learns proper “Wikiquette” and can interact respectably with other members of the small community, so that they can produce the most influential writing that they will ever do, which no one will ever know about.

Despite the importance of real-time updates, Misplaced Pages discussion functions almost exclusively asynchronously. A live Internet relay chat is available, users occasionally email each other and real-life meet-ups and conferences happen around the world, but nearly all discussion takes place on the Misplaced Pages website. For every article, there is a specific discussion page that can be accessed by clicking the appropriate tab at the top of the article. On these “Talk” or “Discussion” pages, users discuss changes to the article, especially ones that may be controversial. While Misplaced Pages’s founder Jimmy Wales has admitted that the encyclopedia overall is probably left of centre, the second of the five pillars of Misplaced Pages is to display a neutral point of view. The three most important content policies are neutral point of view (abbreviated as WP:NPOV), verifiability (WP:V) and no original research (WP:NOR). Additional abbreviations exist, but these are the official shorthand for them and can link to the policy pages when inserted into discussion. As the three primary policies, article discussions usually fall into at least one of these three categories. Discussions on Misplaced Pages vary as a result of a controversial edit or in anticipation of an edit that is potentially controversial. It follows that discussion with regard to edits that have not been made are more civil, but also met with considerable resistance, as people have a tendency not to deviate from the status quo. Most discussion pages have a series of banners at the top of the page with links to relevant policies, guidelines and project pages that serve as centralized areas for users editing similar or related articles. Below, discussion takes place. Discussions generally take place on the same pages concurrently, with headers separating them and new discussions at the bottom of the page. More popular articles may have several discussions unfolding simultaneously. As such, to the untrained eye, there may be continued discussion on an old topic buried in the centre of the page, so the editor’s greatest tool for keeping up in discussions is the “watchlist”. Users create customizable, private lists of articles and other pages that they can quickly check at a glance for recent changes. However, the watchlist only displays the single most recent change; while editors may choose to look beyond their watchlists, by including only the most recent change, Misplaced Pages subtly encourages frequent checks of one’s watchlist, adhering to the site’s real-time nature.

Every post in a discussion is supposed to be ended with a user signature to prevent confusion about who said what and it is poor etiquette not to leave one. Even unregistered users have the option of leaving a standard pre-generated signature that displays their IP address. These signatures are the one of just a few parts of Misplaced Pages for which users may stylize text with colour, font and size. Signatures typically contain three links to an editor’s user page, talk page and list of contributions. User pages are probably the only other part of Misplaced Pages with non-standard text. They serve to identify users and are usually edited solely by the user whose page it is. Users post biographies, userboxes that identify interests both in the real world and Misplaced Pages. A picture or two are acceptable, but more are frowned upon, as Misplaced Pages is not Facebook.

Discussion is atypically formal for Internet chatter. The grammar is consistent with the lengthy manual of style that is used for the encyclopedia’s encyclopedic content. While in-house abbreviations for the rules of Misplaced Pages are acceptable, other forms of shorthand that have developed in the age of the Internet, emails and texting are frowned upon and usually only used by new editors.

In Misplaced Pages discourse—like on the encyclopedia—it is common practice to link when useful yet not invasive. For example, the article on Barack Obama opens with “Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, having taken office in 2009.” Note that “President of the United States” links to the article of the same name, while “44th” and “current” are “piped” links that link to the articles respectively for “List of Presidents of the United States” and “Presidency of Barack Obama”. While all of the words in the sentence could be linked, linking to the articles on “1961” or the word “and” has been deemed unnecessary and cluttering. Discussion amongst editors works in a similar fashion and it follows that the only links on talk pages lead to other discussion pages, articles in question and community pages. Almost all community pages, including policy and group pages can be linked using the prefix “WP:-” followed by an acronym or other abbreviation. For example, the site’s manual of style is often referred to as MOS and is easily linked by WP:MOS. In linking with WP:MOS, the linking user is likely reminding others in the discussion of content on that page, as non-linking and simply referring to it as MOS indicates a perceived mutual understanding of the referenced page. Alternatively, using WP:MOS, but not linking to the page, could be done to avoid confusion with another manual of style perhaps outside of Misplaced Pages editing. Three common website-specific acronymic abbreviations include AFD (articles that need to be checked for notability and consequent worthiness as encyclopedic articles are nominated at “articles for deletion”), FA (the site’s top-quality articles are granted “featured article” status) and 3RR (editors are advised not to engage in edit wars and break the “three-revert rule”). The “wiki-” prefix has lent itself to jargon, used in ways such as Wikiquette (an informal name for community etiquette), Wikilawyering (exploiting technicalities in policy semantics) and “Wikilink” (an internal link).

There are a variety of ways in which people contribute to Misplaced Pages. Some write articles, others review articles for grammar and style, others work exclusively behind the scenes in moderating disputes and the likes; most engage in a mix of activities. Unofficial pages exist to describe different types of editors in a humorous fashion, using mythical woodland creatures that have specific functions. WikiFairies improve style and formatting; WikiGnomes fix spelling and grammar and add links to ease readability. At the other end of the spectrum are WikiOgres, who focus all of their edits and may write almost an entire article before his or her interest is piqued again, making only minor edits between such times.

As the primary focus of Misplaced Pages is the encyclopedia—the site’s first pillar is such—and not the politics and people behind it, Misplaced Pages downplays its hierarchy. There are no credits on articles; pictures—most of which are “copyleft”—are used freely. A frequent complaint across Internet forums is that a small group of experienced users use their authority as an excuse to unfairly police and make decisions for other. Originally a religious and political term, the term cabal now most commonly refers to these groups of power-hungry Internet forum veterans. One of the biggest inside jokes amongst editors is the assertion that “there is no cabal” (TINC), which is something of the Misplaced Pages equivalent to “you do not talk about fight club” in the 1999 film Fight Club. Officially, Misplaced Pages claims that there is an illusion of a cabal because experienced editors have more experience than inexperienced editors and while it may appear that they side with one another out of loyalty, they actually do it because they share a more developed opinion of what is “right” for the encyclopedia. Whether or not a cabal does exist is highly debatable and joke policy pages and banners have sprung up. What is less debatable is that there is a hierarchy. Wikipedians vary in editing rights, depending on how the community views them. Unregistered users can edit most things, but cannot create pages. After a welcoming period, registered users gain the ability to create pages and upload files, such as pictures. Once time has passed, users may apply for rollback rights, which allow them to revert vandalism edits in fewer clicks than if they could not rollback.

The ultimate goal of most committed editors is to become an administrator (often shortened to admin and previously sysop—short for system operator). Once one becomes an administrator, that editor is basically an administrator for life and would have to do something extremely contentious in order to “desysopped”, as the approval process is so investigative to begin with. There are only 1700 administrators and fewer than 800 of them are still actively editing. 50 editors have had their administrative rights revoked. The “requests for adminship” process was originally much more inclusive; in fact, in the early days of Misplaced Pages, all editors had administrative rights and the application process only began as a preventative measure against problem editors and drive-by vandals. However, editors are increasingly scrutinized in the process, making the club much more exclusive and giving much fuel to the theory that there is a cabal. In recent years, the process itself has been increasingly scrutinized and respected editors often say that they might not have been promoted under today’s standards. Famously, founder Jimmy Wales stated in 2003 that “becoming a sysop is not a big deal” because the process is meant to help with maintaining the encylopedia and not as a status symbol. This adage is repeated frequently to remind users of the official job description, which equates the position with that of a janitor—the official graphic is the Misplaced Pages logo with a mop—in that they do have special tools, but they are merely to be used for maintenance. Administrators can block pages from being edited and edit these protected pages themselves, delete and restore pages and block problem editors. Like all editors, administrators are volunteers and have no duty to ever use their tools, but they have them and are trusted with them, should they ever choose to do so. Bureaucrats are the highest unpaid level in that they serve as judges in the requests for adminship process. There are currently only thirty-four.

As mentioned above, Misplaced Pages editors subscribe to a multitude of policies and guidelines, the latter of which are less binding. Unofficial yet often accepted practices are outlined in essays, but these are always meant to be taken with a grain of salt and sometimes contain satirical spins on conventions. Despite the dozens of policies and guidelines, the shortest official policy and the fifth of the five pillars of Misplaced Pages that is listed at the very top of the policy and guidelines list page is “ignore all rules”, the full policy of which is that “if a rule prevents you from improving or maintaining Misplaced Pages, ignore it.” Another way of putting this is that Misplaced Pages is first and foremost an encylopedia and remembering this while exercising common sense in editing is paramount.

The fourth of the five pillars is civility in interacting with fellow editors. A frequently-referenced guideline is “assume good faith”, which states that unless there is evidence to the contrary, editors should assume that other editors are trying to help the encyclopedia. Debate does get heated, as editors become possessive about “their” work, but they are reminded that Misplaced Pages is free to everyone and there is even an official policy that states that no one owns articles because it is a collaborative project. The third pillar is that “Misplaced Pages is free content”, which means both that it is free to the public and free to be edited by the public. A well-known essay outlines what steps to take when conflict arises. It says not to name-call and to remember that there is no time limit for a discussion, recommending taking breaks, so that a reread later could form a different opinion or for the issue to resolve itself in the meantime. It also advises not to take it too seriously, as Misplaced Pages is a hobby and not an obligation. There are many places on Misplaced Pages for dispute resolution. Although it may happen for other reasons such as excessive copyright infringement, administrators involved in dispute resolution may block editor accounts from editing for periods of time. Blocks are not intended as punishment and a use as such would be an abuse of power; they are preventative against disruptive editing, encourage a more productive editing style and are primarily used against vandalism and violations of the three-revert rule. Whereas blocks are more technical and temporary, bans are more socially restrictive and deal with extreme cases for which the ultimate decision must be extreme. Bans are more often given to established members of the community, but they are not considered community members once banned. Blocks may be imposed by any random administrator, but bans are sometimes the rulings of the Arbitration Committee and were often historically implemented by founder Jimmy Wales (user name: Jimbo Wales).

Most everything on Misplaced Pages is mandated by consensus. Editing disputes are to reach a consensus, administrators and featured articles are promoted via consensus and guidelines are decided upon by coming to a consensus. The top of every policy page displays a banner that states, “This page documents an English Misplaced Pages policy, a widely accepted standard that all editors should normally follow. Changes made to it should reflect consensus.” (Through a technical restriction, Misplaced Pages pages cannot link to themselves, so the word consensus in the policy statement is aptly presented in boldface on the consensus policy page.) Discussion that does not reach consensus is only to be continued until it does; this may be achieved by opening it up by advertising elsewhere or moving to a centralized consensus-building arenas such as the “village pump” or “requests for comment” (or the Mediation Cabal). WP:CCC reminds users that consensus and can and does change and past consensus as a rationale for action should be used with caution. Like other aspects of Misplaced Pages policy, while practice is slightly questionable, given the theory. In areas such as featured article and administrator promotion, articles for deletion and often, requests for comment, comments are prefaced with either “support”, “oppose” or “neutral”, which are essentially votes. Keeping in mind the policy for consensus, Wikipedians almost always refer to their single-word stances as “!votes” to identify the votes, while keeping in mind that they are not the be-all end-all and pointing out how policy differs from what is actually done. “Votes” are faux pas; “!votes” are tongue-in-cheek.

As aforementioned, Misplaced Pages is not Facebook and having more than a few personal pictures on one’s user page is excessive and gives off the wrong impression about the encyclopedia; however, the user page is undoubtedly the closest that Misplaced Pages gets to Facebook. User talk pages function like other talk pages in that they discuss editing changes, but with a focus on the edits of a particular user where another setting may not be as appropriate a forum, but the Misplaced Pages user page is where users display any artistic flair and their many user boxes. User boxes identify what task forces or WikiProjects one may be associated with editing articles within the scope of, but they also give lights to who these users are in real life by identifying their locations, what kind of food they like, what television series they watch and of course, what kind of computer they have and browser they use. The user page also gives an opportunity to users to show the accolades that they have received in their editing careers. There are user boxes available to mention how many edits one has contributed, but users take pride in receiving barnstars. A barnstar is something of an award that one editor bestows to another and is the closest thing to a virtual pat on the back. They are banners that come with an image of a five-pointed metal barn decoration that is considered to be good luck akin to the horseshoe. There are a variety of barnstars to choose from “The Barnstar of Diligence” to “The Random Acts of Kindness Barnstar”. There is no limit to the number of barnstars that one can give out; in fact, giving more out is encouraged, as it promotes “WikiLove”, building to a friendlier atmosphere in which people feel some appreciation for what is largely a thankless job.

As users continue to find Misplaced Pages, the community will continue to grow, while processes and policies will continue to develop. The language of Misplaced Pages—increasingly indecipherable to an outsider—is sure to increase in its jargon and slang, simultaneously making the community more difficult to infiltrate, as reader interest climbs and the encyclopedia alters its procedures and strengthens its existing content until the connotations of questionable reliability and verifiability are removed. Currently, the general public believes that Misplaced Pages is useful and does not much think much of the people behind it or even if there are any, but there are certainly people behind it and a complex culture along with it, complete with woodland creatures and barnstars. Despite the numerous examples of a “having said that” attitude, the community has toward the policies that consensus has agreed upon, the editing process is quite fluid and we are in good hands with the small number of supremely dedicated individuals writing it. It is the greatest reference work of all time and this is made possible by remembering not to remember the people behind it—after all, it is “the free encylcopedia that anyone can edit.”

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