Wikis[doesn’t exist], Culture >

A title describing a

This is a hacker-like documentation contributor who does the little maintenance jobs around a wiki. Sometimes they make little formatting or spelling corrections, and sometimes they mercylessly refactor.

• A Gnome is a creature from Germanic mythology.

  • Perhaps you have heard of their garden gnome statues.

• http://wiki.c2.com/?WikiGnome ^[ 1 ] was c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiGnome

The visible people make the “good enough” 80% of documentation, and the gnomes polish to aspire to 100%. Unfortunately, everyday contributors stomp around to make big changes, so wiki gnomes are constantly running after them to buff out their scuffs.

Wiki gnomes are in the rabbit holes, behind the trunks, and in the bushes.

Kinds of Wiki Gnome contributions ∞

• Typo fixing
• Broken link replacement
• Topic research
• Linkifying and winkifying a text.

• Repair stubs and other wiki badges.

A bolder wiki gnome will do such things as correct grammar and essay structure or even engage in a mercyless refactor to rework a whole page or split it apart into multiple topics when a page becomes obviously dated (Crufty) or confusing.