The Heretic Knowledge Vault talk:Policy

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Please add your comments on the block/protect policy here. This page will remain unprotected, and hence open for editing, even during the current spambot crisis. -- Graybeard 10:25, 16 June 2007 (CDT)

Looks good to me. Block policy is pretty clear, which is always a good thing, and letting new users know they don't have to sound like a history professor is a decent idea. Tiamat 11:11, 16 June 2007 (CDT)
It reads well enough, and clearly enough. The only thing I would think about changing is that it can come off as a little stand-off-ish, even though it does state in certain sections, it still has a feel of "If you come 'round these parts and aren't made of metal with a super brain, we'll eat ya!". This of course could just be excess negative energy of Kyhmites flowing over and colouring my view. Ezelek 08:42, 19 June 2007 (GMT+10)
That's a fair criticism. My "rough draft" is probably colored by the fact that we have had this spam attack and a lot of people have spent a lot of hours dealing with it. Let me try some language that makes the point "good guys are welcome, even if bad guys aren't." -- Graybeard 19:18, 18 June 2007 (CDT)
Well, I added the bit about correcting and editing stuff. I thought that needed to be said. If a contributor doesn't know English well enough then there are the rest of us that are willing to correct as necessary. Just don't be offended when it happens. - Brother Slamlander 17:42, 19 June 2007 (CDT)
Yes, it needed to be said. :-) When it comes to exposing one's prose to editing, most wikis have more pointed language than that, in fact. -- Graybeard 21:09, 19 June 2007 (CDT)

It all looks good to me. Could maybe be a little warmer, but the Amens and Brothers and Sisters and so forth go a long way to making it funny as well as "Hey, here's the rules." -Impy 15:18, 7 November 2007 (CST)

New Usernames?

With the new Forums stabilizing and our spambot protection holding, we may have reached the point where we can -- very carefully -- resume adding usernames, under tightly controlled circumstances. Could we have a discussion of appropriate language for a "new user policy" here, before putting it on the actual policy page? Note that Poe and Impy have the right to override any proposed policy, but if we can craft something sensible, I think it'll stand scrutiny. Discuss, please. -- Graybeard 22:12, 5 November 2007 (CST)

Part of me wants to require a minimum post count, or at least a minimum amount of time registered to prevent any attempts to sneak in under the radar. That may not be an issue, of course, depending on how new users are to be added. I assume sysops will have the common sense not to let someone who registered on the forums that morning with a confused jumble of letters for a username have free reign over the wiki. Tiamat 13:09, 6 November 2007 (CST)
It doesn't get more tightly controlled than on emailed/pm'd request to an admin. Normalphil 18:54, 6 November 2007 (CST)
I didn't understand this either. Tiamat, were you thinking of privileges rather than user adds? I don't want to add any more admins (except for User:Viking-Sensei as soon as he gets up to speed) until/unless we start having a lot more admin work than now. The new-username policy should cover creation of usernames without the sysop (let alone bureaucrat) privilege, so that people can make those edits you're talking about (but not do anything permanently harmful). Thoughts would be appreciated as to what should be required before those unprivileged usernames are added. -- Graybeard 23:03, 6 November 2007 (CST)
With the understanding that this is all moot until we get the wiki up-rev; Simply placing the requirement that they have to register in PHPBB2, and join the Heretical Monks Group, before they can edit in the wiki, should slow them down plenty. At that point in time, we can be reasonably sure that they are not a script-bot, especially if we have a captcha in there somewhere. If they can get through that then they don't have a choice of user name either, since it will automatically be the same as their forum ID.
WRT minimum post count, I am not in favor of that. One of the current brothers has never posted to the forums and probably won't, any time soon or even in the current millenium. It smacks of elitism, which is something I tend to smack people for. Post-count status games will drive more folks away than they'll attract. Besides, they are too adolescent. Some of us are decades beyond that.
Slamlander 16:43, 11 November 2007 (CST)
As the number of new users to be created is small, at this point I'm willing simply to do manual adds for usernames that have shown up as Heretic Monk-wannabes in the Forum. The creation of Jim's brand new handle doesn't seem to have led to any problems. Right, we're still not in a position to allow people to add usernames themselves -- that'll take a wiki upgrade, which Impy says is still a ways off -- but I don't mind doing the manual adds as long as they're relatively few. I agree about minimum post count (and think I understand now what you intended, Tiamat); no need for that, given admins with a lick of sense, and it does sound sophomoric (is that better than adolescent?). -- Graybeard 16:53, 11 November 2007 (CST)
You're right, of course, but I was tired at the time and I'd somehow managed to forget, remember, and forget again while I was writing that the whole thing is done via humans and not automation. So the post count thing was just a bad idea all around. As far as the count number, I didn't mean something stupid and elitest like 50 or even 20 posts. I was thinking of a number like 2 or 3, 5 max. Managable, but still easy enough to see that there's a brain on the other end. No matter: given our sys-op staff, things will be fine.
Tiamat 21:11, 11 November 2007 (CST)

OK, so here's the proposed language, edit as necessary but let's make it effective soon:

  • Creation of new usernames is now open on a limited, controlled basis. If you want to get a new username on the wiki, first join the Forum if you haven't done so already, and then join the "Heretical Monks" group there. (See the Forum's FAQ page if you need help in doing this.) Soon an admin will contact you for some information such as your proposed handle, e-mail address to send your new password to, etc., after which your username will be activated.
  • Once you've joined the brotherhood/sisterhood of Heretic Monks, you're free to make edits here to your heart's content, as long as you follow the other policies on this page; help us out, and have fun doing it (the "have fun" part is the most important, that's what we're here for). But do not spam, vandalize, troll, phish, or intentionally cause trouble. If you do, the new username will be blocked for anywhere from 20 minutes to forever, and you won't get another one.

Hack away, I'm probably forgetting something ... -- Graybeard 21:59, 11 November 2007 (CST)

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