Open edit in a wiki is the most radical form of openness. On Appropedia, pages are generally open edit, so even an anonymous user can click edit on a page and change it.
Content openness[edit | edit source]
Most Appropedia pages are open for editing, except in the following cases:
- When the content has been shared on Appropedia for reference by its authors or rights holders but without an open license, or in cases where the license is not clear (e.g. when authors are unknown),
- When specific pages are protected in (very rare) cases of vandalism,
- When the content is part of a class or project in development and the content is part of the assessment process.
- For content is a copy of a previously-published piece such as a technical brief, academic paper or book.
- When content is being created for specific use by a team or organization.
Quality of the pages open to editions[edit | edit source]
The surprising experience of wiki communities is that anonymous editing can increase the quality of the resource; This, of course, assumes that there is an active community that relies on good contributions and reverses spam and edits that are deemed bad. Maintaining quality is a matter of both technological tools and social function.
Positive aspects[edit | edit source]
- This allows for more contributions, without the hurdle of registration.
- Most anonymous edits are constructive and improve the site.
- There is usually very little spam or vandalism, as CAPTCHA and other tools block bots.
Negative aspects[edit | edit source]
Some have the perception that open edition means unreliable. In practice, this is not true, although it is always good to improve the verification and content development processes.
No edit notices[edit | edit source]
Pages are protected mainly by means of a template such as Template:Notice at the top of the page, which mentions that it is not open edit. In these cases you will see, for example, which organization or group requested to respect the content integrity, as well as the reason. A deadline may be specified before making changes so after this date, content will be open edit.
Page protection[edit | edit source]
In rare cases and as a last resort, the pages will be protected or restricted to certain users or bots on the site, or any type of vandalism against specific pages.
Minor edits[edit | edit source]
Minor edits are allowed on non-open edit pages in some cases such as:
- Very minor spelling corrections.
- Addition of wikilinks to establish references.
- Adding citations and references.
- Editing metadata (as for example in Infoboxes).
Change requests[edit | edit source]
In cases where someone wants to edit a protected page, they can do so through the corresponding talk page or in Appropedia:Village pump.
Open access[edit | edit source]
Appropedia has many pages of open access content. This is content shared by other organizations such as WikiGreen where permission was granted for sharing the content to support development and/or sustainability, but without granting permission to reuse or edit any of its contents. We ask you to respect the copyright- do not reuse without the permission of the rights-holder except in the limited cases described.
Derivative works[edit | edit source]
Appropedia focuses on creating original content. For this reason, except in the case of minor edits or the update of projects or designs, in the event that you wish to contribute a substantial improvement to an article (such as a long section or a complete improvement) we recommend that you create a page new with derived content in which the authorship of the original content is attributed.
