Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

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Bob Sihler
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Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Bob Sihler » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:49 am

I'm requesting feedback here to get a sense of how the community feels.

When there's a request to adopt a page by a long-inactive owner (more than a year) and the page is weak, it's an easy call. Recently, though, there have been a few requests by different people to adopt pages that are decent-- not great by any means-- and are by people inactive for more than a year. These people have much they want to add; they're not just seeking points or accolades.

I'm not fully comfortable with adopting out such pages because I respect the effort the creators put in. On the other hand, I don't want to discourage eager members from improving the site. Since a full-wiki approach is not going to happen, this issue will not likely be adequately addressed under the editing changes most members seem to prefer.

Which should weigh more heavily, the efforts of inactive members who helped build the site or the interests of currently active members who wish to step up? Remember that I'm not talking about bad pages here.

Thoughts?
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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by mrchad9 » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:40 am

For me it would be a choice between two options:

1. If an effort has been made to contact them and failed, and they have been inactive for over two years, then turn the page over, regardless of how good or bad it is.

2. Alternatively, if they have been inactive for two years and there is a problem with handing over their content, then delete all their contributions from the page and turn over the empty remains to someone committed to make it better. I'd do the first option btw (if they had such an attachment to their content, they should have taken it with them when they left).

Bottom line, it really is not appropriate to lock down a mountain page because someone submitted it and has subsequently left the site. It's time to move on.

Of course, if there were a means for users to submit edits to a page that bypassed the owner after a 45 day wait neither of these steps would be necessary.

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Scott
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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Scott » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:44 am

One year might be a little soon, but two might be plenty.

Just as a compromise, you could make the new owner a joint owner with the old one. The old version of the page are automaticially saved by SP anyway. If the old owner ever came back and wanted joint ownership of the page, they could have it and their old page would even be saved. If the old owner never came back, it wouldn't matter an dafter waiting another year or two, they could be dropped from ownership by the current page owner.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by lcarreau » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:00 am

Suppose there's always a chance the old owner will come back, but if the original owner is HAPPY and APPROVES of the updates and corrections,
then both owners will be able to move ahead with their LIVES and take pride in knowing SP will benefit because of what ultimately became of the Page.

In other words, sometimes it's best to see the glass as being half FULL.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by SoCalHiker » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:23 am

Bob, it's a difficult issue. If the page is in fact decent and has good information and considerable writing, I think new information should be added to the additions/corrections link. If we feel the ownership should change, I think the new owner should completely remove the "old" writing and replace it with his own words. Even if somebody did not sign in for years, it is still his page and I would assume he has copyright to his page. If the owner changes but not much is added/rewritten to the page it might become a bigger problem.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by mrchad9 » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:27 am

Moot point...

SP FAQ wrote:Note, however that you are giving up the right to prevent modifications of your work: you are agreeing to SummitPost's policy of maintaining the site. You are giving the maintainer of a SummitPost page a license to make changes to your text as he/she sees fit, and to move your photos from one section of the page to another. You agree that someone else may someday become the maintainer of page(s) you create.


Seems like we are debating something that is already clear.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Bruno » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:47 am

Bob Sihler wrote:Since a full-wiki approach is not going to happen, this issue will not likely be adequately addressed under the editing changes most members seem to prefer.

To my understanding, a full-wiki approach has never been proposed by any member. It is just scaring people, but it is not an option that has been discussed.

The missing option in the opening post (as well as in the opening post of the other related thread) is to automatically open (e.g. after having sent an e-mail to the last known address of these inactive members) these abandoned pages for edition by "senior" members with a certain minimum power. I think two years inactivity would be fine (one year is a bit short).

Not likely to happen? Why being so negative? Here are Matt's own words:
Montana Matt wrote:
mvs wrote:Man, Matt'll never do this stuff.

Oh, don't be so sure about that ;) I've had the desire to do something similar to what is being discussed here for a while, but I've not really had a good clear idea of how it should be implemented.

[...]I read mvs' article here and what is outlined there is definitely something that I could do.

Cheers,
Bruno

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Bruno » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:53 am

Scott wrote:One year might be a little soon, but two might be plenty.

[...]The old version of the page are automaticially saved by SP anyway.

Agree with you about the two years. Regarding the old version, only the last three edits are currently saved. All other ones are automatically deleted from the database. But I guess it wouldn't be so complicated to change the coding in order to permanently save the last version before transferring ownership/editing rights / etc.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Josh Lewis » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:08 am

Well perhaps the the page code could be copied and given to the original author. This way, no "original page" code would be lost in the process. But of course we are talking about decent pages. Lame pages... well, don't need the code saved. :wink:

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by mrchad9 » Wed Nov 02, 2011 7:14 am

Bob, you know what the best thing to do here is, and what's more it is already consistant with the SP FAQs. If you look for people to give you a list of excuses not to improve the site, you will definitely find those people. Many of them. You aren't going to get full support to do anything really beneficial with this site. Gotta just step out and do something.

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Bob Sihler
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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Bob Sihler » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:47 am

Respectfully, changing the code is not an option here, and suggestions for such are not that helpful (not in this thread, anyway). People have lots of ideas that would require a ton of work for Matt, and he's made it clear that he has limited time. I'm trying to work within the existing system since that's what I'm limited to.

As Bruno, pointed out, only the last three versions are saved now, so a new owner or admin could, purposefully or not, delete the previous owner's versions very easily. I could make and keep copies of original pages, but that would be tedious.

I think two years is too long and feel one is sufficient-- keep in mind we're talking about a year since logging in, not a year since editing the page-- but the question that nags me is whether we need to transfer decent pages by inactive owners.

My leaning is to transfer the pages to trustworthy members eager to contribute, but I also worry about opening the floodgates to people who want pages just for their own sake.
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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Bob Sihler » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:22 am

mrchad9 wrote:Moot point...

SP FAQ wrote:Note, however that you are giving up the right to prevent modifications of your work: you are agreeing to SummitPost's policy of maintaining the site. You are giving the maintainer of a SummitPost page a license to make changes to your text as he/she sees fit, and to move your photos from one section of the page to another. You agree that someone else may someday become the maintainer of page(s) you create.


Seems like we are debating something that is already clear.


And there it is. The question for me is the need in the type of case I've described. I guess that's what I'm seeking opinions on.
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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Baarb » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:37 am

Am I wrong in thinking that most people back up their webpages? Only have SP stuff myself but I have copies of most of it just in case something happens. If the inactive members aren't making sure that they have a current email address listed for contact, don't maintain their page info, and don't save their pages 'just in case' then given the FAQs bit above I'm not sure what argument they would have, especially if the new owner or co-owner improved a whole bunch of stuff. Maybe my position is biased as all my pages are for rarely visited peaks such that any info is useful. There aren't likely to be arguments about route grading, presentation style, or picture choices between anyone making contributions. (Copyright issues I have no knowledge of.)

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by lcarreau » Wed Nov 02, 2011 12:52 pm

I say : Open up the Floodgates! ... but ONLY if the page owner has not logged into the site for TWO years.

This time-line could vary if the owner is unresponsive to all e-mails, telephone calls, smoke signals and passenger pigeons.

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Re: Decent Pages by Inactive Owners

by Alpinist » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:26 pm

I believe that people who create beta pages have a responsibility to maintain those pages. If they do not log in to SP for 1 year, then how could they possibly know if there are additions/corrections/changes that need to be made to the page. If they don't log in for 1 year, then they are not living up to that responsibility. I don't think the page should be "automatically" put up for adoption or opened to editing by other members. However, if one of their pages has additions/corrections that have gone unattended, and another member wants to adopt the page, then I support either giving them full control or shared control of the page. We could also tie this into a low page score (below 70).

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