Augmented Wiki Model

Statement of problem

An artifact of the traditional wiki model is that malice, bias, and fiction (un-valued content) can masquerade itself as factual information. The mechanisms deployed to prevent this; banning users, protecting, and locking pages each require manual intervention by a member of a privileged group of users.

Objective

To minimize the amount of un-valued content on a wiki by augmentation of the wiki model.

Assumptions

1. The value of a user's recent contributions can be used to predict the value of a user's contributions in the near future.
2. The value of a page of content currently to a wiki community can be used to predict the value of the content in the future under a certain guideline (outlined below).

Methodology

Given the above axiomatic assumptions, I propose to augment the wiki model as follows:

1. Assign a variable to every user and to every page.


1. The user variable will be called the "integrity" of the user and be a signed number starting at 0.


2. The page variable will be called the "value" of the page and be a signed number starting at 0.


2. Every user will be allowed to state a fully retractable, single "+1" "0" or "-1" on another user's or page's value. In theory this will create the following:


1. The value of the user's contributions will be directly reflected by the sum of the value of their integrity, assigned by other users.


2. The value of the page's content will be directly reflected by the sum of the value of the page, assigned by users.


3. Under the above constraints, the following limitations, that by assertion preserve the spirit of the wiki, can be imposed:


1. There will be two types of edits: moderated, and un-moderated.


• Moderated edits


• Another user has to approve the edit


• Any edit where a user's integrity is less than a page's value becomes a moderated edit


• Only users whose integrity is greater than or equal to the value of the page can approve an edit queued for moderation


• Un-moderated edits


• An edit that does not need approval.


• Any edit where a user's integrity is greater than or equal to the value of the page becomes an un-moderated edit


2. Furthermore, the following safeguards will be used


• Since certain accounts will now be of more value than others, hijacking will become a problem.


• A user's integrity will only be viewable by a user with more integrity.


• Page values will always be viewable.


• Only a user with an integrity greater than or equal to the a page's value can view the queue for moderation with the exception of


• A user who submitted an edit for moderation can purge their submission from the queue


• The history of a page will not reveal to a user with insufficient integrity which edits were moderated and which edits were not


• Since people can gain integrity through deceit, and then only disclose malicious intent after accumulation of power, any vote placed upon a user or a page is fully retractable.

Hypothesis 1

Under the augmented wiki model as proposed above, the quantity of un-valued content on a wiki will decrease.

Hypothesis 2

The augmented wiki model as proposed above eliminates the need for the traditional manual protection mechanisms employed to prevent un-valued content being committed.