1
$\begingroup$

Okay an hour my question: Do mathematicians, in the end, always agree? was made community wiki. I didn't know what community wiki meant, and why my post should have made community wiki, so I googled it, and I read that:

Community wiki posts work by transferring ownership of the post from the original author to the community.

So, at first sight, I was a little bit like, can somebody else just decide that I'm not the owner of my own question anymore? And why this does this moderator think that I don't deserve to have the ownership of my own question ? I'm the only one that has edited this question ...

Reading a little bit more, I understand now that my question is probably made community wiki so that I don't gain reputation from it. This I do understand, I also noticed that the highest upvoted question I've asked, where soft-question and the reputation I get from these soft-question doesn't really reflect my knowledge about mathematics.

I don't care so much about reputation, I'm fine with that aspect, but I do feel this is a little bit the wrong way to solve this. Why not just make sure that questions tagged 'big-list' or 'soft-question' don't gain user reputation ?

$\endgroup$
2
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ The short answer to the question in the title: Yes, yes they can. (The slightly less shorter is that CW doesn't quite mean you're not the owner of the post anymore.) $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 9, 2014 at 23:15
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ The practice on this site is much more in favor of "ownership" (whatever that means) than other Stackexchange sites. Even when I mark things as community wiki, they are unlikely to be edited by others. But the software is the same as other sites, and that's something we can't avoid. $\endgroup$ Oct 12, 2014 at 12:26

1 Answer 1

6
$\begingroup$

And why this does this moderator think

More often than not, moderators act in response to flags. It's likely that someone raised a mod attention flag, arguing that the question should be Community Wiki, and the moderator agreed after reviewing the case.

It's a software restriction that only moderators can make a question community wiki, unlike answers. This is why, no matter who actually wants the question CWed (often it's the author of the question), you will see a moderator doing it.

Why not just make sure that questions tagged 'big-list' or 'soft-question' don't gain user reputation

All 130 Stack Exchange sites run on the same Q&A engine. The developers could theoretically code in the exception: on Mathematics site, questions with this or that tag should not accrue reputation. But it's not something they would do; they have better uses for their time. Besides, a policy like that would have to be documented, and then explained to every user who did not read the documentation. And the last point... what problem are we solving here?

$\endgroup$
2
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Not to mention the nightmare that would ensue if the question were migrated to another site where these tags do give reputation. $\endgroup$
    – robjohn Mod
    Oct 9, 2014 at 21:12
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ @robjohn: Or the nightmare where you're falling into a bottomless chasm, chased by hypergravity-powered monsters, while sitting in your classroom when a pop quiz on a subject you cannot recall anything about is announced, and you suddenly realize that you're completely naked, with the exception of a headband which says "DOOMED". $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Oct 9, 2014 at 23:17

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .