A week or so ago someone completely destroyed the home page of the Oxford Guide [1]. This was a pain, and to recover the state I had to paste the content from mysql command line output because it wasn't possible to recover the earlier version from the CGI.
Two possible solutions (ideally both should be implemented I think):
- Implement a "delete revision" function (to go with the "Delete node" functions. I would not want to keep most malicious edits: bear in mind that you are still effectively publishing them through the historical versions. When this is spamming for googlejuice... [2]
- Allow editing of historical versions: 16:40 <@grault> load the text of an earlier version into the edit buffer; save it as a new version when you hit save.
Dominic.
[1] http://www.ox.compsoc.net/oxfordguide/?id=Home&version=81 [2] http://www.ox.compsoc.net/oxfordguide/?id=Home&version=XX (replace XX with 65)
On Sat 12 Jun 2004, Dominic Hargreaves dom@earth.li wrote:
- Implement a "delete revision" function (to go with the "Delete node" functions. I would not want to keep most malicious edits[...]
Done in 0.34 (just released).
- Allow editing of historical versions: 16:40 <@grault> load the text of an earlier version into the edit buffer; save it as a new version when you hit save.
Do you still want this given the above, and if so why?
Kake
On Fri 25 Jun 2004, Kate L Pugh kake@earth.li wrote:
Done in 0.34 (just released).
Don't use 0.34 - use 0.35. I missed a version dependency on CGI::Wiki.
Kake
On Fri, Jun 25, 2004 at 10:43:26PM +0100, Kate L Pugh wrote:
On Sat 12 Jun 2004, Dominic Hargreaves dom@earth.li wrote:
- Implement a "delete revision" function (to go with the "Delete node" functions. I would not want to keep most malicious edits[...]
Done in 0.34 (just released).
Lovely, thanks!
- Allow editing of historical versions: 16:40 <@grault> load the text of an earlier version into the edit buffer; save it as a new version when you hit save.
Do you still want this given the above, and if so why?
This would enable non-admins to revert changes rapidly and non-distructively to be tidied up - I'm assuming the above command is password-protected. It probably has general editorial value that I haven't thought of.
Actually a whole new approach might simply to have an approval queue of admin commands, so a deletion would appear to take place immediately when a non-admin selects it, but the actual deletion wouldn't happen until an admin approves it.
Dominic.
On Mon, Jun 28, 2004 at 05:23:17PM +0100, Dominic quoted Kake quoting me:
- Allow editing of historical versions: 16:40 <@grault> load the text of an earlier version into the edit buffer; save it as a new version when you hit save.
Do you still want this given [historic version deletion], and if so why?
This would enable non-admins to revert changes rapidly and non-distructively to be tidied up - I'm assuming the above command is password-protected.
Yes, it is. I would still like this ability because it's a big time-saver over the following.
- Go to historical version, copy - Edit current version, paste
Another problem with the current situation is is that I don't think you can get the raw wiki text of old versions, so the above loses your formatting.
There should be a warning when you edit with the text of an old version - probably above the edit box, and along the lines of "Warning! Saving this node will over-write the current version." Of course, it would only create a new version, so you could always do the same thing again with [current version -1] to fix it....
Actually a whole new approach might simply to have an approval queue of admin commands, so a deletion would appear to take place immediately when a non-admin selects it, but the actual deletion wouldn't happen until an admin approves it.
I'm happy with only letting admins delete.
On Mon, Jun 28, 2004 at 05:40:52PM +0100, Earle Martin wrote:
I'm happy with only letting admins delete.
That does rely on admins being around in a timely fashion. If something offensive, illegal or otherwise strongly objectionable is put into the wiki, allowing regular users to soft delete it ASAP would surely be useful.
Dominic.
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