Known unknowns in the wiki in the The Wiki Group group

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Known unknowns in the wiki

Katxena
Folia Helper

61 plants 7

I’m wondering if there’s anything we can or should do about planting or stash items that are in the “unknown” variety, but really are known, they just haven’t been linked to their variety.

For example, there are 11 stashed kale listings. Of these 4 are named varieties that just aren’t linked to the plants. For example, there’s one called “Lacinto Kale” and another called “Black Tuscany” — these are probably both Dinosaur/Lacinato/Black Palm/Cavolo Nero/Black Tuscan/etc. I don’t think there’s any way the helpers can update this, other than to message the person, and that seems like it’s going a bit far. There may be reasons that those gardeners want their seeds to be in the unknown category, and I’d hate for helpers to become wiki police. But still, it bugs.

What do you think?

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Posted about 4 years ago
nic
Folia Admin

7 plants 8

Yeah, that’s a question that I’ve been stuck on too – I’d personally be a little annoyed if someone reclassified by plantings on my behalf (especially if they were wrong!), but at the same time I know how many unknown plantings there are in the system that I’m almost 100% sure of what they are, it’s just that they haven’t been classified. We are losing a lot of great data when a gardener is logging events for plantings that aren’t classified as these events can’t be factored into any of the calculations about what is growing in your area, average sprouting times etc.

So it is a question of where do we draw the line – I would agree with you that messaging individual members could be a little pushy, so maybe we could come up with a process that means that helpers can suggest classifications for plantings that are unclassified, or that unclassified plantings can be classified – but an automatic message is sent to the member to let them know what has happened?

I think that this needs a bit of thought before we do anything around this – so it would be great to know what others think too….
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Posted about 4 years ago
scholz

77 plants 8b

I think a “suggested” classification would be great. Folia could use the suggestion for aggregation purposes, but it wouldn’t impact the user’s own understanding of what she’s planted. There could be some sort of “accept” button that allows that user to overwrite their classification with the suggested one.
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Posted about 4 years ago
kelly
Folia Helper

84 plants 8

I like the suggested idea is great – messaging the user does just seem a little pushy. As to how that suggestion would be done via the workings of this website are far beyond me, but I think it’s a good idea!
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Posted about 4 years ago
Om

0 plants 6a

I don’t think it would be too pushy to message the gardener, as long as it was phrased correctly. Approach it as more of a we have this info, and you have this different info, can you help us sort this out thing. I know sometimes I just have seeds with very little info from an odd source or something, and I really don’t know what to enter. Or, I simply am not real concerned at the moment because I am not interested in that plant right now. And when I first joined folia, and was entering most of my stash, I really didn’t understand how it all worked, or exactly what I should be putting where to benefit me and/or the site.

When I didn’t really understand how the wiki worked, it seemed like an extra part of the site to me. But I am beginning to see how it comes together, and I think some personal, polite messages might help get others involved and help them understand how their time on folia contributes to everyone’s knowledge database on the wiki. I wouldn’t want someone just reclassifying things for me, but I definitely wouldn’t balk or be upset with being contacted with more info. I mean, I could always say no, and provide other info that I have that may end up being useful. And an explanation of how it works, like what Nic gave above, would have been very welcome when I was first getting my feet wet. Even now, going back through my stash or plantings and making corrections isn’t something I am 100% on, because I have probably missed a few, or I just don’t have time for it at the moment or something.

It could be a sort of form letter, so it included all the needed info, but a personal message at the top that applied directly to where it concerned me, and someone I could message back and ask for details or explain my reasons for what I did would encourage me to do something about it. As opposed to an auto-message that I might think didn’t apply, since I didn’t classify it in the first place, I would honestly probably just bypass or ignore.
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Posted about 4 years ago
TolCath
Folia Helper

295 plants

Sometimes I know a plant is, say, a Heuchera — but I don’t know if it’s americana or sanguinea or what. If there’s not a bare entry for Heuchera, I’m not sure I should create one. I don’t want to hook it to what may be the wrong thing.

Or if I type in Liliakus floppicus and the only entry that comes up is Liliakus floppicus “Illusion”, but mine isn’t “Illusion”, I don’t want to connect to that.

Sometimes there are nicknames that I have never heard of and have my doubts about — (I wish the presentation of names was always consistent: I like having the botanical name first, not a nickname or common name: I don’t trust those)

I expect I’m not the only one who doesn’t want to merrily create hordes of new entries that may not be ‘right’ or may turn out to be duplicates, too. Or who means to come back and fix that later, but oops! forgot.

The suggestion-with-option sounds interesting.
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Posted almost 4 years ago