AGHSReunions:About
From AGHSReunions
The AGHSReunions Wiki is one section of the larger AGHSReunions.com Portal. In addition to the wiki, there is a blog for announcements, a community discussion board, and a photo gallery. All of these services are provided for free to alumni, students, faculty, and staff of Arroyo Grande High School. Donations are appreciated to help offset hosting and other costs.
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The wiki experience
Collaborative writing
This wiki is written collaboratively by volunteers. With some exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet, simply by registering for an account and then clicking the edit or edit this page link. Wikis are written in ordinary English, but they use special markup notations to enhance readability and usability. You do not need to know any programming to edit wiki pages. A little knowledge of HTML is helpful, but not necessary.
In every article, links will guide you to associated articles, often with additional information. Anyone is welcome to add information, cross-references or citations, as long as they do so within our editing policies and to an appropriate standard. Don't be afraid of accidentally damaging the wiki when adding or improving information, as other editors are around to advise or correct obvious errors, and the software our wiki uses makes it easy to reverse mistakes.
Getting help
Our editing policies are only a little more restrictive than the most famous wiki in the world, Wikipedia, but the process is very similar. There is very little documentation on this site that explains how to edit article, but Wikipedia's Help section is extensive, and everything pretty much works the same here as it does there.
Accuracy and sources
An ongoing work
Because the AGHSReunions Wiki is an ongoing work to which, in principle, anybody can contribute, it differs from a paper-based reference source in important ways. In particular, older articles tend to be more comprehensive and balanced, but all articles may be incomplete, contain significant misinformation, unencyclopedic content, or vandalism. Users need to be aware of this to obtain valid information and avoid misinformation. However, unlike a paper reference source, the wiki is continually updated with additional information and resources.
Verification of information
One big difference between Wikipedia and AGHSReunions Wiki is that we do not require every piece of information to be verifiable by third-party reliable sources. This is because this site focuses on our high school and the people who passed through its doors. Most of us live pretty ordinary lives, and it is uncommon that we are the topic of newspaper articles, news reports, or third-party websites. There simply is not enough information available from reliable sources about most people here.
When you contribute information about yourself, it is assumed that you are the most knowledgeable person in the world about your own life. Probably, you are also the most biased person who could write about you (other than maybe your mother). You probably are also biased toward other classmates and teachers, whether with good or bad opinions of them. People also have a habit of editing out the bad memories and remembering only the good; sometimes they replace reality with their own version of reality. None of this is "bad", but it does reduce the reliability and usability of this wiki if inaccurate or biased information is included.
That being said, it is important that biographical and informational contributions are honest and encyclopedic in tone and content. While it is perfectly acceptable to mention events that you witnessed, you should strongly avoid introducing your point of view or misleading information into the story. This is absolutely critical when writing about people. Eventually this site will start turning up in Google and other search results. People assume that information in a wiki is largely accurate, and bad information could ruin a person's reputation.
Employment verification
In a nutshell, potential employers should not rely upon information found in this wiki for making employment decisions. There are known inaccuracies that exist in these articles (though we try to correct them as quickly as possible), much of the information is self-supplied without any verification of accuracy, vandalism and practical jokes occur that can paint a good candidate in a very poor light, and confusion between people with similar names can also occur.
Employers who ignore this warning and base employment decisions upon information contained herein agree to indemnify and hold harmless the site owners, administrators, authors, and editors from all claims related to the information and to pay for all court costs and reasonable legal fees to defend against such claims.
History
AGHSReunions Wiki is considered to have started on July 1, 2007 after about a week of preconfiguration. The site is owned and was created by Will Murray as a free service for current and former students, faculty, and staff of AGHS. Will retains the right to block, restrict, or otherwise take any action he deems necessary to keep this site operating smoothly. This website is graciously hosted by Sacramento Online Services, a division of the Acorn IT Group, which is Will's employer.
The wiki is so new, that's about all the history there is for now.
