Austrian Economics Wiki:Developers

Developers are those users of Mises Wiki who have been granted server access by the technical staff of the Mises Institute. Developer status is revocable by the same means by which it was granted, viz. Mises Institute staff taking away server access.

Powers

To enable them to more easily carry out their maintenance and troubleshooting tasks, such users are also typically sysops. The philosophy being this is that it would be pointless to give a user server access but deny him sysop access, since developers have already been trusted with the tools needed to change anything whatsoever in the database or file system, and thus already have power to block users, delete pages, and take all the other sysop actions. This dual developer-sysop role, based on the Menear Principle, is fairly common in the wikisphere, the theory being that if the developer has access to the back door, he might as well have access to the front door too.

Of course, there is a difference between what one can do and what one may or should do. The Mises Wiki developer is not much different than a corporate IT guy. The IT guy's duties require that he have access that will enable him to take many actions, but that does not mean he is authorized to take every possible action, or that all possible actions would be desirable. It is important that developers act within the spirit and letter of the rules. It particular, the wiki way demands that, when practicable, changes be transparent and reversible, and developers play an important role in upholding this principle.

Indeed, power is often a liability, because when technical problems arise, suspicion often is directed at those who had power to cause such problems. All actions of sysops on the wiki are logged; this is not always true of developer actions, although it would be desirable for all parties involved if it were the case. It is in the interests of developers to do what they can to ensure that backups are done regularly so that if problems do arise, they can be easily fixed and blame will be a moot point.

Sacred trust

As with all other Mises Wiki users, but even more so as the degree of power increases, developers should consider themselves custodians of the sacred trust of fulfilling the needs of the Mises Institute and Austrian school communities, helping facilitate the achievement of the goals for which Mises Wiki was established. Leonard Read writes in Free Market Economics: A Reader of the maxim "If You Drop Something, Pick it Up", "It is elementary training in assuming a responsibility for one's own actions, that is, of not burdening others with one's behaviors." The Mises Wiki user who takes any action has the responsibility to clean up if that action turns out to have negative effects. This is especially true of developers, because non-developers do not have the necessary access to clean up after them.