Wikipedia:WikiGnome

An artist's depiction of a wiki gnome.

A WikiGnome is a slang term for a wiki user who makes small and useful edits without clamoring for attention. Wiki gnomes work behind the scenes of a wiki to tie up little loose ends, adding ISBNs of books that people mention and making an entry for their articles in List of books by title, tracking down the authorship of "someone once said" quotes, correcting broken links, and just making wikis run better and smoother. Other examples of WikiGnome-like behavior include fixing typos, bad grammar and broken links; adding links to text already in an article or useful Categories; or adding information referenced in the text, e.g. adding "such as Silence and Deep River" to the line "Shusaku Endo has written important books."

Many highly active wiki contributors also exhibit WikiGnome-like behavior, while some people may limit their editing participation to that of a WikiGnome.

WikiGnomes are considered to be basically friendly like WikiFairies. The rough opposite of a WikiGnome is a WikiGremlin or a WikiTroll.

Wiki gnomes love to work in the shadows (which are called minor edits) in various nooks and corners of Wikipedia. Look at recent changes and you may even spot one!

External links

• Portland Pattern Repository's definition