Wikipedia:WikiEngineer
 | This page contains material that is kept because it is considered humorous. Such material is not meant to be taken seriously. |
 | This page in a nutshell: A WikiEngineer is a technical editor who focuses on the behind-the-scenes of Wikipedia. |
A WikiEngineer (Homo wikimāchinātor) is a wikipedian who spends most of their time making technical edits in a predominately sporadic manner. Akin to that of the WikiGnome, a WikiEngineer will work behind-the-scenes of a wiki, making a bunch of edits to a wide variety of articles, while also tying up loose ends. Some WikiEngineers might be new to Wikipedia, but they usually have some knowledge on the MediaWiki software, due in part either to their experience with editing on another wiki, or by virtue of knowing web development.
The typical WikiEngineer will often work on documentation pages, gadgets, help pages, Lua modules, project pages, templates, user scripts and/or will otherwise contribute to the help namespace, module namespace, template namespace or the project namespace on a whim. When a WikiEngineer does make an edit, it is usually in order to wikify, format or optimize the source code of a page (especially modules or templates).
WikiEngineers are friendly editors, much like the aforementioned WikiGnome, as well as like other editors like the WikiFairy or the WikiElf. WikiEngineers love to do everything by themselves, but they don't mind it when another editor helps them out. A WikiEngineer might choose to join a WikiProject, but most of the time they just end up editing on their own instead of coordinating with their fellow WikiFauna.
The rough antithesis to a WikiEngineer is the WikiImp.
Identifying a WikiEngineer[edit]
The list of Wikipedians who choose to advertise themselves as WikiEngineers can be found at Category:Wikipedian WikiEngineers.
If a WikiEngineer so desires, then they may identify themselves by adding a userbox or top icon to their user page via either of the following code samples:
{{User wikipedia/WikiEngineer}} {{WikiEngineer topicon}}
 | This editor is a WikiEngineer |
Common behavioral patterns and traits[edit]
Some examples of common WikiEngineer-like behavior and traits include:
- Adding
{{Improve documentation}}to documentation pages that require improvement. - Adding
{{Nutshell}}to policy, guideline, help and essay pages. - Adding TemplateData to templates.
- Creating documentation pages, gadgets, help pages, Lua modules, project pages, templates or user scripts
- Having template editor rights.
- Participating in a WikiProject.
- Updating infoboxes, navboxes and userboxes frequently.
