Grandmaster Wonger

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The Grandmaster Wongers—or just Grandmasters, for short—are the contributors to the Central Wongery. Everything the Grandmasters write in the Central Wongery mainspace is considered canonical, and no one other than the Grandmasters is authorized to post there (or in any other namespace aside from the Talk space).

Roster

There are currently six Grandmaster Wongers:

Each Grandmaster has the ability to maintain a user page giving more information about himself and any other projects he is working on, although as of the time of this writing none of the Grandmasters has actually gotten around to setting up his user page. Soon. Maybe.

Real identities

All of the names that the Grandmaster Wongers use in the Wongery are pseudonyms; they prefer not to reveal their legal names. In fact, it's not even necessarily the case that there is a one-to-one correspondence between Grandmaster Wongers and people who actually write the articles. One of the following is the case:

  • The Grandmaster Wongers do indeed comprise six actual people. Each of the names of the Grandmaster Wongers does indeed correspond straightforwardly to a different actual person, who writes the articles under that name (or at least who writes the first draft of those articles; Clay Salvage still does a final rewrite of all the articles to try to ensure some uniformity of style).
  • The Grandmaster Wongers do indeed comprise six actual people, and each of the names of the Grandmaster Wongers does indeed correspond to a different actual person. That person, however, does not necessarily write all the articles credited to that name; with the exception of some articles dealing with real-world subjects, all the articles are mainly written by Clay Salvage. The other Grandmaster Wongers do, however, contribute ideas, and did come up with the initial concepts for the worlds credited to them, even if they didn't write the articles about them. However, the other Grandmasters do have an additional role: each of them specializes in one or more technical fields of knowledge—biology, linguistics, mathematics, et cetera—in which they are more knowledgeable than Clay Salvage (admittedly a very low bar to clear). Clay Salvage consults them on those topics, and they check over articles where those subjects may apply to look for blatant errors related to their specialties, and to add some additional details related to those fields. (Alas, none of them has a specialty in web design, programming, or visual arts; it would have made things a lot easier if one had.) If this is the case, however, Clay Salvage still is responsible for the final article, and takes full responsibility for any errors remaining in it.
  • There are in fact fewer than six actual people corresponding to the Grandmaster Wongers, each of whom writes under multiple pseudonyms. Either the Grandmasters comprise three people, each of whom uses two pseudonyms; there are two people, each of whom writes under three different pseudonyms; or all of the articles in the Wongery are entirely conceived and written by one person who uses six different pseudonyms for no apparent reason. Admittedly, it would a priori be possible for the pseudonyms to be distributed unequally, for, for instance, there to be two actual people behind the Grandmasters, one of whom writes under four pseudonyms and one under two; or for there to be three people behind the Grandmasters, one of whom uses three pseudonyms, one two, and the last only one. This, however, is not the case; I will at least confirm that if there are fewer than six actual people corresponding to the Grandmaster Wongers, each of them employs the same number of pseudonyms.
  • There are in fact more than six actual people corresponding to the Grandmaster Wongers. Each pseudonym corresponds to a small team of people who collaborate on the articles credited to that name; the compositions of the teams may have changed over time, but in each case there is at least one person who has been on the team since the Wongery was first started.
  • There are in fact more than six actual people corresponding to the Grandmaster Wongers; which name is credited with a given article is largely arbitrary, and some of them contribute more than others. (Not all of the people who have been with the Wongery since the beginning have stuck around, but most of the most active ones are still involved.) There is some attempt at consistency made by, for instance, crediting every article about a given world to the same name, regardless of whether or not the same people actually wrote it. All of the blog posts credited to Clay Salvage were, however, actually written by the same person, although "Clay Salvage" is not his real name, and this is not necessarily the case for all the mainspace articles credited to him.

Becoming a Grandmaster Wonger

The Grandmaster Wongers comprise a very small group, and there is no protocol in place for new people to apply to join their ranks. It is not entirely impossible that someone who makes entries in the Public Wongery that particularly appeal to the Grandmaster Wongers, or who comes to their attention in other ways, may be invited to join their ranks. It isn't particularly likely, however, and certainly isn't something that one should count on or aspire to. For all practical purposes, the Grandmaster Wongers are a closed group and will not lightly admit new members, if at all.

It is much more practical, however, for those who show promise to be given their own Master Wongeries to administer, and thereby become Master Wongers. The Master Wongers will have exclusive edit access to their private Master Wongeries just as the Grandmasters do to the Central Wongery, and can maintain their own private canons. Becoming a Master Wonger should not, however, be thought of as a step on the path to becoming a Grandmaster. Again, it may not be entirely impossible that at some future point a Master Wonger whose work on his Master Wongery particularly impresses the Grandmasters may be invited to join their ranks, but at this point it should be counted as extremely unlikely. (It is perhaps marginally more likely for a new Grandmaster to be recruited from the ranks of Master Wongers than directly from the Public Wongery... in somewhat the same way that you're marginally more likely to be killed by a lightning bolt than by a meteor.)

Hierarchy

While for the most part the Grandmaster Wongers are equal, the founder of the Wongery, and the one who has the ultimate say in its procedures, is Clay Salvage. Clay Salvage is also responsible for the articles in the Metawongery and for articles in the project space, those that deal with the Wongery itself. That includes this article, which was also written by Clay Salvage. This means he could have inserted a sentence in this article calling himself a genius if he wanted to, but he refrained from doing so, which is just as well because it would have been rather stupid. (Then again, the fact that he's chosen to call himself and the other contributors to the Central Wongery "Grandmasters" could already be seen as indicative as a certain level of arrogance.)

However, the other Grandmaster Wongers are considered to have nearly complete autonomy over the worlds and other subjects that they created. This doesn't prevent a Grandmaster Wonger from writing an article on some subject set in or related to a world created by a different Grandmaster, but they are encouraged to do so only with the permission of the world's creator (not entirely unlike the policies of the Public Wongery). In principle, Clay Salvage reserves the right to mandate changes in or disallow entirely any contribution to the Central Wongery, if he finds it inappropriate or incompatible with the Wongery's purpose and content, but to date he has never found it necessary to exercise this right.

Losing the Grandmastery

In the case that a Grandmaster Wonger abuses his position with repeated inappropriate posts, blatantly abusive treatment of other users, or other objectionable behavior, their grandmastery may be revoked and they may be reduced to a regular user. The ultimate decision in such a matter will be the domain of Clay Salvage, though he may call for a vote or discussion by the other Grandmasters. In the event that a Grandmaster is removed, the Wongery retains the right to leave their contributions in the Central Wongery, though some or all of the content may be deleted at the remaining Grandmasters' discretion if they see a reason for it.

This is an issue that we really don't foresee ever coming up, but decided should probably be explicitly addressed anyway. We consider it extremely unlikely that any Grandmaster Wonger shall ever lose their grandmastery.

Contacting the Grandmaster Wongers

For matters related to specific pages on the Central Wongery, the best recourse for questions or comments is to simply post on the relevant Talk page. (However, please read the Talk page guidelines before posting. Once we've written them, anyway.) For matters relating more broadly to a Grandmaster's body of work, or to the Wongery as a whole, the Grandmaster Wongers are best contacted through messages on their respective user talk pages. If there is a message that really needs to be kept private, however, the Grandmasters can be reached by e-mail. (The grandmasters' e-mail addresses are simply their usernames at wongery.com—without the acute accent, in Clé's case.) Depending on the amount of e-mail they end up receiving, the Grandmaster Wongers do not necessarily promise that they will be able to respond to every message.

In any case, there should be few matters that really ought to demand the Grandmasters' attention, and when in doubt it's probably best not to contact them directly. Those who repeatedly leave frivolous messages for the Grandmaster Wongers may be banned (though only after several warnings). In particular, there is no point in contacting the Grandmaster Wongers asking to be admitted into their ranks. Again, it may not be completely out of the question that others may be invited to become Grandmaster Wongers someday in the future, but it isn't at all likely, and if it does happen it will be initiated by the Grandmasters, and not by the new recruit. Any request to become a Grandmaster Wonger will automatically be denied (or, more likely, ignored).

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