Wongery:Grandmaster Wonger

The Grandmaster Wongers—or just Grandmasters, for short—are the contributors to the Wongery: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 the project space).

Identities

There are currently six Grandmaster Wongers:

• Clay Salvage ("Clé")
• Tad Afcalf ("Tada")
• Jason F. Finx ("Antefyn")
• Kip Nackenbadder ("Alarcus")
• Oscar Quodd ("Oscqr")
• Damien Allcock ("Ealeel")

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, being more occupied with writing articles for the Wongery mainspace.

It's not necessarily clear whether each Grandmaster Wonger is really a single individual working alone or a name used jointly by a team of people assigned to particular projects. It could be, in fact, that the same team works on all the articles, and that which name is credited with a given article is largely arbitrary. There is even some evidence to suggest that each article may be written not just by the same team, but by the same single person, and that there is, in reality, only one Grandmaster Wonger who enjoys employing different pseudonyms.

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 private wongeries to administer, and thereby become Master Wongers. The Master Wongers 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 Private 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 most of the articles in the Wongery 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 he is 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. (Of course, if the Grandmaster Wongers' identities are fictitious and it is really a single team or even a single person writing all the articles, then all of this is only an elaborate charade anyway.)

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, his grandmastery may be revoked and he 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 his 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 his 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 discussion page. (However, please read the guide to discussions before posting.) 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).