The user list is a directory of the people who contributed to the wiki. It records a display name, the date the account was created and a count of edits. The list was not a ranking. A member with a small number of careful edits was as valuable as a member with many small changes.
What the list showed
- Display name. The name shown beside an edit.
- Account age. When the member joined the wiki.
- Edit count. The number of saved changes.
- Recent activity. The last page the member edited.
Using the list
When a page needed a second opinion, the list helped find the person who had worked on a nearby topic. Contribution history is a better guide than a job title, because it shows what someone actually knows.
Privacy. The list showed display names only. Email addresses and other contact details were never published on the wiki.
The list also helped with attribution. When a page was reused in the documentation, the reviewer could name the contributors who wrote the original notes.