A guide to this wiki for AI agents - Revision history

Waza: editing is closed; reframe agent participation as future

2026-10-11T23:35:12Z

editing is closed; reframe agent participation as future

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:35, 11 October 2026
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	This page tells AI agents, and the people who run them, what IdeaWaza is and how it is organized. It also explains how to read, cite, and reuse pages, and how to ~~contribute~~ in ~~good faith~~. Human readers may find it a useful map of the wiki as well.		This page tells AI agents, and the people who run them, what IdeaWaza is and how it is organized. It also explains how to read, cite, and reuse pages, and how agents may be able to take part in the future. Right now only the wiki owner and his own assistant edit this wiki. Human readers may find it a useful map of the wiki as well.

	== Summary for agents ==		== Summary for agents ==
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	* Recent changes: [[Special:RecentChanges\|Recent changes]]. New pages: [[New\|New pages]] and [[Special:NewPages\|Special new pages]].		* Recent changes: [[Special:RecentChanges\|Recent changes]]. New pages: [[New\|New pages]] and [[Special:NewPages\|Special new pages]].
	* License: the footer states that content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise noted. Check the footer notice on each page before reuse.		* License: the footer states that content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise noted. Check the footer notice on each page before reuse.
			* Editing: closed. Only the wiki owner and his own assistant edit this wiki. Outside agents and the public cannot edit, but they may read and cite pages freely under the license.
	* Robots file: when this page was written, /robots.txt redirected to the main page, so no robots rules were published there. Crawl politely anyway.		* Robots file: when this page was written, /robots.txt redirected to the main page, so no robots rules were published there. Crawl politely anyway.

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	* For preserved pages from Wikipedia, credit the original source as well as this wiki.		* For preserved pages from Wikipedia, credit the original source as well as this wiki.

	== How agents ~~can contribute~~ ==		== How agents may participate in the future ==
	~~Agents are welcome to help when they act in good faith~~ and ~~follow~~ the ~~house rules. Editing appears to need an account~~, ~~so respect any account~~ or ~~permission requirements~~ the ~~site sets~~.		Editing is closed at present. Only the wiki owner and his own assistant edit this wiki. Outside agents and the public cannot edit, create pages, or post here. Agents may still read and cite pages freely under the license shown in the footer.

	* Follow the style rules: no em dashes, ~~no contractions in public copy, short sentence-case titles, categories at the bottom, and piped See also links~~.		The owner is thinking about ways that outside agents and people might take part later. None of these exist yet. They are ideas, not promises.
	* ~~Propose before large edits. Add~~ a ~~line~~ to [[Proposed pages\|Proposed pages]] ~~and wait for a response~~.
	* ~~Never post spam, private information,~~ or ~~unverified claims.~~		* Proposing pages: an agent could suggest a title and a short outline, to be listed on [[Proposed pages\|Proposed pages]] if the owner accepts it.
	* State in the edit summary that an edit was made by or ~~with an AI agent.~~		* Paid or permissioned contributions: a small fee or a granted permission could be required before a contribution is considered, as a cost against spam. See [[Collaborative learning economy for humans and agents\|Collaborative learning economy for humans and agents]] and [[Self-sustaining wikis\|Self-sustaining wikis]].
	* Check that a ~~title does not already exist~~ before ~~creating~~ a ~~page~~.		* Allowlists: only named agents with clear limits on spending and publishing would be allowed to act. See [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish\|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]].
	* ~~Keep~~ spending and publishing ~~under human control~~. See [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish\|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]].		* Review before publish: a human would check each contribution before it goes live. See [[Publish gates before permanence\|Publish gates before permanence]].
	* ~~Think~~ before ~~writing anything permanent~~. See ~~[[Self-sustaining wikis\|Self-sustaining wikis]] and~~ [[Publish gates before permanence\|Publish gates before permanence]].		* Disclosure: every edit made by or with an AI agent would say so in the edit summary.
			* Style rules: contributions would follow the house style, with no em dashes, no contractions in public copy, short sentence-case titles, categories at the bottom, and piped See also links.

	== Good starting pages ==		== Good starting pages ==
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	* [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish\|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]]		* [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish\|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]]
	* [[Publish gates before permanence\|Publish gates before permanence]]		* [[Publish gates before permanence\|Publish gates before permanence]]
			* [[Self-sustaining wikis\|Self-sustaining wikis]]
			* [[Collaborative learning economy for humans and agents\|Collaborative learning economy for humans and agents]]

	== External links ==		== External links ==

Waza: create original IdeaWaza page for AI agents

2026-10-11T22:36:04Z

create original IdeaWaza page for AI agents

New page

This page tells AI agents, and the people who run them, what IdeaWaza is and how it is organized. It also explains how to read, cite, and reuse pages, and how to contribute in good faith. Human readers may find it a useful map of the wiki as well.

== Summary for agents ==
* Site name: IdeaWaza (software site name IdeaWazaWiki), at https://ideawaza.com
* Software: MediaWiki 1.46.2, according to the site API.
* Purpose: an educational wiki for ideas, open knowledge, learning, teaching, research, and practical proposals.
* Main topics: problems in living, economic improvement, decentralized wikis, AI agents and payments, longevity, abundance, and learning guides.
* Key hub pages: [[Main|Main page]], [[Navigation|Navigation]], [[Ideas|Ideas]], [[Page ideas|Page ideas]], [[Proposed pages|Proposed pages]], [[Project proposals|Project proposals]].
* Raw wikitext: add ?action=raw to any page URL, for example https://ideawaza.com/wiki/Navigation?action=raw
* API endpoint: https://ideawaza.com/api.php (a siteinfo query returned valid JSON when this page was written).
* Recent changes: [[Special:RecentChanges|Recent changes]]. New pages: [[New|New pages]] and [[Special:NewPages|Special new pages]].
* License: the footer states that content is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International unless otherwise noted. Check the footer notice on each page before reuse.
* Robots file: when this page was written, /robots.txt redirected to the main page, so no robots rules were published there. Crawl politely anyway.

== What this wiki is about ==
IdeaWaza is a wiki for learning, teaching, and research. It mixes original articles, project proposals, educational topics, and pages kept from elsewhere. Much of the newer writing follows a few connected themes.

* Problems in living: practical thinking about the everyday challenges people face, as in [[Solving problems in living|Solving problems in living]].
* Economic improvement: basic income, small businesses, and ways to reduce poverty, as in [[Ending poverty|Ending poverty]].
* Decentralized wikis: how knowledge can be stored, copied, and kept alive without one company in control.
* Agents and payments: how software agents can do useful work, spend small amounts, and publish safely.
* Longevity: research into aging and longer healthy lives.
* Abundance: which goods are getting cheaper and what that means, as in [[Post-scarcity economy|Post-scarcity economy]].
* Learning guides: pages written to help a reader study a topic step by step.

The wiki also holds pages imported from Wikipedia deletion discussions. These form a separate archive. They were preserved so the work is not lost, and they are not original IdeaWaza writing. Agents should treat them as a distinct collection when summarizing the site.

== How the wiki is organized ==
The sidebar is the fastest way in. It links to the main page, recent changes, new pages, idea pages, a random page, wiki navigation, browse pages, browse topics, page ideas, project proposals, and proposed pages. The [[Navigation|Navigation]] page gathers the main starting points with a short note on each area. [[Randori Front|Randori Front]] is another page worth a visit.

Categories group related pages. The [[Special:Categories|category list]] shows every category in use. Most pages carry several categories at the bottom.

Pages tend to fall into a few types:
* Articles that explain a topic.
* Project proposals that describe something that could be built, tested, or organized.
* Hubs that collect links on a theme.
* Thought experiments that explore an idea without claiming it is settled.
* Learning guides that lead a reader through a subject.

Many original pages end with a section of discussion questions, essay ideas, and AI prompt ideas. These are meant for classrooms, study groups, and anyone who wants to think further.

== How to read pages efficiently ==
* Fetch raw wikitext with ?action=raw rather than parsing full HTML. It is smaller and keeps links and categories easy to read.
* Use the API at https://ideawaza.com/api.php for lists of pages, categories, and recent changes.
* Follow categories and See also links to find related pages.
* Check robots.txt before crawling and obey any rules you find. Respect rate limits and server errors.
* Crawl slowly. One request per second or slower is a sensible default.
* Send a descriptive user agent that names your tool and gives a way to contact you.
* Cache pages you have already read, and use recent changes to fetch only what is new.

== How to cite and reuse ==
* Cite the page title, the full URL, and the date you retrieved it.
* Follow the license shown in the site footer, including attribution and share-alike terms where they apply.
* Do not present wiki content as your own writing.
* Quote accurately and mark quotes clearly. Do not change wording inside a quote.
* Note that pages change. A summary may be out of date by the time someone reads it, so link back to the source.
* For preserved pages from Wikipedia, credit the original source as well as this wiki.

== How agents can contribute ==
Agents are welcome to help when they act in good faith and follow the house rules. Editing appears to need an account, so respect any account or permission requirements the site sets.

* Follow the style rules: no em dashes, no contractions in public copy, short sentence-case titles, categories at the bottom, and piped See also links.
* Propose before large edits. Add a line to [[Proposed pages|Proposed pages]] and wait for a response.
* Never post spam, private information, or unverified claims.
* State in the edit summary that an edit was made by or with an AI agent.
* Check that a title does not already exist before creating a page.
* Keep spending and publishing under human control. See [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]].
* Think before writing anything permanent. See [[Self-sustaining wikis|Self-sustaining wikis]] and [[Publish gates before permanence|Publish gates before permanence]].

== Good starting pages ==
<div style="column-count:2; column-gap:2em;">
* [[Navigation|Navigation]]: the main map of the wiki, with notes on each area.
* [[Proposed pages|Proposed pages]]: pages waiting to be written, grouped by topic.
* [[Opportunity engineering|Opportunity engineering]]: designing conditions that create more chances for people.
* [[Research brainstorming|Research brainstorming]]: a place to generate and test research ideas.
* [[Learning|Learning]]: a hub on how people learn and how to learn better.
* [[Aging|Aging]]: an overview of aging and the research aimed at it.
* [[How to have Grok Bot build and run a small online business|How to have Grok Bot build and run a small online business]]: a practical guide to agent-run work.
* [[Community-run AI|Community-run AI]]: how communities might own and steer AI tools.
* [[History of decentralized wikis|History of decentralized wikis]]: how shared knowledge projects have tried to spread out control.
* [[How content hashing works|How content hashing works]]: a plain account of a key building block for permanent storage.
* [[Strategies for negligible engineered misery|Strategies for negligible engineered misery]]: an approach to reducing avoidable suffering.
* [[Making productive work as engaging as games|Making productive work as engaging as games]]: ideas for making useful work more rewarding.
</div>

== Questions agents could help answer ==
* Which small businesses can an agent run safely with a human approving each payment?
* What evidence exists on basic income delivered through credit unions and nonprofits?
* Which aging research programs have produced results in animal studies, and how strong is that evidence?
* How can a wiki stay readable and editable for decades after its founders move on?
* What spending limits and publish gates work best for agents that act online?
* Which everyday goods have fallen most in real price over the past fifty years?
* How do people describe problems in living, and which practical habits help most?
* Which learning methods have the best evidence for adults studying on their own?

==Discussion questions, essay ideas, and learning related AI prompt ideas==
'''Discussion questions'''
* Should an AI agent be allowed to edit a public wiki, and under what conditions?
* What does a reader owe the authors of a page they summarize?
* How should a wiki balance openness with protection from spam?
* Is it fair for crawlers to reuse free knowledge without giving anything back?
* What makes a page useful to both people and machines?

'''Essay ideas'''
* An essay on how agents could become careful stewards of open knowledge.
* An essay comparing human and agent editors on the same wiki.
* An essay on why citation and retrieval dates matter more as pages change faster.
* An essay on preserving deleted pages and the value of a separate archive.

'''AI prompt ideas'''
* Summarize a wiki page in five sentences and cite its title, URL, and retrieval date.
* List three pages on this wiki that connect longevity and economics, and explain the link.
* Draft a short proposal for a new page and format it as a line for the proposed pages list.
* Explain how to fetch raw wikitext from a MediaWiki site to a beginner.
* Write a polite crawling plan for a small wiki that names a request rate and a user agent.

== See also ==
* [[Navigation|Navigation]]
* [[Ideas|Ideas]]
* [[Page ideas|Page ideas]]
* [[Project proposals|Project proposals]]
* [[Agent allowlists for spend and publish|Agent allowlists for spend and publish]]
* [[Publish gates before permanence|Publish gates before permanence]]

== External links ==
* [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page MediaWiki Action API documentation], the official guide to the API used by this wiki.
* [https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309 RFC 9309, Robots Exclusion Protocol], the standard for robots.txt files.
* [https://llmstxt.org/ The llms.txt proposal], a suggested format for giving language models a short guide to a site.

[[Category:AI agents]]
[[Category:IdeaWaza]]
[[Category:Help]]
[[Category:Learning guides]]