Fork

To fork a page is to copy it to your own origin site. The fork button is one of two buttons tucked into the lower right corner of the journal. The term comes from open-source software: to make a copy under new ownership and control.

# Fork is the New Like

A Like on social media is a vote - a tally of attention. A fork is something richer: it copies another's work into your own site while implying some responsibility to improve on it. A Fork is the New Like captures the idea that we can do better.

## Forking is a Citation

When an author forks a page, this is a direct citation. Even completely rewriting the page and making it your own counts as a Creative Commons citation.

## Fork Symmetry

Currently only the person doing the forking "knows" what they've done. Fork Symmetry is the aspiration that both parties should be aware — the forker and the forked-from. This mirrors Link Symmetry: all links should be bi-directional by default. The neighbourhood expands in a very generous way when fork and forked-from are unified.

## Forking as Cultural Feature

In 2010, Anil Dash characterised forking as a cultural feature. Ward Cunningham's fedwiki connects this to GitHub's strapline "Build software better, together." Fork comes from a root meaning "to divide in branches, go separate ways" — and that's exactly what makes it productive rather than fractious.

## The Power of Fork

In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software. The term often implies not merely a development branch but a split in community - a form of schism. In politics, there is little understanding of the importance and relevance of this concept. Fedwiki tries to make forking generative rather than divisive.

## Authors and Attribution

An author may or may not want to know who has forked their work - both scenarios should be respected. Authors should be in control, not the software. There is ongoing frustration in fedwiki conversations about not being able to tell who wrote what when - attribution across a federated network is genuinely hard.

## Complementary Notice on Fork

The client could tell a remote server when it forks a page - a complementary notice on fork. Such a notice could be ignored, counted, or recorded; all are useful at various stages of growth. The tricky part: we don't want strangers to write on any site (they will find a way to spam). Notifications should probably be private, so they don't automatically expand a neighbourhood but require a conscious decision. Fork Spam is a real risk to think through.

## Soft-forking Groups

Clay Shirky's 2003 post "A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy" intuited that social software that scales needs Soft-forking Groups: groups with fuzzy edges, centered around individual relations. Fedwiki's forking model is a practical implementation of this — each person's site is their own, but forks create loose, organic groupings.

## Thoughtful Forkers

Thoughtful Forkers are those who read material carefully and fork the best version of the best material to their site. Forking is not a mechanical act — it's a curatorial one. The forker brings their judgement to bear on what is worth keeping and propagating.

# See - Fork Button - Power of Fork - About Forking - Forkers - Authors of Forked Content - Forking is a Citation - Attribution in a Federated Wiki - Forking as (Cultural) Feature - Soft-forking Groups - Fork Symmetry - Fork Notification - Complementary Notice on Fork

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