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Wiki Pros Cons

Page history last edited by Lesson Plan Cloud 13 years, 11 months ago

Please list the Pros and Cons of using a wiki (pbwiki) to run the TTLUG's website. I am more interested in the Pros than Cons. I will use these points for the discussion in the meeting on Wednesday April 16th 2008. You can list them in point form with a very brief explanation by each point.

 

Pros

 

1. Easy to collaborate on documents (users can be geographically dispersed)

2. Wiki automatically handles change management of documents (can revert to earlier versions etc.)

3. Changes reflected instantly when document is saved (no need to upload changed versions of pages)

4. Style syntax easy to use (anyone with no prior experience can check style help, create and format a document)

5. Can be used by non-technical users (no knowledge of HTML or coding necessary)

6. Minimal administration (administrator does not need to maintain a list of users who have access to wiki)

7. Flexible structure (links can be created to pages, documents can be structured under other pages etc.)

8. Encourages user participation (through ease of use, collaboration and seeing other users contributing; develops culture of sharing, which embodies the spirit of open source)

9. Automatically pushes changes to users (once a user logs on to update a page, all subsequent changes to the wiki are sent to the email the user enters; no need to continuously monitor the wiki)

10. Zero cost to public wiki

 

Cons

 

1. Open to vandalism (can be mitigated by use of a captcha)

2. No standard syntax

3. Limited server space (for free wiki)

4. Can become disorganized as content grows

 


 

Added by Vasudev Seeram:

 

I support having a web site as a PR or informational site. The web site should display a list of the events, activities, meeting schedule, articles etc. (predominantly static information). A newcomer who wants to learn more about TTLUG should be able to google 'ttlug', access our web site and find out everything about ttlug.

 

The wiki contains more dynamic information, and is continuously updated with new content: new articles, manuals, suggestions etc.

 

My suggestion is that we have both a web site (for static information) and wiki (for dynamic information).

 

What I am not clear about is what are the advantages of rebuilding a wiki from scratch, or what is the advantage of a http://www.ttlug.org/wiki or http://wiki.ttlug.org over a http://ttlug.pbwiki.com.

 

RnR - This is an issue in itself. Using a wiki service requires zero-setup and does not require web hosting but may lack flexibility (to add plugins etc) and leaves your website under the control of a third-party company and may not provide as much space.

 

Concerning the Joomla vs. Drupal issue, bear in mind that there are very few persons in the LUG who know either of these two technologies. It may be difficult for someone other than the web site's creator to maintain it.

 

SJ - No so true with Drupal. Once it is set up properly, any maintainer can take over as long as they know how to fill out web forms to submit content. They would not have to see a single line of code.

 

 

Wiki-based LUG site:

Linux Users' Group (Singapore): http://wiki.lugs.org.sg/

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