The WikiWikiWeb Journal

Wiki related gatherings

2009-01-15T03:27:59Z

If this is really off topic, I apologize... RecentChangesCamp 2009 is being held at the Univeristy Place Hotel on the Portland State University campus Friday morning (February 20) and wrap-up Sunday afternoon (February 22). A copy of the invitation can be found here. Basically, RCC is a wiki barcamp and free to attending. It would be really great to see people from this community attending. It is a great opportunity to meet other wiki people, to talk about your own issues in the wiki community, etc.

Also, Camp Fandom 2.0 is coming up on March 21, March 22 in Chicago at IIT. The event is free to attend. It is a barcamp related to fandom's back end from supporting fansites to dealing with admin issues to promoting your fan community to business issues related to fandom. It would be great to see people from the wiki community attending and presenting/discussing the role of wikis in the entertainment/fan community.

Wiki Wednesday, Chicago

2008-06-06T19:07:34Z

If anyone on the community is involved with wikis (Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Dramatica, Fandom Wank Wiki, Fan History, WikiHow, AboutUs are some examples of wikis) and would be interested in getting together socially, the Chicago area Wiki Wednesday is back. It is a little social get together for anyone interested. It will be held on July 9 from 6 to 8pm at Cosi's on Michigan Avenue. The FaceBook page has more of the details. I'd love to see a more active Chicago area wiki community. :) If you know of anyone who might be interested, please pass the info along.

Wiki conferences

2008-04-22T14:56:46Z

What are people's experiences with wiki conferences? Are they worth the time and money to attend? Are they good networking opportunities? Did it result in getting additional help with your wiki project?

Wikipedia you can talk to

2008-04-04T12:05:18Z

Hi! I am glad to represent you my site http://jixperts.com. Its idea is to build "wikipedia you can talk to". So instead of writing article everyone can create chat-bots and teach them with answering questions. You can make your favorite characters or virtual experts here. Every chat-bot uses databases of other characters, so even just-made chat-bot can talk well.

P.S.
English part of site is really poor with content, so I am looking for person, who can lead English community.

Wiki Spot

2007-05-20T01:50:19Z

Because I figured you all might be interested, I wanted to let you folks know about a project that I've been working on called Wiki Spot (wikispot.org). Wiki Spot is a nonprofit, member-supported effort dedicated to helping communities use wikis.

The project grew largely out of our efforts over at Davis Wiki. We're aiming to provide a safe, awesome home and resource to wikis that support their communities.

Anyway, check it out over at wikispot.org! You'll also probably be interested in our about page, which gives some overview and detail on what we're setting out to do and where you can help out.

Info/Advice

2007-03-22T16:03:05Z

Anyone familiar with Wikispaces.com as a wiki site provider? Known problems, issues, limits etc or links to your wikis on their site so I can determine if they do what I want and can make a quality resuly?

Wetpaint.com... Wiki Problems

2007-03-15T11:52:22Z

Well I've been working on transferring one of my projects from a Pbwiki.com Wiki site to a wetpaint.com site and have a few observations. The reason for the mitigation is because the cost of pbwiki has gone from affordable ($50 a year for a full featured setup) to expensive (approx $30 a month for pretty much the same features).

I like PBwiki, I'm not in need of a WYSIWYG editor (they've recently added one to all 'levels' of their service) but I do need things that their more minimal options don't offer, such as leveled password control of the wiki (so I decide who can edit it, since I use it for collaborative works) and usage stats. I do wish that they got the PDF save function to work, but at least on their software I can just save the HTML/XML pages from my browsers to have a backup locally for when I'm not onliine (and can do an ok job printing from it). I just can't spend hundreds of dollars on the service.

They also do a lot of tinkering with their site software, which randomly breaks things, or changes how things look.

Wetpaint.com is relatively new (June 2006 startup) and uses a purely WYSIWYG style editor. There is no cost for it, as they are a 'paid by advertising and Angel Money' startup, it looks a bit snazzier and has a few built in features I like (such as built in indexing of the pages of the wiki, something you only get as a third party support option on pbwiki).

The problems I have with wetpaint is you can't back up your data. You can't save what you see in the browser to your hard drive, you can't access the material offline at all. I can print stuff from it to hardcopy, but the printouts look clunky with a 'editing blurb' at the top of each page section you print which makes it look like a partial screen capture instead of a regular print. Additionally I can't adjust the font size when printing, which means that everything gets printed in 12 point text, when for print copy a 10 point font is more efficient (but you need 12 point to see things effectively on screen if you're going to read heavily directly from the site).

There is no PDF copy version or any other copy version. Basically all I can do is Hardcopy or be online to use the wiki, which isn't useful when you are designing something for use half the time without access to the internet. If, like my other wiki project, this turns into some 500 pages of material, carrying around a binder of single sided pages that thick is like carrying around a second notebook computer and nowhere near as useful.

They use propriatory software so there is no offline version, nor do they make a standalone software package you can purchase for offline use.

This leaves me frustrated all around. I really need offline access (no wi-fi in building basemenets or public wi-fi available in 95% of the city where I live in public locations, and no 'one wireless' pay service available in the area). I don't need to write to the wiki offline, but I do need to access the data.

So anyone have suggestions on alternatives to either of these wiki services? (The few standalone only wiki software packages I've seen are ineffective, clumbsy or badly designed... doing things like storing all the data in a single file).

Wiki Question

2007-03-13T19:22:16Z

So, anyone here familiar with wetpaint.com as a wiki host? Pros, Cons, problems, feedback?

Wikis, Lexicons and Gaming

2007-02-21T15:36:57Z

Ok, so Zamani the system was designed inside a Wiki, for ease of design info flow and to make it accessible easily to players. 90% of my previous game design efforts have been aimed towards producing written linear documents (PDFs or Printouts). I still gave a partial mechanics handout at the actual first game session, but the Wiki was the main info source for updates, changes etc.

I'm working on a new project in the background, which I've started as a Wiki, but I am unsure whether this is really the way to go.

I've seen a lot of folks use the wiki approach, usually with a pre-game lexicon stage that the players contribute into. I used it less for that, instead having it act as a 'rules comment system' as well as fast update method.

I have seen very few game-via-wiki projects with players on the net that have actually worked out in the long term. The players seem to get distracted, overwhelmed or abandon the wiki end of things along the way, and in about half the cases this kills the games involved (and in the other the lexicon ends and the tabletop takes over with updates ending or becoming scarce).

So, for those of you who have used Wiki/Lexicon approaches to gaming, what has been your overall experiences? Any Complete Successes? Partial Successes? How long have the games run involved from start to finish of player involvement?

Would you recommend this format to others? Did players find it helpful, distracting, annoying or ignorable? Did it enhance the gaming experience?

wiki @ 2006-09-25T13:35:00

2006-09-25T18:43:22Z

I'm not too sure if anyone can/will help me with this, but I'm having a little problem completing my installation of Mediawiki on my friend's website. After I move the Localsettings.php file I get a 404 error on the website. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm able to create the database and completely install Mediawiki, but it's only when I move the page that I get the error. I can't figure it out and I've been at this for days completely deleting and reinstalling only to have the same problem. Anyone out there to help me figure out what's going on with all this?

http://undertherainbow.satanjewels.com/wiki/ is where the wiki is supposed to be located, but it's a 404 page. (It might actually not be, if I If I delete the localsettings.php from the main directory, I'm able to start over setting it up. Thank you so much.

Lauren

I also posted this at the support desk at Mediawiki. I honestly don't even know if I worded this in a way that people are able to understand what I'm doing wrong. I'm wondering maybe I can't use a subdomain? Could that be a problem just with how the files redirect themselves? I'm debating trying to just make folders and go that route, but I wanted to see if it was some other stupid thing I was doing wrong that was causing this problem. Ramble ramble. Thank you so much for anyone who offers any sort of help. I really appreciate it.

Fear Of Wiki???

2006-08-09T15:28:44Z

So, I seem to have encountered an unsual reaction to the wiki with some players, a fear to change things (or even use the comment option) on my wiki.

My wiki (http://zamani.pbwikil.com) is used for my gaming group, though a few friends and acquainteces also are involved supposedly in the project. But folks seem to be avoiding changing it, afraid they 'might break something'.

Anyone else see this problem with thier wikis?

wiki @ 2006-08-05T15:37:00

2006-08-05T22:39:11Z

Hey so if I have a MediaWiki set up on my web space, how hard is it to 1. move the entire wiki to a different web space and 2. copy the entire wiki to a local version to be installed on my OS X powerbook?

Recovering Instiki System Password

2006-06-16T05:42:14Z

FYI: http://instiki.org/show/Recovering+System+Password

I had to figure this out after I forgot my instiki system password.

Wha?

2006-06-06T07:07:46Z

For some reason, on pages that I search for that do not exist (that I want to create), I get this message when I search for them:
You can < a href=":FAQ" class="new" >create an article with this title< /a > Please search Wikipedia before creating an article to avoid duplicating an existing one, which may have a different name or spelling.

The spaces that I included above are not in the actual message, so I don't see why that HTML tag would not be working.

Second, why does it say "search WikiPEDIA?" when this is my Wiki? This happens when I'm logged into my SysOp account. I did add a line to my LocalSettings.php from the MediaWiki documentation, to prevent page edits when users are not logged in, but I don't know why those errors would be occurring out of the blue like that.

Oh, help.

2006-06-03T22:51:42Z

I wanted to upgrade my MediaWiki to 1.6, but since my account doesn't have Shell access, I wanted to simply re-use the installer wizard. I followed the instructions on the MediaWiki page, but even after the installation was successful, I got this error when visiting my MediaWiki index page:

Error in fetchObject(): Table 'seventh_Az01.wf_page' doesn't exist

Backtrace:

* GlobalFunctions.php line 602 calls wfbacktrace()
* Database.php line 596 calls wfdebugdiebacktrace()
* Database.php line 1787 calls databasemysql::fetchobject()
* LinkBatch.php line 76 calls resultwrapper::fetchobject()
* LinkBatch.php line 55 calls linkbatch::executeinto()
* Skin.php line 192 calls linkbatch::execute()
* Skin.php line 171 calls skinmonobook::preloadexistence()
* SkinTemplate.php line 108 calls skin::initpage()
* MonoBook.php line 28 calls skintemplate::initpage()
* SkinTemplate.php line 151 calls skinmonobook::initpage()
* OutputPage.php line 577 calls skinmonobook::outputpage()
* OutputPage.php line 794 calls outputpage::output()
* Database.php line 476 calls outputpage::databaseerror()
* Database.php line 419 calls databasemysql::reportqueryerror()
* Database.php line 806 calls databasemysql::query()
* Database.php line 825 calls databasemysql::select()
* JobQueue.php line 47 calls databasemysql::selectrow()
* Wiki.php line 289 calls job::pop()
* Wiki.php line 247 calls mediawiki::dojobs()
* index.php line 124 calls mediawiki::finalcleanup()

I went into my phpMyAdmin and also noticed that while it added tables to the correct database, apparently I got the prefix for the tables wrong- I entered "wf" when I was supposed to enter "wf_"

What can I do? Please help!

General use wiki code?

2006-06-02T23:57:14Z

Is there a place that has handy examples of common Wiki Code and tags, such as the [[double square brackets]] used for links, or the single quotes used for italicizing/bolding? I realize the toolbar lets you do many of these things automatically, but there are many things that I'd like to know how to code in my MediaWiki encyclopedia, but I don't really know how. For example, what exactly does the vertical pipe (|) do in links? The Wikipedia entry on it said that it helps categorize entries alphabetically by words that aren't necessarily the title; in entries of names of people, I've come to see this as [[Full name|given name|surname]] but the entry still points to the [[Full Name]] entry, which is correct. But when someone searches for given name or surname, they don't get bumped to the Full Name page directly. Is there a way to do that, using the vertical pipe, or am I misusing it?

Thanks! :)

Wiki concepts

2006-05-19T15:12:02Z

Hello all!

I"m going to setup my own knowledge base based on the wiki that"s why I'm looking for several good links about the wiki (especially mediawiki) concepts. The main point of interest are the organizing concepts of the content, use cases etc.

Thanks in advance.

P.S> I don't a technical info about the syntaxt and how to create the page. I can read FAQ myself :)

wiki @ 2006-04-25T07:26:00

2006-04-25T12:27:57Z

Hello all, I would like to abandon Livejournal and go to a Bliki. A Bliki (also known as a WikiLog, Wog, WikiWeblog, Wikiblog, or Bloki), is a blog with wiki support. This means that after (or before) an article is posted to the blog, it can be edited, either by anyone or by some group of authorized users. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliki) Anyone have any recommendations of a good bliki that is like wikipedia?

All of the Commercial bliki services listed on this wikipedia page are hard to use and set up.

Thanks.

wiki @ 2006-04-19T09:24:00

2006-04-19T16:26:04Z

Hey, I'm new to this community. I just set up a new Mediawiki and I was wondering: is it possible to put italics and boldface into a title?:

For Instance

Thanks for any help.

Interesting Wiki

2006-04-10T14:15:11Z

Here's a Wiki of Interest that was recently posted about for folks in the Boston/Cambridge Area: http://beta.bostonsquares.com/

Design question

2006-03-24T09:17:38Z

I'm suing MediaWiki to create a huge document - ex. a book in Wikibook.

I've splited the document into logical parts (separate articles) and then integrate those parts using {{:Article1}} {{:Article2}} method on a Special_Printable_Page.

The problem is that the links of the articles when they are combined into a single document resolve each to separate article. Thus when I navigate the Special_Printable_Page and click a link that points to some part of this Special_Printable_Page, I'm leaving Special_Printable_Page and go directly to Article1.

Is there any trick or pattern to solve this problem?
Is there anyone who had the same problem to solve?

Desirous Of Feedback

2006-03-09T17:54:03Z

I have a wiki (http://zamani.pbwiki.com) that's been under 'construction' for the past 3 weeks or so, for a roleplaying game system and setting that is under design. I'm interested in getting feedback from folks who are wiki-aware on how the layout and navigation are working, and what folks thing about the content who are among the tabletop roleplayers that may be in this community.

The site has been getting a ridiculous number of hits (over 5,000!!!) from a variety of countries while I've been setting it up, even though it hasn't had much in the way of actual visibility otherwise on the net.

A number of friends of mine believe that it's getting hit by some sort of automatic search systems that look for public wikis that allow instant posting in order to post up spam, but I find it hard to believe such could be finding it.

(The wiki itself is password controlled, editing/posting requires folks to email me for a contributor password, so auto post systems would fail to do squat).

Any ideas what else might be happening to it?

New wiki search engine: Qwika

2006-02-22T10:25:15Z

Rapid Intelligence has released the beta version of Qwika.com, a wiki search engine. The technology is designed from the ground up to work with wiki-based content and has a number of unique features of interest to researchers and Wikipedia editors. It is the only search engine to index machine translated content, so that users may search for terms in their own language and see results translated from English.

You can find Qwika here:
http://www.qwika.com

Wiki charts?

2006-02-20T18:27:30Z

I'm trying to design a curriculum for an advanced math tutoring program, and I keep wishing I had a "tree-style" chart of things like "before you can learn derivatives, you need to know about quadratic equations and the slopes of lines, to learn slopes of lines, you need to know coordinate planes and algebra" etc, only in graph form. I asked around some of the teaching comms, and got a bunch of responses to the tune of "that sounds really neat, let me know if you find one". Since I don't really have the time or the experience to build the whole chart myself, I thought it might be the perfect project for a wiki. I could get all the people with more math experience to help build it, and then we could all have a copy. But a) it's really hard to make it work as text, I need something more graphical and b) I'm rather hopeless when it comes to serverish type stuff, and I was wondering if anyone knew of a (preferably free) wiki hosting site that had the sort of graph capabilities I'm talking about.

Moving to a different script?

2006-02-02T20:21:36Z

Hi; new here. I'm looking to move my wiki from Cwick (a variant of UseModWiki) to something with certain features that Cwick lacks. However, I'm not sure which wiki script to move to, and figured this would be the place to ask for recommendations.

Basically, I'm looking for a wiki script that's user-friendly, supports required logins (i.e., members-only editing), subpages, automatic alphabetical indexing (i.e., an index page for each letter), and custom layouts, in addition to Cwick/UseModWiki's basic features. There's probably a few other features I've forgotten to mention, but those five are the most important to me at the moment.

Well, those, and a crucial sixth one: as the current wiki is rather large (2000+ pages), I also need some way to be able to transfer UseModWiki-compatible pages to whatever new script I choose.

Any suggestions?