Bwiki

To b or not 2 b

I have installed and configured MediaWiki (same software as is used for Wikipedia). After a couple of days with it ...

• I really like the appearance, although the unmistakable resemblance to Wikipedia has both good and bad connotations.

• Setting it up was harder than you would expect from the documentation. Different back end, scripting language and database than I prefer, but it’s all running now.

• The real deal breaker may be the editor (that everyone who contributes or edits has to use)

• Readers get to enjoy the overall interface which is pretty good, but contributors have to learn a somewhat non-intuitive interface.

http://toonz.ca/bwiki/

Let’s refer to it as the bwiki site for now.

Plus

• Looks good
• The interface is familiar to anyone who uses Wikipedia

Minus

• Editor (used for creating and changing content) is not WYSIWYM (What you see is what you meant)
• I am less familiar with the underlying programming language (PHP) and Database (MySQL), than with the other wiki (.NET and SQL Server).
• There are a few anomalies running under Windows/IIS. There is better support if you are running Linux/Apache. I am running Windows/IIS.
• Documentation is sprawled over several sites (all related to WikiMedia, but all in transition).

Interesting

• Strong resemblance to Wikipedia may inspire (unknown) responses
• Challenging Editor interface may deter frivolous contributions
• Has a "discussion" feature which is a less formal area where contributors can discuss individual articles. (Each page is basically an article).

• This system does not have integrated features like blogs, forums as well as wikis. We may not need those other features.

Now What

You can take a look around. There isn't a lot here. Just enough for me to test that the system is working. Click the logo at the top left to go to the Main Page.

or

go to the other wiki portal

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