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.

Likes

• Looks good

• The interface is familiar to anyone who uses Wikipedia

Dislikes / Concerns

• 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).
• A few anomalies running under Windows/IIS. There is better if support if you are running Linux/Apache.
• 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 and article).

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