alexpgp | Wiki warmth...

I notice that a lot of sites now have a wiki adjunct, which is far superior (in my arrogant opinion) to those same-old-same-old threaded discussion groups you can find on 16-inch centers just about anywhere. If you've followed my key-tappings, you know I'm a fan of wikis.

I've been fortunate enough to be able to set up wikis on various sites, here and there. My first attempt was with something called TWiki, which was a little like starting swimming lessons by marching off to the deep end of the pool, tying a heavy weight around your waist, and jumping in. TWiki has a heck of a lot of features, but just too many for the "average" candidate to have to worry about, including me.

I then experimented with WackoWiki and MediaWiki. The former has an unfortunate name; the result, I suppose, of having been developed by folks in Russia (and who therefore were not guided by any marketing considerations). On the plus side, however, WackoWiki had a very well developed access control mechanism in place, which is why I use it for my work web site, so I can have individual pages that only I and my various clients can access.

As far as MediaWiki is concerned, I really, really wanted to like it, but when the comment spammers started to post their offal faster than I could delete it, I was put in the unfortunate position of having to either surrender to their automated sewage, or to make the site one for users-only. And since I was the only user, well...

Have I mentioned how hard it is to get people to buy into the wiki concept?

It is not easy, but that's grist for another post.

Anyway, the other day, I was surfing the Usual Web Sites™ and ran across a site that creates wikis on demand for anyone who happens by, PBwiki.com. Just to ornery, I hit the registration button, and with less fuss than you'd expect when applying for a throwaway email address, these guys had set up a wiki for me, which currently goes by the (semi-)ambiguous name of Pagosa.

I really would like to get some of the computer-savvy folks around here - here being Pagosa Springs and particularly the hams - involved in wikis.

In this wiki.

I think my approach to date - which has been to try to create a kernel of content that will "inspire" others to build on it - is just not the way to go about building a viable wiki. If there's any inspiring to be done, I need to get people to create their own content that will spur them to a kind of self-sustaining inertia.

As I said, grist for another post.

In any event, as opposed to some wikis I've seen, the default offered by the folks at pbwiki.com is a nice starting point, and it sure is convenient not to have to worry about the really basic stuff.

Cheers...