Talk:Starting and Running a Wiki Website

About

 * Started: 23 March 2004
 * Size: 2,400 words (Sep 2008)
 * Focus: instructions about wikis in general. No research and no case studies. Could cover instructions for corporate in-house wikis, for which public wiki hosting is inappropriate.
 * Out of scope: wiki markup.
 * Focus: instructions about wikis in general. No research and no case studies. Could cover instructions for corporate in-house wikis, for which public wiki hosting is inappropriate.
 * Out of scope: wiki markup.

About copying content from WikiWikiWeb
I have e-mailed Ward Cunningham, but until I hear back from him, I will operate from my interpretation of the following excerpt from Wiki Copy Rights:


 * Q: Can I take unsigned pages relevant only to wiki use? I would like to start my own wiki based on the perl code distributed at the wikibase. I would like to copy the pages that were written primarily to help new users get over the first few moments of questions about wiki. --JohnRepici


 * A: It would be fair use if you quoted wiki modestly and included a proper link or citation. (See HowToCiteWiki.) Taking pages from this site and posting them as your own would not. -- WardCunningham

I interpret this to mean that we can do what I have just done, i.e. quote from the WikiWikiWeb and give appropriate credit. The same page raises a good point: why copy a Wiki when one can just link to it? Some possible answers: (add things I missed) I believe the former. For those who believe the latter, I encourage you to improve the guide at WikiWikiWeb. Whatever you do, do not inappropriately copy material from WikiWikiWeb, i.e. without first getting permission from the original author of what you copy.
 * Wikis should be duplicated because one is Copyleft and the other is not, or
 * Wikis should not be duplicated.
 * If the other Wiki is only linked to, then if it goes down the current Wiki will lose content.

-Rs2 05:17, 24 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Update - Ward's response
Ward confirmed that fair use is the rule. He referred me to the following material that he wrote to address exactly these issues: -Rs2 17:45, 1 Apr 2004 (UTC)
 * http://c2.com/ppr/about/copyright.html
 * http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?HowToCiteWiki

test

"stolen link"
I just now deleted the line

"**Wiki Hosting- someone seems to have "stolen" the link?"

Edit 35207 ( http://wikibooks.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Wiki_Science:How_to_start_a_Wiki&diff=35207&oldid=34152 ) originally added that link. As far as I can tell, that site does not currently offer any special Wiki support (perhaps they did in the past).

If they do (perhaps in the future) offer wiki support, please post a link to the exact page that mentions Wiki support.

-- DavidCary 06:10, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Learning Wiki markup
I searched "wiki markup" and got information on how to start a wiki, but no information on how to create and edit pages. Something with simple instructions would be helpful. Standard html does not seem to work.

Thanks!

NPOV
I found it very much agianst the NPOV that there where only two wiki-engines mentioned (they are not the only and not the best solution for everything. Instead I put in some links to sites which compare wiki-engines. If you disagree, please leave a note on my userpage in the german wikipedia. Thanks. --213.140.17.106 13:28, 4 May 2005 (UTC)

Wikis for Existing Hostings
I was not able to find any information regarding which wiki engines do not require special privilege to install. If I already have a web hosting and want to add wiki in a particular section, which engines will work for me ,without any need to contacting technical support of hosting providers. I will be very happy if some body provides me with this information on this talk page. Thanks in advance.

Free Wikis comparison table out of date
As of Oct 2005, the free wiki comparison table seems to be quite outdated. For example, Schtuff.com apprently does have revisions and history, to the contrary of the table entry. Also, X-Wiki and some others have now very interesting advanced features, which would deserve mentioning in the "pros" column. --Andras

MediaWiki
I like a section about how to start a MediaWiki engine.

Paid wiki hosting
I suppose a web host included in this section should provide a reasonable set of services that enable people to build and maintain a wiki site. But no such set is described here, and I personally know that one of the web hosts listed here do not even provide the ability to run a basic MediaWiki maintanence script. I would rather drop this section or provide more accurate information about each host.

freewiki
Is http://freewiki.info/ useful enough to add to this module? I like the screenshots there.

Wikipedia
Is the big Wiki hosted on one of these? If it is hosted, on what? -Salty 66.69.124.88 03:04, 22 April 2006 (UTC)


 * They run dedicated servers for the big wikis. 207.216.17.170 16:08, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Links from Wikipedia
The text of the article suggests, "Link to your wiki on a relevant page in the Wikipedia namespace." Some readers have become quite upset by the fact that, when they follow this advice, their links are removed from Wikipedia. More clarification is needed. After all, Wikipedia is not a collection of links, and unless the wiki is particularly informative, there always going to be editors who will oppose its addition to Wikipedia articles. -66.92.76.142 15:55, 15 July 2006 (UTC)


 * w:WP:NOT does allow for linking to relevent articles by people involved, but one must justify the relevency and value to avoid people who only partially understand the rules. 207.216.17.170 16:07, 15 July 2006 (UTC) w:User:HighInBC

Annoying Message
I just created a wiki at editthis.info, and whenever I add an external link to a page, it says:

"Hello link spammer. Just so you know, google does not follow links off this page. The links are tagged to be ignored by search engines, so go somewhere else. All you are doing is annoying users. Adding links here will not help you page rank

Thanks, Rob -a sysadmin who doesn't need soma ;)".

Does anyone know why this is happening?--65.96.158.140 20:15, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

I'm getting exactly the same message! That's reeeeeally annoying! I've posted a message at the editthis help desk, but apparently no one's there!

200.177.128.231 22:10, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

WYSISWYG
I have a request. I dont know if Ishould be discussing here but I need a Wiki (preferably free but I dont mind paying if it is really good) that will allow the maximum ease of use. I am pretty fammiliar with Wiki syntax but I wish to use one which will not require Wiki syntax or little for a project. Most of all I want a tabular format which I can edit with as much ease as MS excel. What I want is something like this: I create a set of tables (with or without syntax) but each cell in the table should be editable individually by clicking on it. Is there a Wiki which offers a lot of ease for naive computer users. --59.162.197.16 13:26, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Terminology
The terms "self-hosting" and "Hosted wikis" currently used in chapter names seem dubious. Better terms are welcome. Other terms coming to mind are "in-house", "outsourced", and "outsourcing". --Dan Polansky (talk) 10:06, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Oppose merging
I just saw that a user suggested merging and I think that it’s not a good idea. This book is more about the technical side of running a wiki, and the other book is also about “the wisdom”. I think that it’s better to have them as separate books and maybe link to each other in the “see also” section. -Gifnk dlm 2020 From Middle English Wikipedia 📜📖💻 (talk) 16:15, 24 January 2022 (UTC)
 * That makes sense. I agree with Gifnk dlm. L10nM4st3r / Roar at me 11:38, 27 June 2022 (UTC)