all the wikis

Read this article and check which features make up your Best Wiki. Fill in the check boxes, then print the page.

Best Wiki: want it for free?

There are plenty of free wikis out there. Some are awesome, but there can be down sides. For example: not having control of ads on your pages, risking a change of domain name if things don’t work out and not having access to good support. Free wikis are usually ‘lite’ versions of their paid big brothers.

Paid versions of the same wiki package often get more costly with better support, more advanced features, such as secure information transfer, the greater number of registered users that are allowed and, for hosted packages, more storage room.

If you opt for a free version, make sure paid versions will meet your needs if you decide to upgrade.

To host or not to host?

Many wiki packages include hosting on the wiki provider’s server. This releases wiki owners from providing 24/7 server maintenance and security. However, in business, a crashed computer and lost data could mean a crashed business. Businesses may not want to trust wiki security to someone else. However, there are hosted enterprise level wikis that pride themselves on maintaining the integrity and security of your data. So there is no need for anyone to risk hosting their own wiki, if they are not certain they can maintain their own server.

A wide range of downloadable wiki software is available for those with great IT skills (or departments), to download onto existing servers. The servers may be within the business or hosted externally.

A hardware wiki appliance is available from some enterprise level wiki providers. The appliance sits behind the business firewall and integrates with the business’s existing hardware.

Domain names

Hosted wikis usually provide a sub-domain name such as mychoice.Provider.com. Using a sub-domain name, ties you to a wiki provider. Leaving the provider, means loosing the name and all hard-earned incoming links. Many, but not all, hosted wikis will allow you to use your own domain name, such as mychoice.com, usually just on paid plans.

Content you want on your Best Wiki

Your Best Wiki supports the content you need. With access to (x)html and code, savvy users can do almost anything. However without both of these some content options will not be available to you if they are not specifically supported by the wiki.

Best Wikis are user friendly

The Best Wikis meet the needs of their users; allow them to access the wiki, feel at home and find their way around without problems.

For Search Engine Optimisation each pages meta tags and each images alt tag need completing, so you need access to these. You will also need a site map that search robots can find and read.

For on site navigation. You need search, categorisation tags and effective menus or page lists.

Many wikis are now offering tight integration with other communication software, such as blogs and email.

Best editing options for your wiki

Wikis often have several options for editing. A versatile WYSIWYG editor, which produces valid xhtml code, would be ideal. Unfortunately, WYSIWYG editors currently available on wikis are fairly rudimentary. However, these are still extremely useful because they are easy to use, especially by occasional users who do not have high technical skills.

Wikitext is the traditional way of editing wikis. Many wikis stick to Wikitext because of the limitations of WYSIWYG editing. This is the editing option used by Wikipedia.

HTML or its offspring XMTML form the raw code that is interpreted by browsers to display web pages. This is fairly easy to learn but requires some effort. However, combining HTML or XHTML with CSS allows wiki authors complete control of the look and feel of wiki pages. Many wikis allow users to edit the (x)html and CSS of pages or at least to insert snippets of code onto a page. This allows wiki authors to include scripts such as for google ads or videos.

Unfortunately giving users access to these coding functions does leave the door open for malicious use.

Best Wiki language options

Best Wiki has the language options you need.

Best Wikis give you control of who can do what

Although wikis traditionally have open access for page creation, editing and deletion; most wikis allow administrators to define who has permission to do what. The majority of wikis will allow administrators to give separate permission for who can view, create, edit, delete and comment on wikis.

Some wikis allow these permissions to be defined for individual pages so that much finer control is possible over who can do what. For example: an administrator could create pages for individual users that only that user can edit, only registered users can post comments on but the public in general can view.

The Best Wiki prevents abuse of your data

Wikis can be very vulnerable to spam and vandalism. Even well intentioned users can make inappropriate changes or deletions by mistake. When data on a wiki is important to you, so is wiki security.

Best Wiki keeps out vandals and spammers and, if data does get damaged, allows easy reversion to earlier versions.

Methods for keeping out troublemakers include:

• Requiring users to copy distorted text from CAPTCHA images, which cannot be read by spambots, before they can contribute.
• Requiring users to log-in to your wiki before they can contribute
• Allowing administrators to block the IP address of users who have abused your wiki.
• Allowing individual wiki pages to be locked from change

Wiki administration

Wikis are complex beasts and need to be managed well for a successful wiki project. Here are some of the options many wikis provide for wiki administration.

Support for the Best Wiki

We all need some support at some time. Wiki provider companies usually offer support but just as important is the support you receive from being a member of a thriving community of users of that particular wiki package.