native wiki

dvsDave

dvsDave

Well-known member
The biggest blank spot in both VB and IPB is their lack of a native wiki product.

I want a wiki product with multiple namespaces and autolinking of terms from the the forums to the wiki entry. I also want to be able to see a list of terms in the wiki displayed like the memberlist on vb. (characters listed in a row across the top)

You provide that and an import from vbulletin and I'll move in a heartbeat.
 
Upvote 43
Josh111 said:
That's problematic for me. I know Wikis conventionally have one title = one page, but conventional wikis don't have a hierarchy of pages.

Perhaps a wiki page could have a display name? Then the pages in my example could be called Wheels_1 and Wheels_2, and the display name for each would be "Wheels". That would be a relatively simple fix, instead of rewriting the basic functionality of the whole thing.
Click to expand...
Thats already how it works... Wiki pages have a "display name" and an "url slug"; they can be different.
 
You are so smart. :)

It's nice to talk to a web developer who isn't completely incompetent.
biggrin.png
 
Bad SEO / Hard to Find
Josh111 said:
Wiki > Cars > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Wheels
Click to expand...


Good SEO / Easy to Find
Josh111 said:
Wiki > Cars > Car Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Truck Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Truck Wheels > Dump Truck Wheels
Click to expand...

Jaxel said:
Thats already how it works... Wiki pages have a "display name" and an "url slug"; they can be different.
Click to expand...
That'll work too. The Slugs should be much more verbose than the Display Name.
I think where possible the Slug and Display Name should be the same.
 
Slugs:
Wiki > Cars > Car Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Truck Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Truck Wheels > Dump Truck Wheels

Display Names:
Wiki > Cars > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Truck Wheels > Dump Truck
 
Actually... its more like...

Slugs:
wiki > cars > car-wheels
wiki > trucks > trucks-wheels
wiki > trucks > trucks-wheels > dump-truck-wheels

Display Names:
Wiki > Cars > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Wheels > Dump Truck
 
Let's say we have these pages:
Wiki > Cars > Wheels
Wiki > Trucks > Wheels

If the word "wheels" appear on the "Cars" page, it will be automatically made a URL. Which "Wheels" page will it link to? If the word "wheels" appears on the "Truck" page, which "Wheels" page will it link to? My users would get very confused if the a term in one section was linking to the wrong subsection. This is for documentation of several products, which will have some pages with identical names.

Alternatively, is it possible to install multiple copies of the wiki, and have each linked to the forum accounts? Then I could have the "Cars" wiki and the "Trucks" wiki, and not worry about redundant page names.
 
Josh111, that is an EXCELLENT question. By default, the auto link parser will link the word "Wheels" to the first Wheels page listed in the database. However, to fix this, I have slightly changed the way the wiki BBcode works...

[wiki]car-wheels[/wiki] will create a simple link to car-wheels, with the title as "Wheels".
[wiki=full]car-wheels[/wiki] will embed the entire car-wheels page into a post.

Using this, you can manually apply the links to specific pages, which will bypass the auto link parser.
 
That's a good solution. 95% of the time the auto-link parser will be correct. The other 5% of the time you can manually specify the correct wiki link.
 
smile.png
Can someone please explain to me the process to un-do all the past work of a particular wiki member? Also, what are the different systems available for this, between XenCarta, VaultWiki and MediaWiki?

I.e., I have heard that on Wikipedia, occasionally a certain forum member is clueless about rules, goes around plagiarizing or doing other improper work. She or he might get away with this for some time, before discovered. Presumably in each Wiki there is some way to track down "all edits by..." each member...? And how complicated is it to "undo all edits by..."?

Thank you anyone. (I have another question but can't remember it right now. Maybe later...
redface.png
)
 
krystofo said:
:) Can someone please explain to me the process to un-do all the past work of a particular wiki member?
Click to expand...
I doubt there are good methods to do this.
I.e., I have heard that on Wikipedia, occasionally a certain forum member is clueless about rules, goes around plagiarizing or doing other improper work. She or he might get away with this for some time, before discovered.
Click to expand...
Wikipedia is able to do this better than other wikis because of the sheer size of the people reading and editing it.
Of course, they also attract abuse by the number of people using it.
They do have some things like "Auto-rejection" of edit if it contains an external link.
So Ci@lis links to overseas pharmacy X don't get posted.

And how complicated is it to "undo all edits by..."?
Click to expand...
I think Prevention is the key.
I am very interested in Wiki Workflow and permissions, which I suspect are dependent on the size of the wiki and how the wiki is used.
 
krystofo said:
:) Can someone please explain to me the process to un-do all the past work of a particular wiki member? Also, what are the different systems available for this, between XenCarta, VaultWiki and MediaWiki?
Click to expand...
Right now, there isn't even a "revert" feature in XenCarta. There is a history/archival feature which shows version history however; if you wanted to "revert" an edit, you would need to review an old version and replace the contents of the current version with your old version. Why? Because XenCarta is not full fledged wiki. Digital Doctor likes to talk up my wiki, but really when it comes down to it, the reason why my wiki runs so well is because its missing 90% of the features you see in other wiki products; features that tend to confuse end users and just slow things down.

Ideally, the best way to fix wiki vandalism is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Only give editing rights to specific user and/or usergroups. Honestly, do you really want to be another Wikia or Wikipedia? The wiki is for your site, and your community members alone; do you really want to allow random people who aren't part of your community to edit your wiki? Of course not. You could use usergroup promotions to only permit a user to edit your wiki after they have 20+ points on your forums.

If you really must have a full scale wiki, with all the bells and whistles, wait for Pegasus to finish writing his XenForo version of VaultWiki; he definitely has my approval, it just didn't suit the needs for my community (which were having an EXTREMELY high number of template calls in a single page, I'm talking 200 on a single page; on VaultWiki pages would take 40 seconds to load because of this).
 
Jaxel said:
Ideally, the best way to fix wiki vandalism is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Only give editing rights to specific user and/or usergroups. Honestly, do you really want to be another Wikia or Wikipedia?
Click to expand...
I agree with this. I think it is a mistake even to allow everyone to edit Wikipedia. If they limited editing to people who donate $1/year, this could eliminate Wikipedia's financial problems and also 99% of spam problems. (Spammers do not like to pay even 10 cents, I suspect.)

However... I do hope to have a large project. Also, totally unlike Wikipedia, it is essential to my plan to allow members to post SEO-active links. (No javascript, no "nofollow.") I am hoping that, because I will require $1 payment, I will know who they are and they cannot re-join with 1000 Hotmail addresses. And also, because I allow members to post SEO links, they will be eager to stay off the naughty list. Nonetheless, I do expect some numbskulls to post their porn, viagra and wow-gold links. Maybe also phishing. Maybe someone goes postal and deletes 300 pages of valid work. I would like the capability to "reverse" this!

But... if this slows downloads to 40 seconds... I agree it's not worth it! I am grateful to JAXEL for being so transparent and sincere about the pros and cons of his program, and even giving us the benefit of his vast experience with other programs.

Digital Doctor said:
krystofo: sounds like you would benefit from a feature: List all edits by a Member.
Click to expand...
Yes but instead of an "all edits by" list, how about this on every page (pretending that the thread you are now reading is a wiki page)...

The Native Wiki page was created by dvsDave 2010.08.08. Last edited by Landergate 2010.10.08, Andy.N 2010.11.03 2010.11.04, Josh111 2011.01.03 2011.01.04, Brogan 2011.01.03 2011.01.04, fos 2011.01.04, Jaxel 2010.11.04 2011.01.03 2011.01.09, Digital Doctor 2010.10.08 2010.12.24 2011.01.03 2011.01.04 2011.01.05 2011.01.09 and krystofo 2011.01.03 2011.01.04 2011.01.05 2011.01.09.

I.e., "krystofo" did the latest edit, so he is listed last, followed by all the dates of his edits within the last-9-editors time frame. Digital Doctor is second-last, because he did the second-latest edit. If he or anyone else edits after krystofo, whether a new or an old contributor, then that person (along with whatever are his edit dates) will be moved down to the end of the list. Perhaps there is a better format. Anyway I hope this conveys my idea.
 

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