

Ask HN: alternative solutions for wiki - algorix

Mediawiki, Dokuwiki... differents names, same solution (technology&#x2F;mechanism): wiki.<p>Can you see some alternative solution?
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txutxu
Moin moin [0] is widely used too, and it has a version which can run without
install [1]. You can put it i.e. on a USB, and carry your wiki with you.

Also, it's interesting ikiwiki [2], which puts your wiki on git. This may be
very technical, or perfect, depends on the person.

Why do you think you need alternative solutions to those you said? What do you
want to solve?

Used Dokuwiki years ago and it was ok for me. Still use mediawiki at work,
even I've some scripts to auto-update the wiki from the infrastructure using
the mediawiki api and templates.

Mediawiki is "the wiki", the only pain comes when you want to limit
permissions matching say... the groups of an ldap... and things like that.
It's not impossible, but it's a pain.

There are more options [3] and comparatives [4].

[0] [http://moinmo.in](http://moinmo.in)

[1] [http://moinmo.in/PortableMoin](http://moinmo.in/PortableMoin)

[2] [http://ikiwiki.info](http://ikiwiki.info)

[3]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wiki_software)

[4]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software)

Update: added links

~~~
algorix
Actually, all this tools you mentioned are great but based on wiki
mechanism/technology.

I'm just thinking if out there are something that solves all problems that
wiki solves but is not "wiki based".

I'm looking for a paradigm shift.

~~~
txutxu
Maybe we could define it as "collaborative editing of information".

Wikis is one technology, maybe tagging (and voting) is other technology,
multiuser editors, mmm in the late days we can see "inline comments" too...

The way wikis solves that, is adding certain ingredients as "revision
history".

There is a tool nowadays by excellence, for "revision history", and it's named
"git". In the late days people speaks a lot about "github for writers" and
things like.

Google apps, and alternatives, offer a step further (i.e. you can use google-
sites as wikis with permissions, but integrating rich widgets).

mmm

We could say that stackoverflow and etc are a wiki based on
questions/responses/comments...

I could prefer a CLI wiki (that you can edit with vim, render from markdown to
ASCII colors, and query with ack or grep). But I don't know if this paradigm
could be considered a "shift". Maybe it already exists, just that I haven't
used it.

First thing you should consider in whatever platform/solution you're thinking
is:

a) Attribution. Do you prefer to enable anonymous contributions, or do you
prefer gpg signed ones?

b) Content access. Are you thinking about public wikis, private wikis ? This
may change totally the solution...

Maybe a paradigm shift may emerge if you look at new devices... smartphones,
etc... is a "mediawiki" a nice solution to "collaborative editing" on a
smartphone ? doe it take advantage of the device capabilities?

Regards.

------
83a
what do you want to store? who's gonna use it? why not use a wiki?

if it's about collaborative working on a long text: perhaps plain text-files
and a version control system like git is the way to go?

if you want to discuss about a medium-length text, you could use a etherpad.

[http://etherpad.org/](http://etherpad.org/) \- example:
[http://piratenpad.de/p/hackernews](http://piratenpad.de/p/hackernews)

------
algorix
Nice thoughts! When I think about wiki, I think about team work. After read
yours comments I could find (googling) a proprietary solution called
Confluence[1]. Maybe it's what I'm looking for. Lets see...

[1]
[https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence](https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence)

------
anonymouz
You might want to try to specify which problems, in your eyes, a wiki solves,
and maybe also which ones are inadequately solved by a wiki but that you want
to be solved.

Otherwise you're essentially asking "I want something like X, but not X",
which will probably not lead to any paradigm shift as you seem to be looking
for...

