Thanks dunxd for the candid feedback, we are listening. Yes, indeed, a "detailed instructions are beyond the scope of this document" message is not very helpful. TWiki is an open source project; by all means, anyone is invited to help improve the documentation. TWiki has possibly more detailed documentation than any other wiki. Specific answers to your other feedback:

2) A quick overview to the concepts and terminology used -- good point. I believe TWiki has that with WelcomeGuest and TWikiTutorial. Both are prominently linked to from the homepage. In addition, every documentation topic has a quick overview on top. What specifically do you miss?

3) Lists of variables -- Most doc pages that refer to the TWikiVariables link to it in WikiWord link style. If you find a page that has no link please add one. It's a wiki. :-)

4) Have an appreciation that most users won't want visitors to see the default skin -- I believe the skin concept is clearly documented in TWikiSkins. The default pattern skin has a pointer to PatternSkinCustomization that has all the details how to change the banner, logo etc.

5) Organise documentation primarily as how to achieve tasks -- good point. Is done that way with the TWikiInstallationGuide and the TWikiUpgradeGuide. Most other docs are organized as a reference manual.

-- Peter AT StructuredWikis DOT com - http://www.structuredwikis.com/ - http://twiki.org/

Last edited by PeterThoeny (2007-03-08 03:41:47)

MoinMoin docs are also not helpful, with things like "these are Linux instructions but Windows users should be able to figure them out."  Thanks.

I'm not using Samepage as I work for a non-profit and can't cost them money for my schemes, however useful they are.

matt_w wrote:

I humbly submit that anyone other than a Linux admin or web developer trying to install an open source wiki will run into serious frustration. There are lots of affordable hosted solutions available that require no setup whatsoever... give one of them a try!

Actually it's pretty easy to install an open source wiki. An example is any $5 a month Cpanel hosting account with Fantastico. All you have to do is log into your control panel, click on Fantastico, click on either TikiWiki or PhpWiki and click "go" and you've got yourself an installed open source wiki. If you want to install DokuWiki all you have to do is download the file, unzip it, upload it to your server via ftp and you're done.

Here's a a $6 a month hosting service that will install either MediaWiki, DokuWiki or TikiWiki on your domain (they pay for the domain too) and give you 500GB of space: http://www.siteground.com/wiki-hosting.htm I have no clue how reliable that particular host is but options like that are worth exploring if you are on a budget.

One concern with hosted wikis is portability. Typically they run proprietary or highly customized wiki software that you can't move easily (or at all) to another server in the event they go out of business or get sloppy with service. DekiWiki's $60 a year http://www.wik.is pro solution may be an exception (and the cheapest I've seen) because they use an open source wiki that is not customized, however I'm not familiar with what kind of backup options they have that would make it easy to move to another server if they shut down.

Back to documentation, I would have to give MediaWiki and DokuWiki high scores on documentation (TWiki's documentation looks thorough but I haven't dug into it much because I gave up on trying to install it). Not because either has a big fat manual for administrators that tells you everything you need to know but because solutions to just about any issue can be found. User documentation for MW is without a doubt the most extensive of all, just look at what's available in the help files on Wikipedia.

Last edited by Ross (2007-10-31 01:25:44)

matt_w

as one of the developers that participate in wikimatrix, I'm afraid you're seriously misrepresenting the effort the opensource community is making to:
1. make installation via web-based installers as simple as possible for users with little or no technical know-how;
2. provide accurate and accessible end-user documentation;

There are several excellent opensource solutions that do not require major technical skills to have a wiki running in a matter of minutes. Suggesting that less experienced users should simply avoid opensource wiki software because of the technical requirements on their installation and only look at hosted solutions sounds pretty misguided, if not overtly biased.

Last edited by dartar (2007-11-12 22:17:21)

I know this post comes late but better late than never!

I first wanted to start a wiki to show the full potential to my bosses/colleagues.

So I went for a powerful (I think) wiki: twiki

I wanted to install the wiki on my windows machine, locally using XAMPP. Being now over a year ago I don't recall the exact problem I it was hard for me to figure out how to create a user without e-mail notification/invitation.

Looking now back onto one year of DokuWiki I have to admit that one major obstacle back then was as well that I was not clear on how to start the whole wiki thing. Which page to create first, where, why. I had no Idea about the structure I needed whatsoever.

After my failed attempt with twiki, I started another one with twiki using the VMware image. This worked out quite well. The "how to sign up users without sendmail/mail invitation" did still not work transparent to me but I made it. I used this installation for some weeks. I now think that the sheer power of twiki with all its scripting and other functions was simply to hard for me to wrap my head around. I don't consider myself a novice but there was still work to do.

My next attempt was with xwiki. I wanted to see some WYSIWYG editor action. Xwiki turned out to be complex/powerful but again I had trouble establishing my initial structure. Again I spend more time to figure out how to do things in the wiki than writing things down for work.

I then went back to engineering first principles: KISS

By now I've been using XAMPP with DokuWiki for over a year, and I like it. Most of the features I like I found a plugin if not already included in DokuWiki. (such as numbered headings, math formulas, simple template support, note, printing CSS, media managing, linking to windows network paths/files)

I started a DokuWiki for my private stuff at home (Ubuntu, LAMP) Installation was always easy. Works with my local webserver and can deal with my existing work Proxies.

I am writing all this here because I don't consider myself a lazy reader and not a computer/html/www newbie but with twiki and xwiki I did not come to a satisfying result within reasonable (work) time spend.
For a skilled admin this might seem a simple thing to set up but especially the various dependencies of twiki scared the crap otu of me in the first place.

Hope this helps someone looking for the right wiki.
Please note I write this more than 6 months after the original thread opener
Please note as well that I don't want to say that twiki or xwiki are bad/crap they where just not right for me at that time. By now or when set up correctly for me I think it will look different