[Actionchix] Meta: need for wiki

[Terri Oda]

On 24-Aug-07, at 3:09 PM, Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> To create a page on a wiki, all you do is type in whatever you want  
> the URL
> to be.  If it doesn't exist, it'll just go straight to "create this  
> page."
> This also works so that if you create a link from one page to  
> another, if
> the other one doesn't exist, the link is a different color (at  
> least on
> Wikipedia) and clicking it takes you to the "crate this page."

In Drupal, you have to explicitly click the "create new content" link  
on the left hand side (or bookmark the appropriate one) and fill in  
the form with some info about where it goes.    So it's pretty much

1. click add link (or bookmark)
2. fill in form
3. profit

VS

1. make up url
2. create the page by filling in the edit form (sometimes you'll need  
to click again to get this form)
3. profit

In my experience, a lot of people find this linear process much less  
confusing than adding pages in the wiki.  (Most common question with  
the last wiki I maintained was "how do I add a page?" and I finally  
wound up making a link for people.)

The big differences I can think of:
1. wikis are (generally speaking) more optimised for cross-linking  
content than CMSes.  This may not be a big deal to us, as we're  
talking about writing magazine articles, not building up a huge  
knowledge base of information.

2. wikis almost always have their own syntax (which may be different  
for each wiki), CMSes usually use html

3. CMSes usually have much more advanced access control, so only  
certain people can edit certain pages.

It's possible to do all the editing and stuff just easily in Drupal  
as it would be in a separate wiki, as far as I know.


Although given this choice for my own projects, I've gone towards  
wikis instead of CMSes, my preference for this project is Drupal for  
two reasons:

1. Doesn't add additional sysadmin/webadmin duties.

2. The more Chix who are comfy editing in drupal, the more chix we  
have who are able to contribute to other parts of our website if they  
want to volunteer.