Wiki this Way...

This post is actually an amalgam of both possible activity questions.

First, after discovering we could not host our own wiki at this time (disappointed!) cause I so loved Media Wiki, I began to explore the hosted wikis. I used the Wiki Matrix suggested to me by another librarian (Jaemi read her fab blog at GPL: Technically Speaking) to help me compare and contrast the hosted wikis.

See the Screen Capture of my comparisons here:

I figured I needed to play a little and not just go with a comparison so I decided to start with SeedWiki and was quickly unhappy with the style and setup. It offers about what PBwiki does but I found it clunky to navigate. I looked at Wetpaint and found it bulky and also was just not happy with the "free"setup and frankly it just doesn't hold a candle to PBwiki or Seedwiki in what it offers. Finally, I tried PBwiki and was pleasantly surprised by it's ease and the look. Plus, why reinvent the wheel? I saw the Computers in Libraries PBWiki and decided to start there by hacking their setup as a way to get my look going which worked like a charm. It was much easier to find PBwiki's out there that looked like what I wanted, unlike Seedwiki, which made my setup that much faster.

Here is what I have so far BCLWiki.

So now, after playing with this I have determined one MAJOR factor. Free only gets you so many good things :) I have a certain style I want in our wiki as well as security and well...to get what I would really like to see I would need to get a paid subscription. However, for what it does in the FREE Zone...not so bad.

PBwiki Pros: Easy Point and click editor, previews which are really helpful, nifty sidebar, easy to configure, can use standard wiki style format with editing if you wish, easy to navigate help sections. You can use WYSIWYG, and there are RSS features as well as good support.

PBwiki Cons: Once you become familiar with wiki style, you quickly outgrow the FREE features and hunger for more :)