Wunsch-Wiki/Survey

To gauge the interest in changing the wiki software we currently use I'd appreciate if you participate in the followin survey. Please feel free to add or edit our options. Also, I'd like to compile a list of advantages and drawbacks for each option, so feel free to add that to, just keep each point short enough for the whole thing to stay readable. Discussion should be held on the mailinglist, the discussion page for this article or on the next Jour Fixe.

Both Wikis in the WikiMatrix (comparison): http://www.wikimatrix.org/compare/Confluence+MediaWiki

Wiki Choice

Keep or modify our existing Wiki:

• * I don't need any additional features: |
• + Open source, can be modified with ease (and was already modified for vimeo support fE)
• + lots of (ugly) plugins
• - nobody takes care of updates; major updates neccessary (Note: same argument is valid for other wiki software - MovGP0)
• - baaaaaad PHP :(
• - wiki syntax sucks (Note: subjektive Argument; the syntax is widely known and powerfull - MovGP0; - agreed, that's a matter of personal preference, I personally think Confluence's syntax sucks more - كرا, the syntax may suck but it widely deployed and well known (Marius))
• +/-? We'll need people who are motivated to do some wiki-gardening -- gem

Votes: consti, cs, MovGP0, كرا, Marius, AndiS, fetzig, gem, |

Volunteers: ?

Use Confluence:

• + very easy upgrade management (base software and plugins)
• + built-in calendar system that could probably replace our self-written one
• + many nice features come out of the box like auto-saving of drafts, a wysiwyg editor, easy tags, user configurable rss feeds, source highlighting
• + lots of plugins(some are commercial(but most of these are free for our community license))
• + multiple spaces(easily created instances)
• + Search includes the content of attachments
• + Confluence is written in the language of Mor^H^H Java (and has a scripting plugin (BSD license) which supports for example jython)
• - not Free software
• - migration might lose some structure or formatting of old content
• - migration *back* into a free system might be even more problematic - كرا (there is a mass export feature and I already found python scripts to convert from confluence to mediawiki syntax. Confluence syntax for plugins is consistent enough to easily write some custom converters for any plugins we might start using on the confluence side - meta)

• - no section edit

Votes: Worm23, meta, |

Volunteers: Worm23, meta, |

Write our own Wiki software:

• + Even more control about features and workflows
• + "Lessons learned" from existing software, "time to do it right"
• + Maybe yet another opportunity for a metalab startup
• + ...
• -- huge amount of work
• - haters gonna hate it
• - updates and changes to the codebase are in the hands of few willing to spend time, just like the MOS. future development might become a pain in the arse

Votes: TomK32, |

Volunteers: TomK32