A question about Fandom Wikia and wikis in general

[Icewolf 258]

Has anyone ever used this host to make a wiki for their board? I am considering using it as it seems to be the most simple option, rather than go down the route of self-hosting it, but before I do, I was wondering if you could stop people from editing it. I don't want people changing the lore information where it differs from official sources, or worse, deliberately vandalizing it to disrupt the site.

 

What self-hosting wiki software have people used, and which is the simplest? Or could I use a content management system instead? (One of the things that confuses me about the wiki software I've looked at is that the formatting tags  are different to what I'm used to, (they aren't html or bbcode) and none of the wiki software seems to have an admin control panel.)

[Morrigan 1,826]

I know @Death Kitten uses Media Wiki.

[StormWolfe 557]

@Icewolf

 

I used to use Wikia and it is very simple to use. However, its editing safeguards are limited and their ads ran me nuts.  I really had to wrangle with the Wikia admin to get my sites set to private. Most people that want a true wiki use applications like MediaWiki. Honestly, it's more complicated than I can manage, but I am low-tech compared to most of you youngsters.

 

I currently use WordPress to house my site's lore. This is the smaller of my 3 sites: Sagas Wiki.  Aereth Codex is the one I am building for our fantasy world. I'm not advocating for WordPress, but it is very simple to use and to style. The majority of the plugins I use (like the Table of Contents and Knowledge Base) are free.

 

We are also investigating using a mod from IPS Marketplace that theoretically makes its Pages feature into a wiki. I'm wary of it though because I don't want my current databases messed up.

 

There are lots of options out there. I'm just not tech-savvy enough to tackle them. WordPress gives me the click and go functionality I need.

 

Warmest Regards!

[Icewolf 258]

I thought that safe-guarding your content would be a problem on Wikia. I don't like the adverts either, and I truly think for a forum's lore, you need to ensure that you have some security over it, and it's something that you should easily have control over rather than have to risk it. I do run a blog with wordpress and I'm already familiar with that. The only problem I have with it is trying to find a layout that I like as a lot of the themes I've found are usually the basic white background with black text, but if that's the only issue then I can get over that.

[Death Kitten 200]

I self host a couple of MediaWiki installs for various projects, one of which is my rp. The first thing I do with every fresh MediaWiki install is lock it down so hard it gets Stockholm Syndrome. (Mild exaggeration, but not by much.) Dreamhost offers it, and another wiki system called Doku Wiki, as one click installs, and you just have to configure them... Though I found out the hard way that Dreamhost doesn't automagically upgrade MediaWiki for me. 😭

 

As for fandom wikia, my only experience with them is when reading memory alpha, and holy crap, sometimes their ad system shits the bed because of my using noScript in Firefox. I am not a fan.

[StormWolfe 557]

@Death Kitten has an amazing MediaWiki that is themed to seamlessly match her site. It can be done and I've been told it's easy to use. I didn't find it that easy . However, as I said, I'm not good with new tech - for me it's very new. There are dark theme options for WordPress - even free ones. I bought a license to one because it had features I wanted.

 

There's also a wiki theme for WordPress that's also free. Their default theme actually has a dark option (or used too).

 

I can help you out with WordPress, give you the plugins I use for my wiki presentation. I like being able to have document tables of contents in the sidebars.

 

I also looked at DokuWiki which seemed easy to use, but again, had issues trying to theme it to match my site(s), etc.

 

Feel free to browse my WP wikis and if you'd like a membership, so you can see how it's set up, just shoot me a PM or DM me on Discord.

 

Do look over Death Kitten's wiki though. It's mega nice.

[Morrigan 1,826]

3 hours ago, Stormwolfe said:

We are also investigating using a mod from IPS Marketplace that theoretically makes its Pages feature into a wiki. I'm wary of it though because I don't want my current databases messed up.

 

IPS's Pages doesn't need this, especially if you are lo tech. Turn on "Wiki Type editing" and all users will be able to edit and turn on "store revisions" which means if someone does mess anything up you can pull the previous edit.

[StormWolfe 557]

The mod I was referencing allows wiki markup including inserting an auto-table of contents, vital for our longer documents.

 

I'm still researching options though! Thanks for the info!

[SYRE 6]

We're using Wikia at the moment to build our wiki, and we're relying on Rules to prevent our members vandalising anything. If they did even then we can restore from previous revisions so we're not too concerned.