Ditching the wiki for good
After almost a year of grappling with various (opensource + free) wikis and trying hard to find some balance in being productive as well as maintain (backup, restore, clean-up, change hosts, et al), I’ve finally bid goodbye to using wiki. There were some unique limitations, as I mentioned earlier. There may be some commercial apps that could do what I wanted, but I’m not investing in those, for I’m not really sure I can justify the cost of those features, that I could otherwise get from a GPL’d application.
In addition, I wanted a flexible, portable system that I could backup and restore anywhere I liked and continue working from where I left off earlier. I’m spending a lot of time these days writing technical stuff, procedures and pouring in my experience into some sort of an intranet enabled archive, and so I could unload my aching brain. Sometimes, I’m writing at home and may want to continue it in office and then again back at home. So, the data is changing continuously. Instead of stopping the thought train for the limitation of the software, I’d prefer to jot down and finalize a write-up in one instance. New and additional ideas, I add whenever I remember something not recorded before. So, the portal is currently a pool of an overflowing thought-process. And I don’t want to stop it. Limitations of software were drawing my attention away from my actual writings and illustrations. So, that ends with ditching the wiki.
I have transferred all my content from the wiki on to Textpattern, yes, Textpattern! You may be surprised to know that I’m not using WordPress. The one thing I perfectly understood—after experimenting with so many systems—is that WordPress is a great blogging software, just not good enough to be a backend of a knowledge portal. I’ll give you a simple example: WordPress doesn’t even seach Pages by default. My requirement is not comment or comment moderating system, but simply to write and write lucidly, without distraction and without limitations, in addition to having a portal like, sub-sections like features. When I could do everything I wanted to using Textpattern, and more, I almost broke into a song =). For portability, I carry the database dump and use it back and forth—updating and keeping all systems in-sync.
Also, by now, I’ve mastered the art of writing in Textile—a web text generator that looked funny and complicated until I started creating tables. And now, I’m like wow, how did I live without it for so long?
Another thing I particularly like about Textpattern is that it can create linkable footnotes. I find this totally an invaluable feature. I now have the ability to link to and explain all the weird terms and keep it out of context at the same time—until I want to look-it up.
The CSS is a huge inspiration from Odeo blog. Don’t ask. I’ll change it someday. For now, I just wanted to make it usable and keep writing. When my brain cools-off, I’ll turn my attention back on screen and print versions of CSS code.
You know, I was severely tempted by TextPattern some time ago but being too chicken/dumb to install (I’d just messed up my MT install LOL), I gave it a miss.
Jan 5, 06 at 03:24Iman: Personally, I still think WordPress is the best if you’re looking for a blogging solution. It’s also because of a vast number of plugins available when compared to any other.
I’m using Textpattern to power a generic site, which does not look for a post by post feedback, but rather a documentation site. And I think, I’ve found a gem in Textpattern for this purpose. Also, I found the livesearch plugin for Textpattern was way better and faster than a similar one for WordPress.
Jan 5, 06 at 15:32