I hope I am emailing this to the right group. My
concern was about mediawiki and it's limitations, as well as it's outdated
methods. As someone wo runs a wiki, I've gone through a lot of frustrations.
This is likely the right list.
If Wordpress is like Windows 7, then Mediawiki is
Windows 2000. Very outdated GUI, outdated ways of doing things,for example using ftp to
edit the settings of the wiki instead of having a direct interface like Wordpress.
Mediawiki makes millions more than Wordpress does too, why can't the money be put into
making a modern product instead of in pockets of the people who run it? I know Wordpress
and Mediawiki serve two different purposes, but that's not the point. The point is,
one is modern and user friendly (Wordpress), and the other (Mediawiki) is not. Other
complaints:
-Default skins are boring
Are you aware of the Wikipedia usability initiative? Have you seen the
new skin they are creating (Vector), or the awesome new features they
are adding? If not, please see the usability wiki:
http://usability.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
The skin system is also likely to have a major update in a very future
version of MediaWiki. Look through this list's archives, the
discussion was fairly recent.
-Very limited in being able to make the wiki look nice
like you could with a normal webpage.
Minus making new skins (which is fairly difficuly), I think this is a
matter of opinion and skill.
-A major pain to update! Wordpress upgrades are so
simple.
I don't really find updates to be terribly difficult. You mostly just
check out (or download) the newest version, and run update.php. This
is probably more difficult without shell access.
I'd like to mention that from a security perspective, I like the fact
that by default MediaWiki does not allow Wordpress style upgrades and
code modifications. MediaWiki exploits may lead to vandalism, but
Wordpress exploits generally lead to shell or root access, and
compromise of all of your other applications.
-Better customization so people can get a wiki the way
they want. It should be more like the wikis on wikia, except without me having to learn
css and php to make those types of customizations. Give me some option, some places to put
widgets. Not every wiki is going to be as formal as the ones on wikimedia sites. And
don't the people at Wikimedia commons get tired of always having to make changes so it
actually suits their site? If they had some of the options from the get go, i'm sure
they'd appreciate it too.
-I don't want to go to my ftp to download my local settings file, add a few lines
then reupload it. This is caveman-like behavior for the modern internet.
Get a host that supports SSH. Use VI, Emacs, nano, pico, etc.
-Being able to manage extensions like wordpress does.
It looks like someone may try to tackle this as a summer of code project:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Jeroen_De_Dauw/GSoC2010
In short, it's time to spend some money from those
millions of dollars from donations to make this software more modern. Being stubborn in
modernizing it will only make this software less relevant in the future if other wiki
software companies are willing to do things the people at Wikimedia aren't.
MediaWiki is written primarily for use for Wikimedia foundation sites.
They generously make the software usable for third party sites, but
they have no obligation to do so. If the users of Wikimedia foundation
sites are happy with the software, and end-users are happy with the
Wikimedia foundation sites (and I'd say thats a resounding yes), then
the millions going to the Wikimedia foundation are well spent.
You are more than welcome to submit patches, and/or help develop the
features you want. I maintain a number of extensions, and have worked
with the MediaWiki code base for a number of years. I've found the
Wikimedia foundation, and the core developers to be very welcoming of
improvements to the software.
Respectfully,
Ryan Lane