FreekiWiki:About

The meeting to decide on the One True Wiki has happened, and Mediawiki has been chosen, pending successful implementation of the customization we need to do for Free Geek.

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Why a wiki?
A wiki is a wonderful way to collaborate on projects. It allows people to make changes quickly and easily with simple formatting characters, to put in a small piece, or a long discussion. The great thing about a wiki is that one can make a small addition without having to take responsibility for a whole project. The whole community can participate in small or large pieces.

A wiki is very fluid, and yet a history can be maintained so that none of the changes are lost. It is very similar to CVS in this respect, but easier for the non-technical person to use.

Why Mediawiki?
Mediawiki is a very full featured wiki. Many features contributed to our choice, but several stand out:
 * The interface is attractive and easy to read.
 * It has a well-developed system for user logins and change tracking
 * It does not use WikiWords to create links
 * Each article has a "talk" page so that important changes can be discussed without cluttering up the article page.

The two major downsides to Mediawiki is that it is more time-consuming to administer (so please be understanding) and that it doesn't have a built-in spellchecker.