9 Jul
2010
9 Jul
'10
1:54 a.m.
I see. Thanks for the explanation.
The problem is that
the first persons to handle the wiki must know the platform enough to
get things started.
Well, yes, that may be a problem. This asks for two things:
1) a knowledgeable admin, right out of the box
2) an admin determined enough to go through the pain, without an eye
candy to see first.
That's a barrier to entry. If the same thing was to be said about
Excel, Excel would not be nearly as popular.
Is xwiki basing its marketing strategy on admins, or end-users? I
think end-users should be its ultimate customers and fans.. it's
already going the long way with its self-contained download (end users
don't want to mess with Apache and wars).. I think the out-of-box
download should be an eye candy with a killer skin and carefully
selected options, that will let users to just enjoy populating the
wiki with what's in their heads, and maybe an "advanced" option
somewhere in the menu for developers and admins.
JMHO..
On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 2:49 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu <sergiu(a)xwiki.com> wrote:
On 07/08/2010 08:07 PM, abc6587 wrote:
Hi,
I've installed xwiki, and found it a bit too rich in features, out of
the box, for a novice user. Maybe because I did not use it right?
I confess I am a wikidot fan. With all its limitations, it's intuitive
and mirrors the way people think. It has a very small set of features,
but that's probably its strength, as it's very easy to learn.
Unfortunately, its access control is too primitive to my (intranet)
needs; plus, as a programmer, the idea of programmable wiki surely
sounds sweet.
In a nutshell, I feel wikidot makes easy things simple. xwiki makes
complex things possible. Ideally, I'd love to find a wiki that does
both. A wiki that looks just like wikidot out of the box, then grows
on you as you learn advanced tricks. Not a system that shocks end
users with busy screens and code in the edit window. 90% of users
don't want to learn that; not until they are captivated by the
system's ease of use.
Is there such a thing?
Hi,
XWiki has three parts: things for administrator, things for developers,
and things for users. The first time you start using XWiki, these three
parts are not clearly separated, since you get the Admin account and an
almost empty wiki. The idea is that after the first install, the
administrator(s) do the configuration, create the initial content and
remove unneeded things, and create/grant developer accounts. Then the
developers come and create applications, which should be easy to use by
normal users. Then, end users come and populate the site with basic wiki
pages and application data. At this stage, the complex things are
hidden. Normal user profiles don't see the access rights, the wiki
editor or the object/class editors, but just a simple "Edit" button
which opens either the WYSIWYG editor of a simple page, or the editable
form of a structured application page. Absolutely no need to understand
code.
So, after the wiki is setup by administrators and developers, users
should just see the WYSIWYG editor, comments, annotations, attachments,
history. Complex? I'd like to believe that it isn't. The problem is that
the first persons to handle the wiki must know the platform enough to
get things started.
--
Sergiu Dumitriu
http://purl.org/net/sergiu/
_______________________________________________
users mailing list
users(a)xwiki.org
http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users