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 <[email protected]> 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 > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users > _______________________________________________ users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/users
