Home Page Wiki

HomePageWiki is a wiki that is used as a tool for conducting a homepage. Whereas this is fine for some people or groups it can lead to serious problems, because of WikiSpam and because of problems of hiding some content or that everybody can read old versions of every page. Not everybody wants that, but people forget about this features because editing is so simple.

Another point is that it often makes much more sense to contribute to an existing wiki as to build one of your own. (see also OnceAndOnlyOnce). Many positive effects of wikis only come if there are enough contributors.

(maybe we make a list of pros and cons here?)

I've started to build my home page based on a wiki. I've more than once started to build a home page, but every time I lost interest - too much work and too little usefullness. But being able to write as you go, locking pages which should stay as they are (CV and such) and at the same time being able to let others participate in other parts may work quite well.

I'm a little bit perplexed that I can't find much with regard to using a "personal wiki" for building personal home pages.

I'd love to do this. The problem I have is that I can't expect to teach the world to accept "WordsSmashedTogetherLikeSo" and the other wiki conventions. Now if there was a way of making a wiki that doesn't look like a wiki. (For example recording the "proper" capitalisation of each wikiname, and substituting it for the in-text wikiname.) Maybe I could afford the cost of the lookups and substitutions if the HTML pages are cached.

A wiki with FreeLinks removes the WikiWord obstacle.

I'm using phpwiki, which allows spaced links. But, when users start to use random words and sentences for links, most features of WikiWords are lost. WordsSmashedTogetherLikeSo are features, not bugs. Allowing spaces in them is not a feature, it is a bug. -- AnonymousDonor

The space in my name is part of my name, it bothers me that I have to squeeze it out. There's a price for everything. WordsSmashedTogetherLikeSo is a small price to pay compared to the furious utility and ease of use they give.

See PersonalWiki.

Is a wiki that doesn't look and feel like a wiki still a wiki?

Does a wiki that doesn't look and feel like a wiki have a WikiNature?

OK, starting over: What is a home page good for? This is the first question to ask if one wants to build one based on a wiki. Is a home page called a homepage and not a site because it is something to look at and not something to visit? If a home page is meant as something to look at, a wiki is useless for it. Or, maybe not totally useless since you still can use its features to emulate something like a content management system with one user (you).

But what I would like to understand is if a HomePageWiki could be used as a site where people meet. It's like with your own house: You are living there, not your friends, but if you make a living and vibrating place out of it and your friends are happy to visit you, it might become a more friendly place for you too. Or a messy one, but you're always free to lock some doors...

Interesting topic since this is what I use my wiki for, namely having it as home page where I tell the world about all the different projects I start in my life. For this task I have been used a slightly modified SWiki (patched in order to make it work better with Swedish characters ). I have not bothered to lock any pages since it adds the nice feature that friends may come and put comments to the pages.

My wiki has been operation for over a year now and some visitors have made their own home page on my wiki! If you want to visit my wiki then perhaps my wiki's TourBusStop is a good start! http://wiki.gudinna.com/TourBusStop. Oh by the way.. I have asked some of the visitors if they realised that it was a wiki and their reply was simply "No, what is a wiki?".