[pmwiki-users] Looking for articles/reviews about PmWiki

Petko Yotov 5ko at 5ko.fr
Sun Oct 2 15:25:34 CDT 2011


On Sunday 02 October 2011 20:33:22, a.sonderhoff at gassi-tv.de wrote :
> >> I see many webdesigners using wordpress as a basis for their work
> > Maybe. But those people are curiuos and educated so I think they know
> > what they're doing.
...
> I would like to comment on PmWiki and maybe even give some inspiration. 

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your message.

> I am also aware, that some of the stuff I am going to
> write is not really in line with Pm's original philosophy on PmWiki.

Actually you are very close. "PmWiki is a wiki-based system for collaborative 
creation and maintenance of websites" (first line on the homepage). The 
"system for creation and maintenance of websites" is now called a CMS and 
"collaborative" it is "multi-user".

PmWiki has always been more about managing websites and much less about open 
online communities. It just applies the best features of a wiki (fast, 
collaborative, asynchronous, page histories, recent changes...) to the task of 
maintaining websites.

> PmWiki is much more than a Wiki. It's in fact a simple cms framework which
> is easy to extend and where you can design the backend to the needs of
> your clients.
> 
> It's a great wiki (I currently use it for two private collaboration
> projects), but it's only one of the few available cms which offer maximum
> flexibility with minimum configuration and setup time

Another rare and nice "feature" is the possibility to upgrade to newer 
versions without losing your local configurations. You practically never need 
to edit core files and you shouldn't, because a number of "hooks" allow you to 
define your own variables and even replace sections of the code.

> For us designers PmWiki is nearly invisible, because the
> pmwiki.org site looks visually outdated and the content centers around the
> wiki functionality. Just have look on the Pixie or Wordpress sites. They
> are much more visually appealing.
> 
> These lines are just my two cents. But just think about this: When GASSI
> TV® was relaunched this year, we were planning to use Drupal as the new
> CMS. But when I played around with PmWiki, it soon became clear, that I
> could actually realize the same functionality and design faster with
> PmWiki. If I didn't play around with PmWiki for a long time and figured
> out, that it can be easily configured as a cms, I would never even have
> considered using it. From a brand management point of view, the brand name
> PmWiki is not really a benefit, as it reduces the cms to a wiki. The
> visual appearance of both site and brand are plainly speaking not adding
> to the brand value at all. It's a great product, but it ships in an
> unappealing packaging.

We started working on the visual appearance of the site, but changing the 
brand name is a different story. We'll have to ask Pm about this.

OTOH, the TikiWiki engine is now known as "Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware". :-) 

Petko



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