According to Wikipedia, a wiki is:
…a website that allows the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.
In plain English, a wiki is:
A web-based documenting system.
A wiki can either be self-hosted and self-installed by you, or you can use a freebie provider. The most popular self-hosted way is to use MediaWiki, and the (arguably) most popular freebie way is to use Wikia.
The best way to describe a wiki is to state what it isn’t.
A wiki is not a blog
A blog in its most basic form is a journal, meaning it’s not meant to be a documenting system. While it’s true you can have categories, subcategories and link articles to each other in any number of ways, at its core a blog is a journal and is meant to be used as such whether a personal or pro-blog.
A wiki is not a forum
Forums by nature are structured in a way to foster discussion by using message threads. Yes, a wiki does have "Talk" pages that somewhat act like a forum – however those Talk areas are purposely designed to be separate from main articles whereas in a forum it’s all about the thread.
A wiki is not share-friendly
The popular trend on the Internet right now is "share everything". A wiki basically shares nothing. This doesn’t mean you can’t view it, it means that what’s in the system is meant to stay there. You will not see little "like" buttons or "embed this on your website" boxes or anything like that. The wiki is for documentation and rigidly stays that course. That’s a good thing, by the way.
What’s the best use of a wiki?
Wikis are best used for anything that requires documentation on an infinitely-scalable system.
This is a bit of difficult thing to wrap your mind around, so it’s best shown by example.
The Homestar Runner Wiki, a site completely dedicated to the webtoon Homestar Runner, is an ongoing documentation project that covers every single conceivable thing that’s happened in the webtoon. It is especially a good example of a wiki because the people who run it are ordinarily not made aware of what’s going to happen on the official web site until it actually occurs.
When new things are introduced to the web site and there is no page available on the wiki covering it, a new one is created. If the new thing is related to other characters of the webtoon, it can be instantly linked and therefore be "related". This all happens instantly within the MediaWiki setup the moment edits are made, finalized and published.
The reason I use the H*R Wiki as my wiki example is because things related to the webtoon that are completely out-of-the-blue and new can still be put into the wiki, documented, linked and have relations set in a way that blogs and forums simply cannot do – nor were they designed to.
Wikis obviously aren’t just for webtoons. They can be used for anything that requires documentation, and the best part is that even if you have no idea where the documentation will lead, the wiki can handle it all easily.
In addition, due to wikis being designed as collaborative from the start it is extremely easy to have multiple authors, with plenty of chances to undo or redo edits, compare old edits to new edits on the fly, and so on. The wiki is without a doubt one of the best documenting systems the Internet has ever seen – if not the best there is.
The H*R wiki is huge – but if you want to see something so large that it’ll make your head spin, see the Star Trek Wiki. Absolutely colossal – and hosted on Wikia to boot.
Should you start a wiki?
If you have something to document, yes you should, be it for yourself, friends or co-workers. Wikis are wonderful things, and they sure beat the hell out of a scramble of Word DOCs.
Some reading to get you started
This is the one thing that has a fair deal of learning curve to it. You have to know how to edit pages properly. It’s not that difficult, but it’s required reading.
This gives you the basics on how to create section headers, lists, bulleted items and so on.
On a wiki you can have as many pages as you want, so you’re going to have to know how to link. Fortunately linking one wiki article to another is easy, because all you have to know is the name of the article. Unless linking to an outside website, there is no need for the http or www. Just the name – but you have to know how to do it properly.
This is probably the site you’ll be using to try out a wiki, so get familiar with it.
If you plan on using a self-hosted MediaWiki installation, see the support area on the left sidebar from their web site.
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