Help me find a suitable wiki

November 7, 2008 2:50 AM

I need a basic private wiki for only a few (presently 2; max 5) users. These users need editing rights and live in very different time zones. This is to be an information database for non technical people. Not looking to publish anything just information sharing.

What I need is something like a shareable wikipad. Wiki should be exportable should this project trade up. It will preferably be hosted on a private domain with ftp access for editing and have password for viewing access. No bells and whistles needed.

posted by adamvasco to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Is free a requirement? Confluence (get the standalone) can be used by two individuals (for personal use) for free. If you're a registered not-for-profit then it's still free. If not, then it really is the best going (IMO) for collaborative work projects.

Other alternatives: TikiWiki, MediaWiki (which wikipedia was originally built on), and and so much more...
posted by purephase at 5:00 AM on November 7, 2008

Free is always nicer. I've checked out the "and so much more" previously and half of it is beyond my comprehension. KISS is my motto. Recommendations tend to beat techspec for me.
posted by adamvasco at 5:12 AM on November 7, 2008

Backpack
posted by COD at 5:20 AM on November 7, 2008

Docuwiki (or dokuwiki)
posted by Xhris at 5:36 AM on November 7, 2008

The new Google sites.
posted by cda at 5:49 AM on November 7, 2008

Don't forget pbwiki. They are free, too.
posted by davereed at 6:35 AM on November 7, 2008

I use wikidot.com, though I doubt that it has FTP capabilities. I'm not quite sure what you mean about trading up, but the site uses their own formatting which takes a moment to get used to, but you can use CTRL+B/ +I/ +U for bold, italics and underline, which is cute.

It's free, and you can password protect the site, or make it free and open.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:10 AM on November 7, 2008

second on pbwiki.
posted by tamarack at 10:20 AM on November 7, 2008

I've had good luck with Swiki, but it's software, not a website. The nice thing is that it's self-contained--you don't need a separate web server or database. Just download a couple of zips and start it up.

The downside is that you need a computer that can function as a web server. However, I've managed to do it with an old Pentium PC left running and plugged into my home DSL connection plus a dynamic DNS service. It depends on what your broadband provider allows. The nice thing is that it all sits on a computer I control.
posted by suetanvil at 2:07 PM on November 7, 2008

And just after I posted this, I took a quick look at nearlyfreespeech.net and discovered they'll host several different kinds of wiki software. So you could get an account, install your preferred wiki software and enable password protection so that only the 5 of you can read it.

You won't need a lot of disk space or bandwidth since you're not running a public website so it'll be really cheap. The only thing is I don't know if you have access to sufficient technical skills to pull this off and maintain it. But if you do, it's worth considering.
posted by suetanvil at 2:18 PM on November 7, 2008