1. What’s special about a wiki?
2. How can I find out what’s changed since I last looked at the wiki?
3. Why does this wiki have a different look and some different markup compared with Wikipedia?
4. Why can’t I use HTML when I’m editing a page?
5. Are there any special browser requirements to use this wiki?
6. What happens when a page has a link to itself?
7. Why do some project Key Words also show links to other projects?

What’s special about a wiki?

One of the key differences between a wiki and a web site is that the users, in this case the ITSIG Community, can develop the web site collaboratively. There isn’t a single webmaster — everyone has access to the site. Because the wiki engine is a piece of software, it has some features that aren’t obvious at first glance. For example, if you use the “Printable Version” at the bottom of any page, you will see a slightly different version of the page — it uses a serif font, has the name of the wiki as a heading at the top of the page, and it shows the full URLs for links. This wiki also turns straight quotes into “smart” quotes and 2 hyphens into an em dash — like so.

How can I find out what’s changed since I last looked at the wiki?

The Recent Changes link on the top of each page will display a list of pages in the current group that have been changed, in reverse chronological order. To see all the pages in the wiki that have been changed, see All Recent Changes. To find out what’s changed on the current page, see the Page History.

Why does this wiki have a different look and some different markup compared with Wikipedia?

Although all wikis follow the same principles, they run on different software packages or wiki engines. This wiki runs on the Pm Wiki engine. Wikipedia currently runs on the MediaWiki engine. There are numerous other engines. Different engines implement different Text Formatting Rules, although many use the same markup for things like bold, italic and bulleted or numbered lists. Some wikis, including this one, let the administrator introduce custom markup to meet local needs.

Why can’t I use HTML when I’m editing a page?

There are a number of reasons that Pm Wiki only allows Wiki Mark Up. pm (the author of Pm Wiki) explains his design philosophy at Audiences. A good discussion of the pros and cons of allowing raw HTML is on Meatball:RawHtmlWiki. The 2 main reasons are: pages with wiki markup are easier to read in edit mode than those with HTML tags; for non-technical authors, wiki markup is easier to learn than HTML markup.

Are there any special browser requirements to use this wiki?

This site works with any browser. It produces pages that comply with the XHTML 1.0 specification and uses cascading style sheets to control the page presentation. It uses no special plug-ins and does not require cookies. However to render Māori words that contain macronized vowels correctly, your computer must support Unicode. You can still enter ā, ē, ī, … when you edit a page. Every page carries an XHTML validator link — click the image to check the page’s compliance with the standard.

What happens when a page has a link to itself?

Writers often include a reference to the page’s title in the text of the page, for example by writing WikiFAQ. There are 2 schools of thought on how a wiki should behave. Some consider that a link is a link is a link; if the writer makes a reference to the current page, the wiki will turn it into a link. Clicking on the link causes the page to reload. Others take the view that having a page link to itself is redundant; if the writer makes a reference to the current page, the wiki will not turn it into a link. This wiki is configured to recognise self-referencing links and display them in bold text. For example, writing WikiFAQ produces Wiki FAQ.

Why do some project Key Words also show links to other projects?

The Key Words for projects take advantage of a Pm Wiki feature called Wiki Trails. The wiki automatically maintains a list of all the projects that carry a given keyword. It then uses that list to show readers links to the “next” and “previous” projects in the list (if any). This lets the reader quickly move to other related projects, without having to go through the keywords page. For better readability, the printable version of a page omits these next and previous links. As the number of Research.Projects grows, these links will become more useful.