Recent Changes - Search:

PmWiki

pmwiki.org

edit SideBar

https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598301 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598304 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598305 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598307 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598310 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598312 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598317 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598318 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598320 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598321 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598322 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598324 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598328 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598340 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598341 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598346 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598349 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598357 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598366 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598372 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598374 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/598378 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600028 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600031 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600032 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600034 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600036 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600037 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600039 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600041 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600042 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600045 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600046 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600047 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600048 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600050 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600051 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600052 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600053 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600055 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600057 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600641 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600644 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600645 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600646 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602231 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602240 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602244 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602247 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602261 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602265 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602279 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602307 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602315 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602323 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602340 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602346 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602741 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602743 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602744 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602745 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602746 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602748 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602749 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602750 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602757 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602758 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602762 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602763 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602764 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602769 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602770 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602772 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602773 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602774 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602775 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601186 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601188 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601189 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601191 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601192 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601194 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601196 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601197 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601248 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601249 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601250 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601251 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601252 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601254 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601255 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601256 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601258 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601260 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601261 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601263 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601264 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601265 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601266 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601267 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601268 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601269 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601270 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601272 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601273 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602779 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602780 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602781 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602782 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600111 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600112 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600148 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600151 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600155 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600157 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600159 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600161 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600163 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600647 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600648 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600649 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600650 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602889 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602890 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602891 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602895 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602897 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602900 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602904 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602907 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602913 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602916 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602918 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602922 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602923 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602925 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602926 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600534 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600535 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600536 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600538 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600539 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600540 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600542 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600543 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600544 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600547 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600548 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600549 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600550 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600552 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600553 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600555 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600558 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600565 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600566 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600567 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600568 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600571 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600573 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600575 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600576 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600577 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600578 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600666 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600668 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600669 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/600670 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602963 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601276 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601280 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601281 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601284 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601285 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601286 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601287 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601288 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601291 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/601293 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602776 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602777 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602955 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602956 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602957 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602959 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602960 https://www.jetphotos.com/photographer/602961

Audiences

This page contains Patrick Michaud's comments regarding the "audiences" for which PmWiki was designed. As such, many people are reluctant to modify the page, because it is a statement of his opinions and describes some of the thought that went into creating PmWiki. (And we all thank him for that!)

Patrick's comments

I think of PmWiki in terms of two audiences:

  • Authors are the people who generate web content using PmWiki, and
  • wiki administrators are the folks who install, configure, and maintain a PmWiki installation on a web server.

In some senses it could be claimed that as the primary developer of PmWiki I should only have wiki administrators as my target audience, and that authors are the target audience for the administrators. But what really makes PmWiki useful to wiki administrators is that I've put a lot of consideration into creating a tool that is usable by authors, so I have to keep the needs of both audiences in mind as I'm designing and adding new features to PmWiki.

Within the authoring audience I see that there are "naive authors" and "experienced authors".

"Naive authors" are the folks who use wiki to generate content but may know next-to-nothing about HTML, much less style sheets or PHP or the like. Naive authors are easily discouraged from generating web content if they have to wade through markup text that has lots of funny and cryptic symbols in them. So, if we want a site with lots of contributors, we have to be very careful not to do things that will cause this group to exclude themselves from participating.

"Experienced authors" are the folks who know a lot about HTML and could write their content as HTML, but have chosen to use wiki because of its other useful features (ease of linking, collaboration, ease of updates, revision histories, etc.) or because they want to collaborate with naive authors. Experienced authors usually don't have any problem with documents with lots of ugly markup in them; after all, they already know HTML. Experienced authors are sometimes frustrated with wiki because it doesn't have markup that would let them do something they know they can do in HTML (e.g., tables, stylesheets, colored text, etc.). And, they sometimes have difficulty understanding why naive authors would turn away from documents that have lots of markup sequences in them.

For the wiki administrator audience--the folks who install and may want to customize PmWiki--their backgrounds and goals are often quite diverse. PmWiki is designed so that it can be installed and be useful with minimal HTML/PHP knowledge, but it doesn't restrict people who know HTML/PHP from doing some fairly complex things. For one, PmWiki allows a site administrator to build-in markup sequences and features customized to his/her needs (and the needs of his/her audiences).

The separate needs of these audiences are behind most of the PmWikiPhilosophies. The people who develop PmWiki software must continually keep naive authors in mind as new features are requested and proposed by expert authors and Wiki Administrators. Sometimes it may seem to these latter groups that it's okay to implement the complex features because "naive authors don't have to use them", but the truth is that if complex/ugly markup sequences are available then they will eventually be used by someone, and once used they become a barrier to the naive authors. So, if I see that a feature could become a barrier to a naive author I don't include it in the base implementation of PmWiki, but instead find ways to let Wiki Administrators include it as a local customization.


This page may have a more recent version on pmwiki.org: PmWiki:Audiences, and a talk page: PmWiki:Audiences-Talk.

Edit - History - Print - Recent Changes - Search
Page last modified on September 10, 2011, at 06:08 PM