Now that I've had some coffee, this sentence causes me some concern. As I see it the point of a Wiki is that ANYONE on the site can create/edit/update content. You visit the site, signup and viola! You can create edit, etc... The only job for admins is to look at new changes and clean up any "issues".

Can you elaborate what you mean by "favorite geeks" having the edit password?

Thanks.

Since we seem to have settled on a Disney Themed Wiki, onto the planning stage:

Any suggestions on a name? (TikiWiki is taken, sorry). I'm thinking DisWiki has a nice ring to it...

As for the site itself. I would like to sculpt a site that can potentially include all aspects of Disney: Parks, Movies, Business, etc. It needs to be friendly for Newbie’s but at the same time serve the needs of the more advanced user. It might even need two "front pages".... The default and a more advanced page accessed via a secret door (complete with creaking wav sound..) off the default page (or just a direct link if you get tired of the wav...).

So for discussion purposes, I'll call the newbie’s "Guests" and the more advanced users "AP's".

From my point of view, an AP would visit the site for two reasons. First to see what's new and second to add/edit some content

I originally wanted to create a Disney Theme Park database a la the IMDB. I realized that having users enter information to a mod before it appeared would be a PITA for everyone, especially me. I figured that wiki would be the way to go. My fear with wiki, though, is that the unlimited freedom would also breed unlimited misinformation, or even malicious posting. So I needed to figure out a harmonious balance. I checked out many wikis for models that appealed to me. I found Leo Laportes radio show wiki, which can only be updated by folks who know the password. He changes the password once a week and announces the password on his radio show every weekend. When I said "favorite geeks," I meant that we could spread the password to various knowledgable message boards. If people can play nice, I'd change the password less frequently or be done with it entirely. Since I'm asking for factual information, especially historical stuff, I don't want to spend hours a week removing incorrect (but well-meaning) "facts". Hope that clears up my intentions - didn't mean to concern you.

Wouldn't a 3rd be to look something up, new or not?

And the first disgruntled off-shoot can be DatWiki. How thoughtful of you to plan ahead! ;)

That sounds fair Mousepod, So where are you at this point project wise?

- Just thninking about it (like me)
- Have an outline
- Started code
- Just waiting to roll it out...

Of course, to clarify my thoughts, I was thinking how an AP would differ from a guest. The primary funciton for a guest would be to "look things up".

Moonliner,

I'm working on the outline. I've installed pmwiki on my server, but I haven't started setting it up yet.

For me, the structure is key (for obvious reasons - most of which you are already sketching out here).

I'll contact you privately so we can brainstorm.

[This is very exciting!]

I've taken a quick look at pmWiki. It looks good. I'll see if I can get it loaded on something here. My initial impression is that it does not seem to use a database, so I'm assuming it stores data as text on the drive?

I think that some of the concern here can be self-correcting. I'm thinking of when misinformation is posted on a messageboard, other more knowledgeable geeks come to the rescue, posting corrections. If you did indeed keep editing ability among those with real info, especially for the first few months, it wouldn't be a problem.

Or, you could assign research on a specific ride to specific people, and then allow changes as they become obviously needed.

This just popped into my head. Just say I were assigned to design a page on the Haunted Mansion. I'd pull out all the books I could find and set that up. Then, once posted, instead of allowing any joe schmoe to touch it, you could have a message board style thread attached to it. If people had an issue with something that was or wasn't there, they could post about it, and the person assigned could check facts and make updates as needed. If we each had just one ride to set up, it would mean a lot less work for all.

Of course you guys are working privately, which is cool, I'm just thinking out loud.