Rtips (was Re: [R] ? building a database with a the great examples
On 03-Jun-2003 Paul E. Johnson wrote:
I think there is a lot of merit in this idea. I think there is a big question about "authentication" and protection of Wikis from vandalism.
Yes. But I`ll do my daily backups, so major vandalism wouldn't be such a problem. (I hope.) Personally I don't like to have a list of people who are allowed to edit the pages. (and I dont like to keep such a list current ...) Under "preferences" you can choose to give yourself an identity, but that's not for authentication.
I've set up Wikis for other projects that I started after Rtips. I have not seen your Wiki software before, but it looks pretty nice. I see it does have diff support, so old pages can be restored, yes?
Yes! It keeps the diffs for quite some time. So if anyone realizes minor, i.e. pagewise, vandalism content can be rebuild.
But it doesn't authenticate users, which causes me some concern. (I understand the Wiki philosophy that we should not be concerned about authentication, but I've never bought into it all the way).
I think the R community is growing very fast. The work to give passwords to interested people frightens me. And I would never ask for such a password personally. I'm willing to write some short note _now_, but not if I have to wait a day or so to get access. Authentication fits if you have a well defined group you expect to add contents. My position therefore: give it a try. If vandalism turns out to be a problem, I'll have to think about it.
I have a TWiki site here: http://www.ku.edu/cgiwrap/pauljohn/twiki/view This one I hacked up special to use authentication on some pages so that people have to log in before they can edit. I had not realized before I looked at your page that Wiki implementations are customized for document format. For page sections, your Wiki uses = aHeading = but Twiki uses ---+ aHeading That's kindof a bummer.
Yes. I don't understand the authors of wikis, too. I just chose a recommended one. If there is anything serious against UseModWiki, _now_ would be the time to switch. UseMod is very easy to set up, an needs little resources. These two points are very important for me. detlef