Personal Wiki

Ympker · January 2023

Looking to create a personal Wiki for some articles regarding NAT vps and other useful tech stuff.

Last time I checked, I opted for self-hosted "Mediawiki" iirc.
Today, there's Notion, Google Docs, Mediawiki/Dokuwiki, but also lots of other solutions to this.
What solution have you been using these past years? Which ones can you recommend, which ones would you rather ditch?

Self-Hosted or some freely hosted wikia like Fandom/Wikia?

Jab · January 2023

https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial/ via github so people can help you with some PRs.

vyas · January 2023

Datenstrom Yellow

https://wikidocs.it/

https://github.com/Magic-wei/obsidian_wiki_template

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_wiki

beanman109 · January 2023

Started playing around with MkDocs recently & I'm really enjoying it, Material for MkDocs gives it a real nice look.
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/getting-started/ is a great example

webcraft · January 2023

Read the docs is great but requires access to your github account. I don't like this for personal projects (just organisational ones) thus I prefer Mediawiki which is still the best and most widely known solutions for knowledge sharing imo. Because of wikipedia everybody knows how this is working which in my experience led to less people asking me things that are explained in the wiki than with other wiki software.

Ympker · January 2023

Also found Github's Wiki function which also seems like a simple solution:
https://docs.github.com/en/communities/documenting-your-project-with-wikis/about-wikis

GitBook, perhaps would also be another idea.

@Jab said:
https://docs.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial/ via github so people can help you with some PRs.

This looks interesting!

@vyas said:
Datenstrom Yellow

https://wikidocs.it/

https://github.com/Magic-wei/obsidian_wiki_template

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_wiki

I must say Wikidocs looks pretty neat, actually.

@beanman109 said:
Started playing around with MkDocs recently & I'm really enjoying it, Material for MkDocs gives it a real nice look.
https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/getting-started/ is a great example

This is also looking quite nice :P

@webcraft said:
Read the docs is great but requires access to your github account. I don't like this for personal projects (just organisational ones) thus I prefer Mediawiki which is still the best and most widely known solutions for knowledge sharing imo. Because of wikipedia everybody knows how this is working which in my experience led to less people asking me things that are explained in the wiki than with other wiki software.

Fair enough. Mediawiki is a classic.

bdl · January 2023

I saw some people are skipping past the Wiki and using this instead: https://www.bookstackapp.com/

quanhua92 · January 2023

I use https://obsidian.md/ for knowledge management. It is local first approach so don't need to self host anywhere. I sync notes via Github

Ympker · January 2023

@quanhua92 said:
I use https://obsidian.md/ for knowledge management. It is local first approach so don't need to self host anywhere. I sync notes via Github

I think this is what @vyas also suggested. Looks nice

@bdl Bookstack also looks really good

cmeerw · January 2023

I am using phpwiki for maybe the past 20 years now.

dosai · January 2023

I've tried them all. Finally settled with trillium, it is great.

Bochi · January 2023

@bdl said:
I saw some people are skipping past the Wiki and using this instead: https://www.bookstackapp.com/

This is what I did go with last time I asked myself that question and I still like it. 👍

Nekki · January 2023

I used to use Dokuwiki, but after an upgrade completely broke my install I pulled the data, moved it all to Standard Notes and never looked back.

havoc · January 2023

I'd stick to git + markdown.

The idea of being reliant on some random dude's code / mysql db going down or something like that just doesn't appeal. Been through that once before

rcy026 · January 2023

Grav with the Learn2 theme https://demo.hibbittsdesign.org/grav-learn2-git-sync/
Flatfile, no sql, markup language, optional sync with git.
If you chose to not use git it has wysiwyg editing or you can just feed it textfiles with markup.

I have tried all sorts of wikis and documentation projects, but this really feels like its the one that's gonna stick.

Ympker · January 2023

@Nekki said:
I used to use Dokuwiki, but after an upgrade completely broke my install I pulled the data, moved it all to Standard Notes and never looked back.

That's one of the reasons I am looking for a very simple solution where an update won't f*ck my install.
Github Wiki might solve that problem for me.

@havoc So, what you are suggesting is basically smth like https://docs.github.com/en/communities/documenting-your-project-with-wikis ? This is basically your wiki being hosted on Github and you can write/publish to it from either some Code editor like VSCode (using markdown or other syntax) or through the web front-end (markdown, or any other syntax).

I remember there was also GitBook, but I assume that's for more thorough/advanced stuff/documentation eh?

@rcy026 said:
Grav with the Learn2 theme https://demo.hibbittsdesign.org/grav-learn2-git-sync/
Flatfile, no sql, markup language, optional sync with git.
If you chose to not use git it has wysiwyg editing or you can just feed it textfiles with markup.

I have tried all sorts of wikis and documentation projects, but this really feels like its the one that's gonna stick.

Interesting fit, really. Will have a look! A solution without sql or any complex setup is allthebetter imho

havoc · January 2023

@Ympker said: wiki being hosted on Github and you can write/publish to it from either some Code editor like VSCode (using markdown or other syntax) or through the web front-end (markdown, or any other syntax).

Yeah, essentially keep the storage layer as close to simple flat textfiles (markdown) as you can manage. KISS - keep it simple stupid. Something like Obsidian / VS code can deal with markdown. I started with Obsidian, but now just edit the files directly (vscode / gitlab integrated)

Most of the true wiki solutions have some sort of DB behind it. Complicates backup, risk of corruption, version changes, unmaintained software etc. If one can get away with not dealing with that then it is a good plan imo

willie · January 2023

Always prefer self-hosting. "apt-get install gitit" is simplest way to have a self-hosted wiki. No database-- it uses git as the version control backend.

ariq01 · January 2023

Docusaurus

angstrom · January 2023

I would say that the first consideration to ask is "self-hosted or not?", the answer to which would already narrow the possible choices

If self-hosted, the second consideration (for me at least) is which language (PHP, Python, etc.) the wiki is written in because this is probably relevant for (relative ease of) installation/maintenance (by you on a server)

If self-hosted, the third consideration (again, for me) is how well the wiki software appears to be maintained by its authors and whether there's a (significant) community that uses it

If not self-hosted, then the second consideration is less (or not) important, but the third consideration remains relevant

Ympker · January 2023

@angstrom said:
I would say that the first consideration to ask is "self-hosted or not?", the answer to which would already narrow the possible choices

If self-hosted, the second consideration (for me at least) is which language (PHP, Python, etc.) the wiki is written in because this is probably relevant for (relative ease of) installation/maintenance (by you on a server)

If self-hosted, the third consideration (again, for me) is how well the wiki software appears to be maintained by its authors and whether there's a (significant) community that uses it

If not self-hosted, then the second consideration is less (or not) important, but the third consideration remains relevant

Some good advice there. Decided to give Github Wiki (Markup) a try since I trust Github not to disappear over night and it's easy enough to access and edit Thanks for all the recommendations!

mee2 · January 2023

This is often my starting point for exploration.
https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted#wikis
I have tried dokuwiki briefly and found it useful. Doesn't use databse and simple setup. Anything that can be quickly installed on (lifetime) shared hosting with softaculous has high priority for me.

MikeA · January 2023

I've used Bookstack for like two years now. Works great for me and has a lot of editor/formatting features unlike some other options. Also convenient as I can edit my pages and export to PDF if I ever want to share with people who need to know how to do something that I have documented for myself.

Ympker · January 2023

@MikeA said:
I've used Bookstack for like two years now. Works great for me and has a lot of editor/formatting features unlike some other options. Also convenient as I can edit my pages and export to PDF if I ever want to share with people who need to know how to do something that I have documented for myself.

Sounds sweet. But since it won't run on Shared Hosting (according to manual) it has to run on a vps (or local) and thus probably means a more complex setup, right? Like, even if there is a setup script, migrating Bookstack or backup/restore would probably be more of a hassle, eh? It DOES look nice, though.

MikeA · January 2023

@Ympker said:

@MikeA said:
I've used Bookstack for like two years now. Works great for me and has a lot of editor/formatting features unlike some other options. Also convenient as I can edit my pages and export to PDF if I ever want to share with people who need to know how to do something that I have documented for myself.

Sounds sweet. But since it won't run on Shared Hosting (according to manual) it has to run on a vps (or local) and thus probably means a more complex setup, right? Like, even if there is a setup script, migrating Bookstack or backup/restore would probably be more of a hassle, eh? It DOES look nice, though.

Yeah. It can probably be done if you have SSH access, the manual install looks like it would be fine with some changes but I've never tried. Mine is running with the manual install on a server with a typical Apache setup, running alongside some unrelated web stuff. Either way requirements are tiny, you can run it on a small VM too.

Ympker · January 2023

@MikeA said:

@Ympker said:

@MikeA said:
I've used Bookstack for like two years now. Works great for me and has a lot of editor/formatting features unlike some other options. Also convenient as I can edit my pages and export to PDF if I ever want to share with people who need to know how to do something that I have documented for myself.

Sounds sweet. But since it won't run on Shared Hosting (according to manual) it has to run on a vps (or local) and thus probably means a more complex setup, right? Like, even if there is a setup script, migrating Bookstack or backup/restore would probably be more of a hassle, eh? It DOES look nice, though.

Yeah. It can probably be done if you have SSH access, the manual install looks like it would be fine with some changes but I've never tried. Mine is running with the manual install on a server with a typical Apache setup, running alongside some unrelated web stuff. Either way requirements are tiny, you can run it on a small VM too.

Good to know, thanks for the feedback mate

SGraf · January 2023

@Ympker said:
Looking to create a personal Wiki for some articles regarding NAT vps and other useful tech stuff.

Last time I checked, I opted for self-hosted "Mediawiki" iirc.
Today, there's Notion, Google Docs, Mediawiki/Dokuwiki, but also lots of other solutions to this.
What solution have you been using these past years? Which ones can you recommend, which ones would you rather ditch?

Self-Hosted or some freely hosted wikia like Fandom/Wikia?

i can fully recommend dokuwiki (https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki) ! Its the wiki of my choice. You can see it in action here: https://cms-docs.blesta.store/
Its a lot simpler in install and maintainance than mediawiki!

Benefits:

fiat file/no dbms (such as mysql)
open source
easy to install and maintain

negatives:

not as widespread as mediawiki
different/less plugins than mediawiki (but it has everything i require)

rajprakash · January 2023

Another vote for DocuWiki. Used it for years and luckily I haven’t had the borked system after upgrade like others have reported.

Ympker · January 2023

@SGraf said:

@Ympker said:
Looking to create a personal Wiki for some articles regarding NAT vps and other useful tech stuff.

Last time I checked, I opted for self-hosted "Mediawiki" iirc.
Today, there's Notion, Google Docs, Mediawiki/Dokuwiki, but also lots of other solutions to this.
What solution have you been using these past years? Which ones can you recommend, which ones would you rather ditch?

Self-Hosted or some freely hosted wikia like Fandom/Wikia?

i can fully recommend dokuwiki (https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki) ! Its the wiki of my choice. You can see it in action here: https://cms-docs.blesta.store/
Its a lot simpler in install and maintainance than mediawiki!

Benefits:

fiat file/no dbms (such as mysql)

open source

easy to install and maintain

negatives:

not as widespread as mediawiki

different/less plugins than mediawiki (but it has everything i require)

Thanks for the feedback, mate! It indeed looks like a simple yet solid solution

legendary · January 2023

Dokuwiki, because of the ultra low sys reqs. Always conserve resources and try to push watter from rock.

rattlecattle · January 2023

Self hosted trilium notes for me.

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