Tuesday Rant
Tuesday Rant
From the desk of pieterh
Via the late-as-usual department, on 1256031555|%e %B %Y, %H:%M
This is the day and thread where you can (and I'm sure, some of you will) tell us what you don't like about Wikidot.com. Maybe it's the new footer message, which tries to explain what Wikidot is by saying: "Powered by Wikidot.com — the fastest way to build your wiki, blog, or social web app".
Comments: 26
page_revision: 1, last_edited: 1256031580|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z (%O ago)
A conversation has gone on this morning in the chatroom about the new footer message. Now, on the basis that you can't please all the people…. I am going to express my slight annoyance with the new message. This is from a purely selfish perspective and I understand the reasons why the wording was changed.
For me the new message will go down badly in a corporate environment where many IS departments are still refusing to have anything to do with social apps on the grounds it's a time-waster for staff. They then lump wikis, blogs and related applications in with that and as a result any wikidot-based sites get banned - see Shane's post here earlier this morning on this very topic . I'm not suggesting we hide what wikidot does, I just preferred what it was before ("Hosted by Wikidot.com — professional wiki solutions") which looked more "corporate" but still allowed me to discuss all the areas wikidot can help an organisation. You might be surprised but the new wording will actually make it harder for me when talking to companies and organisations about the benefits of wikidot. They see social apps - think Facebook - end of discussion. In a few years time that hopefully won't be the case.
I guess I'll just have to upgrade to pro+ and put it back to what it was before which for me was ideal. I was going to upgrade early next year anyway to get SSL.
Would it be better if the word "social" was dropped, after all, it is not only that type of app you can build? Maybe if you don't like "web app" on its own, then perhaps "collaborative web app" if it is not too long? For example, I don't think of the issue tracker as a social app, but it has become an essential collaboration tool on a current project of mine.
Sue
the new footer is too long for small screens so i wraps to the next line and looks like this
Powered by Wikidot.com — the fastest way to build your wiki, blog, or social
web app.
then you setting there thinking hmm, whats a social?
A man alone in the Antarctic.
Thanks, folks, I'll be here all day.
The Wikidot Blog | My other works
The older footer was better: short and to the point. And as rhombus p has mentioned, the length tends to overflow making the footer look bad.
— Blog ~ Life's Handbook
If it does tend to overflow, then I agree that a shorter version is needed.
I should have mentioned that I really do like the "Powered by" which is so much stronger and less passive than "Hosted By".
Rob
I agree.
— Blog ~ Life's Handbook
Me too.
Me three.
λ James Kanjo | blog | photos | contact
Then I'll give you a rant!
I hate having to avoid using literals within the ListPages module… That is, my blood boils every time I try to use the @@ raw-text syntax within the ListPages module… 'cause it messes things up and produces lovely � tokens instead.
����������
λ James Kanjo | blog | photos | contact
It really, really bugs me that the NewPage module insists on capitalizing single word page names (if entered in all lower case) when creating the page title. It works perfectly if I use more than one word in the input box or I MiX tHe CaSe in the single word.
If I want the page to be titled "Test", I'll type "Test". If I type "test", I probably mean "test" (and if I screwed up, I can fix it). I can't tell you how many times I have had to re-edit a page simply to fix the case in the title (about 10 times when populating my soon-to-be-defunct CSS Reference site).
When using the NewPage module, the page title should consist of exactly what is typed in the input box, including the case.
In spite of my rant, I do think it's helpful most of the time that each word is capitalized when creating a new page directly through a URL (i.e. "http://.../my-new-page" gets titled "My New Page"), but if I have to lose that capability to fix the NewPage module issue, I'll take the fix.
-Ed
Free Wikidot Applications · Your Shared Photo Gallery · Your Personal Blog
Why's your css reference to be defunct? Are you incorporating it into the css.wikidot.com one? I think it would be really valuable to have the Base theme documented, as you were intending.
Sue
That would be my intention. I suppose it could be linked as a "companion" site, but it would make more sense to try to keep everything under one roof.
-Ed
Free Wikidot Applications · Your Shared Photo Gallery · Your Personal Blog
@Ed, very nicely put. I'm making an issue for this and will do the coding personally, just because you did such a lovely rant.
The Wikidot Blog | My other works
I'm not liking the fact that Wikidot was (apparently) down a moment ago. Boo downtime
Yep. I fully agree with that! However,
probably unconventionally, that's the one that really naff's me off! I prefer to add capitals specifically where I want them, rather than having to keep taking them away - which is what I always seem to be doing these days. If it was only the leading capital it wouldn't be quite so bad.
Good rant, Ed.
Sue
The URL thing doesn't "naff me off"1 that much because I know that it's coming when I create a page that way and I rarely forget to tweak the title. It's that I usually forget to tweak the title when I use the NewPage module for some reason and that really naff's me off!
-Ed
Free Wikidot Applications · Your Shared Photo Gallery · Your Personal Blog
When you're on a private site that you don't have access to, the toolbar doesn't work in that you can't enter a site name and press Enter to jump to that site. A permissions error pops up telling me that I don't have permission (to navigate away from the site) :S
— Shane | Blog | CycloDS Revolution | Compatibility List | Want me to manage your next wiki? | XBL: leiger40
Automatic code replacement — Rate it up!
My rant is that wikidot seems to keep caches of files. I have been playing with java applets, and wanted to reupload a file. So I deleted it from the file list, and ironically, it still worked even after several restarts of my computer. So does wikidot keep a cache of files?
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" ~ 1 Peter 3:16
This is your browser's cache hanging onto the content. Try clearing your browser's cache and reload the page and you shouldn't see the applet.
-Ed
Free Wikidot Applications · Your Shared Photo Gallery · Your Personal Blog
I cleared absolutely everything. There is no way it is my computer, unless my browser kept it after clearing absolutely everything, and then resetting my browser. Oh, how strange. This makes it difficult to test java applets.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" ~ 1 Peter 3:16
Um, you didn't say that the first time. All you told us was that you rebooted several times. That doesn't count as clearing your browser's cache. Try CTRL-SHIFT-DEL in your browser and clearing things again (works with FF and IE - not sure about others).
If Wikidot is caching files, that's news to me. I've never had an issue with files still being accessible after I delete them from a site.
-Ed
Free Wikidot Applications · Your Shared Photo Gallery · Your Personal Blog
Sorry, I was typing on my iPod. I have a mac with safari. I will look at it tomorrow.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" ~ 1 Peter 3:16
I've got a feeling Java applets keep a separate cache to the browser. Not sure how to clear it though, so it might be worth a search on Google/Bing…
— Shane | Blog | CycloDS Revolution | Compatibility List | Want me to manage your next wiki? | XBL: leiger40
Automatic code replacement — Rate it up!
hm… I checked the java preferences, and it didn't show it. This is so weird.
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;" ~ 1 Peter 3:16