Selecting a Viable Platform for the Technical

Communications Wiki

Prepared for: Dr. Sarah Read

Prepared by: Nathan Barbarick, Frankie Graff, Lauren Punales, Lucas

Schaumberg

November 10, 2021 — December 1, 2021

 Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3
Research Methods 4
Collaborative Composition Industry Standard
Alternative Knowledge Databases
Customizable and User-Friendly Interface
Existing Wikis
Results 9
Conclusion 10
Recommendation: Miraheze 11
Hosting and Moderation
Plug-ins and Themes
Pedagogical Potential
Organizational Structure
References 15
Appendices 16
Wiki Migration
Miraheze Categorization

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 Executive Summary

To determine the most suitable and holistic platform that meets the requirements of
growing, maintaining, and archiving the PSU Technical Communication Topics Wiki, Dr. Sarah
Read asked us to research, demonstrate, and present on a platform that met a litany of
predetermined client needs.

Currently, the PSU Technical Communication Topics Wiki is hosted on Google Sites.
Google Sites is seen as a transitional platform, used to temporarily archive articles until the class
can migrate them to a more permanent host.

To carry out this study, we researched different hosting platforms and measured their
viability against the client’s “must-have” features, “nice-to-have” features, and “dream” features.
These platforms included GitHub, WordPress, Citizendium, and Miraheze.

Our main finding is that Miraheze is the most viable option.

We recommend the client investigate the complexities of this decision in light of our
research and use Team 3’s Recommendation Report to seriously consider Miraheze as a viable
platform for the PSU TC Wiki moving forward.

We recommend that the client use our report as a jumping-off point for registering for a
Miraheze account and creating a test site for herself to determine the right decision for the
program. After becoming familiar with Miraheze, the client can further consult our research into
the planning of a new site.

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 Research Methods

We began our research in consultation with the client, Dr. Sarah Read, where she outlined
the full spectrum of “must-have,” “nice-to-have,” and “dream” features for the new Technical
Communications wiki. The “must-have” features of the wiki were the following:

● Web-based
● User-friendly interface
● Sustainable over the long term
● Allowed for migration from the existing wiki
● Site security

The “Nice-to-have” and “dream” features of a platform include:

● More design opportunities

● Metadata
● Ability to execute universal changes
● Free (or inexpensive) to use
● Resisted hierarchical structure

In our preliminary research, our team determined that the most effective method of
evaluating a broad range of platforms was in the independent investigation of four different
brands of media hosts: a professional standard in software development, an approachable site
that prioritized customization, a site with wiki infrastructure already in place, and an alternative
knowledge base that fulfilled the client’s “dream” criteria of cultivating a communal and fluid
knowledge base.

Each team member looked into one of these four branches, creating reports on the
following qualifications:

● An industry-standard known for its collaborative composition

● An alternative knowledge database
● A platform that was approachable and easy to learn and customize
● A platform that hosted by an existing wikipedia

Collaborative Composition Industry Standard

GitHub, the first of our options, has become the standard for collaborative composition
in writing technical products, specifically software code. It is highly likely to be supported for
ten years. The other technologies implicated in the current version of this proposal, Ruby, Jekyll,
and Netlify, are also widely used in contemporary website development. By setting up a website
with Jekyll and hosting its files on GitHub, the client could build a website that students, after
some initial training, can update without difficulty. This option would have met almost all of the
must-have features of the new technical communications wiki.

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 A primary challenge would be the learning curve for new entrants to the program to
begin using Git and GitHub, on top of researching their technical communications topics.
Similarly, if something goes wrong with the deployment of the site, it will be up to the site
administrator to remedy the problem, digging into error messages in the local Jekyll build, or in
the tool that builds and deploys the code to the web.

Migrating content would require a one-time project that would take articles from the
Google Site and put them into a remote repository. This would require quality control steps to
verify that all text, images, and formatting are largely preserved. The repository where this site
lives can be invitation only. However, the site’s code could be made public. Creating a user
account is free.

Initializing the site for this workflow would require Ruby and Jekyll. Files would be
stored in the remote repository on GitHub. To format their text, students would need Markdown
syntax. This syntax is simple to use and common in a variety of technical environments. Outside
of that, there are browser extensions that can provide a WYSIWYG editor for GitHub.

GitHub
Pros Cons

● Professionally useful for technical ● Steeper-than-average learning curve

communicators to learn ● Requires multiple technologies that
● Highly collaborative can interact in unpredictable ways
● Long-term sustainability ● The site administrator would likely
● Compatible with multiple migration have troubleshooting responsibilities
methods
● First-class security
● Advanced design opportunities
● Advanced templating

Alternative Knowledge Databases

Citizendium fulfilled all the “must-have” features listed by the client, as well as most of
the “nice-to-have features.” Citizendium, marketed as an alternative to Wikipedia, gives users
more insight into how they are trying to address the issues they have with Wikipedia (see below).

The platform is web based, and has a very similar architecture to Wikipedia, so most
students would be fairly literate in terms of creating, formatting, and editing content. The
familiarity of the website should help in navigation.

Many of the articles focus on subjects that could not be featured on Wikipedia for various
reasons; many are not just informational/theoretical but practical. A platform that specializes in
practical information would be good for the mission/purpose of the PSU TC wiki. Additionally,
contributors are not required to be “experts,” and so there is no longer a hierarchical oversight by
“experts.” Citizendium welcomes first-time contributors and encourages them not to stick to a

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predetermined format, as the site is meant to be accessible to all users in regards to formatting
and document design.

The website lists aspects of Wikipedia that they explicitly avoid (quoted directly from
website):
● Some Wikipedia articles are written, not for persons unfamiliar with the topic, but rather
for those who are already subject matter experts.
● Some articles are tightly controlled by unknown editors who suppress the expression of
concerns they do not agree with. Software, for example, cannot be evaluated in terms of
its advantages or disadvantages in Wikipedia.
● Many times, people want an overview of what is most important to know about a thing.
Not everyone will agree on what that is, but here we use our real names, and so you can
try to evaluate the quality of an article here in terms of who has participated in its
creation.
● Wikipedia articles show bias in a variety of ways, and it is impossible to understand that
bias, given that it is impossible to know the identities of the individuals who are
controlling the content of an article.

“Citizens” of the site must use real names, apply to write/edit, and have a Google
account, which aligns with how PSU TC wiki functions. Overall, the format and mission of this
particular platform fits the client goals. However, there’s a key drawback: Citizendium is hosted
by Steadfast Networks, which is unfortunately very expensive, with the lowest price being $100
a month. While the overall functionality of Citizendium is appealing, we found that a free site
could host something similar.

Citizendium
Pros Cons

● Meets all of client’s must-have ● Too Expensive, requires a $100

features.
● Ideological fit for an idealized wiki
● Site made for first time users
● As a spin off of wikipedia, the format
should feel usable and familiar for
most users
● Requires more vetting than wikipedia
● Good structure for sharing collective,
practical knowledge
monthly free required for upkeep
● Creation of private wikis unavailable
● Creation of the projects requisite
pages would mean extensive
moderation from unknown moderators
● Does not allow meta-data or coding
and plug-ins

Customizable and User-Friendly Interface

While WordPress as a platform is not specifically made to support the infrastructure of a
Wiki, the application's highly configurable nature via plugins and themes enables sufficient
adaptability to meet most of the client’s demands.

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 WordPress can be installed on Reclaim Hosting, which will support the website for a $30
annual fee. The site would be secured with a login and password. It is possible to migrate the
existing Google Sites wiki to WordPress either manually or automatically via plugins. Under the
Client Area Portal, students can access the back end of the WordPress site; uploading their
articles using an interface that doesn’t require coding knowledge. With all of these features taken
into account, the site fulfilled the client's need for an affordable, web-based, secure operating
system that felt intuitive for uninitiated authors.

WordPress can act as a wiki with the use of wiki themes and plugins. A plugin is a less
intrusive option that is ideal if one only needs certain parts of the website to function as a wiki,
or if we are trying to retroactively adapt an existing site. A wiki theme is the easiest way to
structure the site as a whole, ensuring it has the function and aesthetic as a wiki.

Much like the existing Google Site, student articles would have been displayed as a list of
topics on a navigation page, in collaboration with others using the wiki. The category system will
maintain the narrow amount of broad topics featured in the main navigation section. These topics
are then supplemented with more granular sub-topics. New categories can be easily edited on the
WordPress interface as categories shift over time.

WordPress
Pros Cons

● Web-based and editable on all ● Not created with a wiki in mind

computer operating systems
● Intuitive and user-friendly interface
● Existing articles and images can be
migrated to WordPress
● Secure: users must have account and
password to edit
● Professionally aesthetic and
user-friendly design tools
● Meta-data can be added to articles
through coding and plug-ins
● Cumbersome maintenance
● Not viable in the long term
○ Because the site would be
assembled through multiple
outsourced plugins, there is a
higher probability that a plugin
or theme is not maintained or
updated

Existing Wikis
Our team found three options for existing web-based wikis. This section will briefly go
over the advantages and disadvantages for two of them, including our final choice.

A quick note here on the process for evaluating each existing Wiki. While the final goal
for the client might be something that looks and functions as much like Wikipedia as possible,
there could be ideal functions that Wikipedia doesn’t offer. However, future editors will probably
unconsciously feel that a Wikipedia-style Wiki is more intuitive than one that forgoes any
resemblance. Therefore, we’ve chosen to evaluate the viability based on the similarity to
wikipedia.

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 Fandom.com was an initial idea for latching onto an existing website to create our own
sharing network. While it’s free, extremely intuitive, and sustainable, any prospective technical
writer first visiting the mainpage will see the immediate drawbacks. Fandom is primarily used
for pop-culture wikia creation. While the final wikia would be separate enough from say, a Lord
of the Rings wiki, a collection of shared knowledge about technical writing would still work
through a dot.fandom.com and an frivolous associated superstructure. This is probably the
biggest drawback.

Miraheze is an up-and-coming nonprofit wiki with an infrastructure that is 100% open

source code. It is community-driven, allows for public and private wikis, and runs the latest
MediaWiki version — the same software that powers Wikipedia. Miraheze is free, entirely
web-based, and authors can easily make an account and start editing their articles immediately.
Creating and editing articles is easy for inexperienced users, with drop-down menus and a simple
interface to guide users through writing and categorizing content.

Miraheze
Pros Cons

Meets all of client’s must-have features. Required approval of website to begin wiki
● Intuitive and user-friendly interface,
based around wikipedia Hierarchical, static and “objective”
● (Some) articles and images can be
wholly grafted onto the website.
● Secure: users must have account and
password to edit
Meets all nice to have features
Allows creation of a separate wiki in itself
● The creator can restrict the editing of
the wiki down to invitation only and
has final approval over all articles

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 Results

Platform Sustainable Easy to Web-based Migration Secure Easy to edit Cheap

learn Allowed

GitHub Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

WordPress No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes

Miraheze Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Citizendium Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No

Figure 1

Miraheze Citizendium Wordpress GitHub/Jekyll

Runs on the same Runs on very similar
software as Wikipedia, software to Wikipedia,
similar appearance. with a similar User friendly interface
Creation of separate appearance. Can only that requires no coding Knowledge of
Usability wiki's possible. create pages. knowledge Markdown needed
Requires plug-ins and
themes to be a
functioning Wiki, will Browser extensions
200 extensions, 15 skins, No extensions or skins need frequent can provide
Aesthetics All free available maintenance WYSIWYG editor

Affordances Custom Domains Authors use real names Highly customizable Highly customizable
Automatic Backups Automatic Backups
Contingency available for extra available for extra
Plan Non-Contingent Cloud backup money money
Can create private Wiki
and control access
There can be a Must have Google
designated admin for a account, application Need account and
Security Wiki based password to edit Invitation only
Server hosting by
Steadfast Networks, Reclaim Hosting, $30
Cost Free lowest price is $100 annual fee Free
Will not expire if website Contingent on Will not expire if Will not expire if
Longevity is dormant moderators website dormant website dormant
Expensive, needs
Needs moderator considerable adjustments
approval to start wiki, no Very little separate wiki and coding to mimic a Extensive coding
Drawbacks backups function. wiki needed

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 Figure 2

Conclusion

This section will appraise our chosen platform, Miraheze, compared to the other
researched platforms.

As Figure 1 illustrates, we compared the platforms based on the following features:

sustainable, easy to learn, web-based, migration allowed, secure, easy to edit, cheap. Though all
platforms had most of these features, Miraheze was the only platform with a “yes” in every
category.

In developing our proof of concept wiki site, we were able to collaboratively create and
edit topics in an intuitive workflow. This confirmed our initial research on the desirability of this
site.. As we collectively dove into the administrative aspects of Miraheze, primarily through
reading from its extensive documentation, we were able to glimpse some of the potentials of a
new PSU TC Wiki. This Wiki should hopefully serve students and all other interested parties for
an indefinite period of time.

GitHub, Wordpress, and Citizendium align with most of the client’s desired features and
present viable, though imperfect, options for a new site. Figure 2 gives a more detailed
description of each platform, comparing usability, aesthetics, affordances, contingency plan,
security, cost, longevity, and drawbacks, and includes notes on each of these aspects.

This chart makes it plain how Miraheze goes above and beyond the requirements stated
by the client. We believe it is the most suitable platform for the client’s needs.

One of the more attractive assets of Miraheze is how easy the platform is to use.
Miraheze uses the same software as Wikipedia (Mediawiki). The use of this site dovetails nicely
with the client’s 525 assignment on editing Wikipedia and for the class’s more extensive
discussions of epistemological issues with Wikipedia.

In terms of aesthetics, Miraheze is serviceable, ad-free, and uncluttered. It coheres with

the design attributes valued by technical communicators such as proximity, alignment, repetition,
and contrast. Users can also easily add images, video, audio, or any other media to aid of their
discussion of technical communication topics.

In addition to the ability for the Wiki to have a custom domain, the Miraheze option has
certain affordances that other options do not. These include “talk pages,” where users can discuss
the content of topics behind the scenes. Also of note is the extensive help documentation created
and maintained by the Miraheze community. These affordances contribute to the potential
longevity of the platform while giving students a depth and richness of inquiry into their projects.

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 Recommendation

As a wikifarm creation site, Miraheze allows users to create and edit their own private
wikis. Miraheze is powered by MediaWiki, the same software from which Wikipedia operates.
This allows for participation in a variety of activities, spanning from uploading media such as
images or video to writing articles or blogs. MediaWiki gives prospective students the
comfortable feeling of Wikipedia, a platform students in all probability are very familiar with.
Additionally, Miraheze is a non-profit organization created through community crowdfunding
without the use of advertisements or sponsorship. Miraheze’s mission is the sharing and
organization of community knowledge.

Miraheze meets all of the client's current needs and every nice-to-have feature. The site
allows users to add metadata plug-ins, while personal control of the entire wiki allows intensive
analysis of all existing data and edit history. Templates for the whole of the site can be
customized, including a format that mirrors Wikipedia proper. The Ur-user (usually the creator of
the general wiki) can apply mass changes in an administrative function, which, if they wish, can
affect the entirety of the wiki itself. This organizational capacity also extends to the security of
the wiki, including the ability to make the wiki invitation only. Administrators can also limit the
user edits by making the wiki-editing permission only.

Given that Miraheze is an offshoot of Wikipedia, it unfortunately does not meet the
requirements for the “dream criteria” of non-hierarchical knowledge creation.

Hosting and Moderation

Miraheze has two critical advantages for hosting and moderation. Miraheze gives the
administrators the option of having the wikis be private or public. Administrative function
includes executive decisions over which users have access to which pages, which
circumnavigates the issue around administrator access. Users can be grouped, have tags and
customizable pages, or even be put into chat rooms by anyone with admin privilege.
Administrators can share this privilege with any number of users, allowing for multiple
administrators. There’s another attractive feature to this: Miraheze does not feature a central
curation page, allowing all wikis administrators to customize their wikis without having any
central banners or links to the Main Page. Effectively, the wiki is under the total domain of the
creator. Miraheze permits all types of wikis on its platform, provided that they abide by the
content policy. The client, if they wish, can also purchase a custom domain name with the entire
Wiki within. For example, instead of having to use mywiki.miraheze.org, the client can use their
own domain (e.g. technicalwritingwiki.com, wiki.domain.com, etc.)

Plugins and Themes

Global extensions are available on every Wiki. This includes images, gifs, and sound
recordings. Main administrators can customize their site with over 100 skins, including a theme
identical to the main wikipedia site. Additionally, the “logo” for the website (as an example,
think of the wikipedia lobe) can be customized for site needs. New extensions can be requested
through the moderators.

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Pedagogical Potential
Miraheze offers a unique pedagogical value for the client. The TC Topics Wiki Article
assignment is in a sequence with the Wikipedia edit, and both Wikipedia and Miraheze have
nearly identical workflows for adding and updating content. Currently, students spend a
significant amount of time learning and discussing the limitations of the user interface and design
options presented by Google Sites and in tutorials and research for Wikipedia edits. Students can
comment on the history sections of existing pages, create discussion rooms based on
categorization, and comment on previous edits. Miraheze allows for a deep interrogation of both
the hierarchy and interconnectedness of the site, as well as Wiki’s themselves.

By choosing Miraheze as the next home of the TC Wiki, the client will save class time by
consolidating steps students need to take for two separate but closely related use cases: creating
completely new wiki pages, and updating existing pages. With the class time saved by Miraheze,
the client could find opportunities for students to experiment with and test architectural and
epistemological concepts, such as those introduced by van der Velden’s Decentering Design.

Organizational Structure
Operating precisely like Wikipedia, the creation of a new page is both free and
user-friendly. It’s sustainable, has easy text migration, and allows any user to edit. It also allows
the creation of a separate Wiki in itself, a highly desirable feature.

Figure 3

Another desirable feature of Miraheze’s organization is an intuitive tagging system. The

article creation and editing process easily allow users to categorize their topic using a markup
language, the same annotation system run by Wikipedia. It is important to note that users do not
have to be fluent in markup, or any coding language, to utilize this tagging system. A tool bar,

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located at the top of the textbox, guides uninitiated users through the categorization of their
articles. This includes internal redirects of related articles within the wiki, and importing photos.

Figure 4

Figure 5

Once an article is tagged, a footer will automatically populate at the end of the article, as
seen in Figure 4. This footer will link to an alphabetized directory (Fig. 5) where a reader can
find every article also tagged under that category. If the category is not yet created, simply
tagging the article will automatically create a page. Any article can be tagged and filed under
multiple categories.

In addition to linking articles with categorization, Miraheze makes internal redirects to

related articles within the Wiki easy. This gives authors the autonomy to curate a more specific
directory within their individual article, rather than solely relying on the automatically populated
categorization page.

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 Figure 6

Thanks to easy and extensive categorization and redirects to other related articles,
Miraheze’s organizational structure provides a collaborative and communal experience for the
authors of the Technical Communication wiki. Furthermore, it encourages readers to explore the
Wiki more thoroughly and extensively by navigating redirects and categorization pages. This
infrastructure highlights articles and authors who may have gone unnoticed without the exposure
and community afforded to them through the system, and it provides a better user experience for
readers who want to learn more about a specific topic.

Here is a link to the Wiki our team created.

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 References

Contributor. (2006, September 17). Citizendium: A more civilized Wikipedia? TechCrunch.

Retrieved November 22, 2021, from
https://techcrunch.com/2006/09/17/citizendiuma-more-civilized-wikipedia/

Fandom. (2011, September 20). Start a new community. Community Central. Retrieved
November 24, 2021, from
https://community.fandom.com/wiki/Help:Start_a_new_community

GitHub Inc. (2008). GitHub Features: The right tools for the job. GitHub. Retrieved
November 17, 2021, from https://github.com/features

Gohr, A. (2004). DokuWiki. Read the DokuWiki Documentation. Retrieved November 20,
2021, from https://www.dokuwiki.org/dokuwiki

MediaWiki. (2006, November 3). Welcome to Citizendium. Citizendium. Retrieved

November 25, 2021, from https://en.citizendium.org/

MediaWiki. (2014, February). Hosting services. Powered by MediaWiki. Retrieved

December 1, 2021, from https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Hosting_services

Miraheze. (2021, November 27). Technical Communication in World War II. Technical
Communication in World War II - Technical Writing. Retrieved December 1, 2021, from
https://technicalwriting.miraheze.org/wiki/Technical_Communication_in_World_War_II

Miraheze. (2021, November 29). Main page. Technical Writing. Retrieved December 1,
2021, from https://technicalwriting.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page.

Setting up a GitHub Pages site with Jekyll. GitHub Docs. (2020). Retrieved November 17,
2021, from https://docs.github.com/en/pages/setting-up-a-github-pages-site-with-jekyll

Tuca, A. (2019, September 20). Categories and Tags in WordPress: How to Use Them
Properly. ThemeIsle Blog. Retrieved November 25, 2021, from
https://themeisle.com/blog/categories-and-tags-in-wordpress/

WP Engine. (2020, July 15). How to create a wordpress wiki. Resource Center. Retrieved
November 25, 2021, from https://wpengine.com/resources/how-to-create-wordpress-wiki/

WP Engine. (2021, November 22). The best way to migrate a WordPress site: WP
engine®. Resource Center. Retrieved November 30, 2021, from
https://wpengine.com/resources/migrate-wordpress-site/#Should_I_Migrate_My_WordPres
s_Site_Manually_or_Automatically

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 Appendices

Wiki Migration
This is a presentation on the different techniques and software that can be used to migrate the
Google Sites wiki to Miraheze.

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Categorization System
This is a presentation on Miraheze’s categorization and tagging system.

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