The Butt Ugly Weblog

Ugly Wikis?

In the ETCon aftermath, a discussion has been sparked about how ugly Wikis look. Joi Ito comments. And I agree - but only because most Wikis do look extremely plain. However, there is no reason whatsoever that Wikis should look bad. No reason! However, there is a certain zen-like quality of simplicity in the whole concept, and I think that the WikiEngine authors often consciously or subconsciously reflect that in their site designs.

Well, with this web site I can hardly claim that JSPWiki looks particularly nice, but some people have made some really nice templates for JSPWiki. Check out the mrg template, the Cocoon Wiki or the Roller Wiki. Perhaps it is time to include one of these in the JSPWiki main distribution.

Also, as a weblog using a Wiki is extremely nice, since I don't have to worry about posting in HTML - I can just type in WikiMarkup. It's quite a lot easier to type on a mobile phone than angled brackets...

There is also discussion on whether a finer layout control should be allowed, to give the writers the ability to define DIVs and SPANs on their wiki pages.