Category setting: new topics are wiki by default

[calmh (Jakob Borg)]

Wiki posts are awesome, especially for categories like documentation and FAQ. It would be sweet if a category could be set up so that new topics are wiki by default. Currently you’d have to have an admin (moderator?) notice the new post and wikify it.

[erlend_sh (Erlend Sogge Heggen)]

Sounds like a good default setting for this forum’s HOWTO category.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

I am putting a status planned on this, its a very simple change, has a lot of people who want it and would fit easily into the category settings.

[Tom_Newsom]

Would it be similarly easy to always go to the first post when there are no unread replies?

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

Sure, maybe simply call it “wiki mode” and do both, seems like the correct way it should work.

[Tom_Newsom]

I just put 2 and 2 together. From the “topic mentions” thread:

@codinghorror

I am not sure but I do agree the inline autocomplete only works well when the set is confined to something reasonable versus, any of these 100k topics at all…

If the search set was reduced to “all topics in a WIki Mode Category” then a)it would have a very clear use case and b)would make constructing inter-linked wikis much easier.

[alefattorini (Alessio Fattorini)]

@sam

has a lot of people who want it and would fit easily into the category settings

Can I ask how do you track or count how many people want this? A separated trello board? Document? Spreadsheet? Search with some strange operator? how do you update it?

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

To me this one is in the “very easy to build” category, also a logical thing to add to category edit preferences. I don’t know that I’ve heard the request a lot.

[precessor (Dave Higgins)]

This is just what I was looking for for my own how-to category.

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

I would like to expand on this a bit.

There is an open “theme of questions” about how do we “watch” wikis for changes, I think wiki category can cover this.

In particular, when a category is in wiki mode

• All new topics created in category have the OP as wiki

• Every edit to the OP wiki, makes the system add a system message like so:

(also link directly to the revision)

• When click on the topic from topic list (if you have no new notifications) it always takes you to the OP vs last post.

Showing edits in the stream would solve the problem of giving wikis visibility as they are edited, something that is biting me quite a bit with our current usage of wikis. If people don’t like the loud they can simply stop tracking the wiki.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Wait what problem is being solved for here? I don’t understand the problem / pain point?

[sam (Sam Saffron)]

@codinghorror

Wait what problem is being solved for here? I don’t understand the problem / pain point?

1. No visibility on wiki edits from front page when there is more than 1 post in the topic.
2. No way to track a wiki for changes
3. Usability of going to actual wiki from front page for pinned wikis is not ideal cause you are always transported to last post.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

I think this deserves its own feature discussion topic not being buried in some other topic…

[DeanMarkTaylor (Dean Taylor)]

@sam

No way to track a wiki for changes

Two related topics / feature requests:

Not receiving notifications for edited Wiki posts unless you are the author

This is something strange. I have made one topic a wiki post and kept it open. Then inside another browser I login with a different user id. I edited the wiki post and then I checked the forum on my admin ID. I did not received any notification whatsoever that could tel me that someone actually contributed to the post and edited it? Am I missing something here or some setting is required. Why are we not receiving notifications for wiki post edits? Is the original author of wiki post the sole pu…

Watching / Tracking / Notifications for post edits for Moderators

There doesn’t appear to be a way to get notified for post edits… (both traditional post edits and Wiki post edits). For post traditional post edits and Wiki post edits. As a user For users this topic seems to be tracking this: As an admin / moderator… Whilst moderation / approval prior to posts initially being displayed is not required, knowing something has changed so it can be reviewed is important. It’s important to be able to know when every content change occurs for moderation purpose…

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

Want to add my support for this feature. At my job we are currently converting a MediaWiki instance to Discourse, in hopes that we can increase its use. The wiki is our knowledge base and has become very outdated. We’re hoping that by switching to a more modern, interactive platform like Discourse we can get more staff to add and update info. Having most categories default to wiki is key as we need everyone to be able to collaborate on articles without needing a moderator to wiki the topic each time.

I’d also love to see @Tom_Newsom’s idea that users go to the first post when there are no unread replies, but defaulting new topics to wiki is critical.

[Overgrow (OG)]

@sam

Usability of going to actual wiki from front page for pinned wikis is not ideal cause you are always transported to last post.

Yes that is something that bothers me when using wiki posts as FAQ. I’d love to see both discussed features added.

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

Glad to see wiki posts are getting some love!

Edits to Wikis with Replies Should Cause Timestamp Change / Post Shown as Updated

The logic would be: if the first post is a wiki and the topic is closed, with no other replies and there is an edit to the wiki post Then allow the topic to get bumped as if the edit was to the last post in the topic. Could you take this @techapj? (Essentially the topic close “Reply” is causing the intended behavior not to happen.)

Any chance to get this (the category setting feature, there was a lot of other discussion here that seems more complicated) scheduled for a release?

[alefattorini (Alessio Fattorini)]

@jomaxro

At my job we are currently converting a MediaWiki instance to Discourse

Very curious about that. How did you do that? My community still asks me to don’t use Discourse wiki posts because they’re too poor of feature compared with other wikis