Pages or Posts?

Dear folks, I have read the tutorial here on Composr, a very good one at

Composr Tutorial: Custom structured content (via Wiki+)

Open Source CMS with advanced social, interactive and dynamic features. Fully flexible, themeable and extendible: suitable for building powerful websites.

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It has answered some questions I have.

I have a question on Wiki structure using pages or posts. I am a little confused as to what purpose posts play. I am coming from a wiki background of pages, using MediaWiki and other wiki platforms, everything is built upon pages. So my question is, why posts?

I may only be battling terminology here, but in my mind posts are comments that could contain questions about the wiki page, general comments, debating the merits of the content of the wiki page etc etc.

So Wiki pages, are they still wiki pages here on Composr? Should all wiki content be created by wiki pages?
If I have a wiki page named: "Machinery Research Portal", and I am using that page for the main welcome to the machine wiki, with research links, gallery of machine images, etc, then does a user add child pages to that portal for example, a page about a Table Saw, a page about a Drill Press, a page about a Planer.
or
Does the user add posts representing those machines?

Thank you for any clarification.

Hi,

Think of 2 scenarios:

1. A site trying to create a quality encyclopedia, where users keep contributing edits to a well written page.
2. A site just trying to pull together scraps of information without serious editing by the contributors.

The former would have posts hidden under an expander, the latter would have posts clearly visible (as they would contain content contributions).

In either case you would likely have child pages.


There's a separate issue of how pages hold together. A traditional wiki will use cross-linking (no tree structure). Composr can have child pages and cross-linking. It's your choice how to do that too.


So to summarise, there are 2 separate issues here:

1. Whether to solicit contributions in post form or have people always edit the main page text
2. Whether to organise via cross-linking, or a tree structure (or both)

I just want to add:

The Wiki+ is far more than any simple wiki program. That's why the plus .

You could use the Wiki+ for many other things as well. You could use it as a simple wiki with hidden posts and whatnot . You could use it as a community information hub where the community posts comments to the sections you made to share information. You could even use it as a form of super-structured and controlled forum.

Composr is all about being flexible. It doesn't assume what you want the Wiki+ to do; it gives you the tools to use the Wiki+ in whatever way best fits your needs.

Thanks both, I appreciate your answers and clarification. What I really love about Wiki + is the ability to create catalogues for a sort of info box to display along with the wiki page or post.

So then in this scenario per Chris's suggestion:

"A site trying to create a quality encyclopedia, where users keep contributing edits to a well written page."

This could be the preferred way to create a traditional wiki (nothing in composr is traditional, thank goodness!) where users add too, edit, collaborate, correct mis-information, and create child pages to expand the knowledge base of the wiki. Where users create their own child pages to the main wiki page that may be titled "Trees" then they add child pages for "Pine", "Oak", etc etc.
Is this the quality encyclopedia style that is spoken of here? Thanks Chris

Mythus, thanks for your reminding me to stay open and creative with Composr and to think out of the box. Coming into a new software from using others, there is a common approach to layout and order, then there is the Composr way I am learning.

Is this the quality encyclopedia style that is spoken of here? Thanks Chris

Yes. To the degree you configure. For example, you may choose to let user's edit pages but not the tree structure itself.

Thanks you Chris.