Free but not worthless

[Ry]

What kind of hosting would you reommend for such a wiki?  I have a .pbwiki but to get all the features like locking pages it's $249/y.  That's definitely beyond the "free" I'm looking for but I may bite the bullet eventually (perhaps with my Christmas bonus?)

[David Artman]

WTF, woah!

I am hosted at GoDaddy for about $3 a month, and I can install whatever I want (even some kind of wiki they auto-install for you). I tend to use Content Version Management (CVM) software instead of wiki, because I don't have the multi-user need; but I could download, upload, and execute anything I want to. Thus, you could do so for MediaWiki (or your favorite wiki).

I don't know if anything would be totally free for you, unless there's some free host site that lets you do wiki (Google? Yahoo?). BUT, those will (probably) have their own ad banners and won't want you to mess with them or use your own. In the end, it's worth the $36 a year--it's cheaper if you buy whole years or sets of years, of course--to have control over the type of ads and deals you setup with Google Syndicate or whomever. (*ahem* Mention "DCArtman" if you go with GoDaddy. :}  *cough*)

If that's too expensive, you'll have to find a friend who'll setup your own sub-domain on his or her site. (For example, if I happened to do it for you, it would be "http://yourgame.davidartman.com"--poor for brand recognition or for promotion; spend the $40.)

Also, you could offer a forum (in a sub-folder off the main domain, which will hold the wiki) and you could let folks do their talking and planning there, rather than on the wiki's Talk Pages. That's convenient, but I am finding Talk Pages to be more... I dunno, organized? But anyway, SMF is free and trivial to upload and install on your hosting server (see http://www.glasscutters.org/forums/ for my implementation of it--took about, oh, two hours to setup, including tweaks to template).

But, hey... there's tons of advice sites that discuss web hosting and apps and setup... even here, we might want to migrate such talk to the Publishing forum, rather than... oh... OK, never mind.
*blush*
David

[Ry]

I have a friend who owns his own web development company.  I'm seeing if I can get him on board for hosting a mediawiki that I can moderate.  My big concern is that when I "open" the site it looks professional, which I think mediawiki can do OK as long as it's properly configured (i.e. not just a copy of Wikipedia).

[David Artman]

My big concern is that when I "open" the site it looks professional, which I think mediawiki can do OK as long as it's properly configured (i.e. not just a copy of Wikipedia).

My advice on that would be multifold:
1) Start with a template that is very close to what you want. It's easier to tweak a few things than to build up a whole template.
2) Don't be afraid to tweak the PHP files that build up a page view. Changing general layout (column spacing and colors and font) or the graphics (logo, buttons) is pretty easy, and you can always revert what you do (if you don't try to do umpty-jillion things at once and forget some of them: baby steps is the key).
3) Find a good artist for any major graphics or icons or buttons you plan to tweak. It's an up-front cost that pays off for years.

You're gonna love it, I guarantee...

David

[Ry]

The project has begun:

http://www.greathundred.org

[Thunder_God]

Which option did you go with?

[Ry]

A friend owns a web company, I prevailed upon him that the project had merit.  We went with Mediawiki and Gumax.  As yet I'm the only contributor but I'm hoping to attract more through various channels (EN World, Story Games, some of my other contacts).

That said, I'll be proceeding on this regardless of finding other contributors:  It will just take a lot longer.  I find it a lot easier to develop in conversation with others.

[Ry]

Justin, I managed to heed your advice and obtained some art (donated to the project by Chuck McCann).  The Great Hundred project now has an awesome map.  www.greathundred.org  if anyone is interested.