Wikipedia is not Wiki

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(English) This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikimedians but may not have wide support. This is not policy on Meta, but it may be a policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes.
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Sometimes newcomers to the wiki world become a little confused about the word "wiki", especially when their only wiki experience is through Wikipedia. This is understandable, given the various differing-but-related meanings of the word. To end the confusion once and for all (hah!), here is a quick guide.

"wiki" is a generic term with several meanings:

  • software that allows people to create editable websites (e.g. MediaWiki, UseModWiki)
  • a website created with such software (e.g. MeatballWiki)
  • the virtual community which maintains and uses such a website (ditto)
  • the ideas and philosophy behind such websites

"Wiki" (or "Ward's Wiki") as a proper name refers only to the original wiki created by Ward Cunningham: [1]

"Wikipedia" is the particular project to create a wiki-based encyclopedia: http://www.wikipedia.org/

To further confuse things, some people spell the first term with a capital W: "When starting a Wiki, you first have to choose some Wiki software". While some folks object to this on grammatical grounds, it is fairly common.

Even more confusion: Sometimes you see the term Wiki Wiki or even Wiki Wiki Web

To sum up: each individual language Wikipedia is a wiki, and the Wikipedia project as a whole is a collection of wikis, but you shouldn't say, "I added an article to Wiki today" if you were working on Wikipedia. Ward's Wiki is here.

-- Stephen Gilbert, MyRedDice

See also[edit]