neatness

and wiki don't really go together.

 

Wikis are all about content, rather than presentation. That is, the presentation is accepted as being adequate so that the content can be given priority.

 

Having said that, a wiki is a far more serious website than a blog for example. The presentation may not be in-your-face, but it should be adequate. That's essential. (And unlike many in-your-face websites, wikis tend to work on a wide range of platforms.)

 

For a wiki to work two things need to happen:

 

• The members of the community need to have the ability to update the content. This includes knowing the relevant password(s), and knowing the relevant wiki syntax. It's the reason that wikitext needs to be a lot simpler to write than HTML.

 

• The members of the community need to have permission to update the content. This is a far trickier question! It tends to include permission to make mistakes.