Overall Satisfaction with MindTouch
I found MindTouch (then DekiWiki) during a search for a usable wiki for internal documentation (we were one of their early customers). It served ably in that capacity for many years, and it continues to be a world-class knowledge management system, even as the product has matured and grown more specialized.
MindTouch made the decision several years ago to focus on customer-facing support, which doesn't really apply to our internal-only use case. The downside of this change is that my users see more administrative cruft than I'd prefer. Not a huge deal, but worth considering if your use will be solely internal (MindTouch is arguably overkill for strictly internal use).
MindTouch made the decision several years ago to focus on customer-facing support, which doesn't really apply to our internal-only use case. The downside of this change is that my users see more administrative cruft than I'd prefer. Not a huge deal, but worth considering if your use will be solely internal (MindTouch is arguably overkill for strictly internal use).
- Clean, usable UI that the vast majority of users use without training.
- Actively developed and very well supported.
- More integrations than you can shake a stick at.
- Better internal-only usage options. A user type between "community" and "pro" that can optionally contribute but which sees more of a customer's view of the content.
- Not to single out MindTouch on this point, but portability of content is a huge issue (i.e., what if you want to move your content to a different application?). It doesn't appear that anyone has really cracked this nut yet, but I wish someone would.
- MindTouch's official recommendation is that no sensitive/private content should be added to a MindTouch instance. While I appreciate the honesty, I do wish there were way to securely include sensitive content (page-level encryption). I recognize the complexity of the request, but it's so needed.
- Doesn't really apply to our use case, but I have long enjoyed redirecting users' questions to MindTouch: "Say...how do I [something that has been asked many times before].." "Have you checked the wiki?" "Oh yeah. No. I'll do that."
I haven't actively compared MindTouch to its rivals in many years, but compared to other wiki-like options, MindTouch was years ahead.
MindTouch Implementation
MindTouch Training
MindTouch Support
Using MindTouch
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Intuitive UI makes edits and changes trivial.
- DekiScript is the key to extending MindTouch, and it becomes easy to perform complex tasks with very little code.
- The still new-to-me structure takes some getting used to, but once you understand it, it makes the content much easier to organize and access.
- Exporting (but all/most knowledge management systems suffer from this).
Yes, but I don't use it