12/31/08, 7pm PST: Some wikis are experiencing slow page loads and 500 errors when wiki pages attempt to load. Our engineers are aware of the problem and working on it.

There is no data loss and we estimate a relatively quick repair of the problem. We apologize for the inconvenience and wish you a Happy New Year’s! We’ll keep you updated here.

7:03pm: Our engineers have put a fix in place to repair most of the problems. We’re continuing to monitor page loads, but anticipate that most operations work smoothly again. Have a happy holiday!

This week we’re excited to release one of our most requested features – Reader Commenting. Before,wiki users with ‘Reader’ access were only allowed to view your wiki.

Now, you can enable Readers to leave comments.

Why reader comments are useful

The ability for readers to leave comments is great if you like to get input from everyone in your organization, but you don’t want to give them full access to edit other pages on your wiki.

Reader comments are also useful for classrooms. Teachers can post questions on a page and have students answer them without having the ability to edit the questions.

How we keep your wiki safe with Reader commenting

Note: To keep your wiki safe, only users who have been invited as readers are enabled to comment. Visitors to public wikis won’t be able to leave comments unless they’re added to the wiki as readers

If you already have a wiki, you’ll need to enable this feature by doing this: Go to Settings —> Wiki Security —> Uncheck the ‘Disable reader commenting’ box.

New wikis will have Reader Commenting enabled by default.

How are you going to use reader commenting? Tell us in the comments!

You can already easily insert YouTube videos and Google Gadgets into your wiki using the Plugin menu (click Edit >> Insert plugin).

Now, we’ve made it easier to extend your wiki by inserting HTML and JavaScript into your wiki.

Use HTML/JavaScript to add outside widgets to your wiki

Custom HTML/JavaScript allows you (or your admins) to add interactive elements — also known as widgets — to your wiki pages.

Examples:

• Forms you create from Wufoo
• Slideshows from Flickr
• Any other widget with embeddable code!

Included: Security options for administrators

Widgets can sometimes result in unexpected behavior, so we’ve included built-in security for this feature (learn more about PBwiki security).

If “Allow JavaScript and other potentially unsafe code” is checked, only wiki admins will be able to edit the plugin in the future.

When other wiki users edit the plugin, they will not see the checkbox. If potentially unsafe code is detected, a warning will be shown. Potentially unsafe code, such as JavaScript, is automatically removed from the plugin to help keep your wiki safe.

To use the HTML/JavaScript plugin

1. Go into edit mode on your wiki by clicking the “Edit” tab.
2. Click the “Insert Plugin” button
3. Choose “PBwiki Magic”
4. And then choose “HTML/JavaScript”
5. Type in your code
6. If you’re a wiki administrator and want to include JavaScript (”script”) or CSS (”style”), check “Allow JavaScript and other potentially unsafe code”
7. Click “Preview,” then “OK,” and now “Save” your wiki page.

And if you have any questions, please check out the PBwiki Manual on Custom HTML / Javascript.

Since we released the new document management features we’ve seen a huge spike in the number of files that people upload to their wiki.

Now people want to know how to set custom security on these files – specifically how to share a document with just a few users but not everyone on the wiki.

Here is a question straight from the support queue:

“It seems that everyone on my wiki can click on the files button and see all the files. Is there a way to prevent this? I have files that I do not want other departments to see.”

YES! On premium wikis, administrators can create custom security settings for their documents and files.

To restrict access to files and documents on your wiki:

1. First create a folder and set custom security on that folder.
2. Next upload your files into that folder.

Image from directsnapfootball.com

I spent most of Sunday afternoon at home watching various football games. While I’m a fan of all sports, I’m always amazed at the execution and synchronization of a typical football play. Each down, the 11 players move in perfect harmony in order to reach their goal. The slightest misstep can be the difference between victory and defeat.

What is true on the football field is often true in real life: if a team isn’t on the same page, the team is likely to fail. Football players spend hours reading a playbook and practicing over and over again in order to attain this togetherness. In the business world, we don’t have time to practice for hours which makes having a good playbook essential. If your team doesn’t have a playbook, why not build one today using a wiki?

Photo courtesy of Jonathunder.

It has come to our attention that in Mashable’s Open Web Awards, PBwiki came in as the runner-up to Wikipedia in the “Wiki” category.

Clearly, this is a travishamockery of justice. Sure, Wikipedia is the largest repository of human knowledge, but you won’t find caricatures of all the Wikipedians on their web site.

Please write your local politicians and demand justice. We’re coming for you, Jimmy Wales!

(In all seriousness, thank you to all the bloggers who voted for us. It’s an honor. And hey, maybe next year….)

(photo courtesy of Endlisnis)

As you know, we like our new document management functionality. Based on the usage statistics we’re seeing, we know you like it too (file uploads are waaaaay up from before the launch). And now it looks like the press likes it.

James Gaskin wrote in ITworld:

“I’ve mentioned PBwiki before and likely will again, since they seem to keep raising the wiki bar (doesn’t that sound like a party activity? Raising the wiki bar?). They just announced two improvements worth mentioning.

First, they’ve added unlimited storage for paying customers. Pay the $8 per user per month, and PBwiki gives you unlimited storage space. I don’t know anyone else who has done that. If you do, send me a note. Either way, “unlimited” certainly seems like plenty of room for everyone. Free users get bumped up to 2GBs for storage.

Second, PBwiki added document management tools. Enterprise VP Chris Yeh said they aren’t trying to fight with entrenched enterprise document management vendors like Documentum, but they want to help companies avoid the giant hassles of tracking an important document through multiple revisions when bounding from e-mail attachment to e-mail attachment. No wonder most corporate attempts at collaboration using e-mail alone fail. Who wants to track and manage one horribly mangled document flying around the Internet? Not I.”

Thanks, James! We’ll try to keep raising that wiki bar.

I’m curious how you invite others to your wiki. We’ve heard from users who describe their wiki in all different kinds of ways.

What do you say to get others to successfully join your wiki?

Is it:

“Hey Michelle, you should join my wiki. You can edit pages with me on it…”

-or-

“John, you should try my PBwiki. We can keep our files in one place….”

-or-

“We should just use my PBwiki instead of sending all these emails back and forth.”

You get the idea…what words do you use to describe your wiki so others will join? Leave us a comment with your best invitation — and please include your profession!