A while ago, we moved the Wiki from it's original home to Wikia. The move was instigated by the fact that the hosted wiki software we were using was buggy, unstable, and prone to virus warnings on people's computers. A good reason to move, I'm sure you'll agree. We selected Wikia, because it was incredibly popular, it looked like a real wiki, and you didn't need to learn an entire new language to use it.

A few months down the line, Wikia decided to scrap everything good about their wiki hosting service in favour of an unsightly layout and unusable admin. I had a good rant about it on my personal site, a little snippet of which I'll quote here:

It is, in fact, completely ruined. The first I heard of it is when Mr C exclaimed: "The wiki has changed," in reaction to some of our commenters picking up on it. I had a look and was absolutely distraught. How could this happen without any warning? Without the option for it not to happen?

That made me feel a little bit better for a while, but since then we've been looking for an alternative. It turns out that if you want a free, hosted service, you have to make compromises in terms of looks, accessibility and most of all control. This isn't a surprise, really, but sometimes the ideal product is out there. In this case, it is not.

We didn't want to take the route of hosting the wiki ourselves, because it is an additional cost in a time when we are trying to reduce the amount Sidepodcast takes out of our wage packet. However, there really are no other options, and the wiki is such an integral part of the site now, that this is what we are going to do.

If you have any suggestions, hints or tips about running your own wiki, they would be much appreciated, as we have never done this before. The only wiki software I know of is MediaWiki, the one that powers Wikipedia. It looks refreshingly familiar, at least, but I don't know if it is easy to use, and what it takes to set it up.

Equally, if you'd like to donate to the cause, even just £1, please visit the Support Sidepodcast section on the homepage. We estimate it will cost about £100 to keep the wiki hosted and secure for a year. Perhaps we should get a totaliser! I could Factbyte Factbox a Children in Need style telethon! No, I am getting carried away again.

I will keep you updated with the progress as we go along. For now, I would suggest not using the wiki if possible, as I have seen a couple of pages "revised" in an unsavoury way. Apologies that it has come to this, but we will come back better and stronger and with a wiki we can be proud of, instead of the monstrosity we have been left with. Postivity, people.