My current preference is for proposal 3 there since the other 2 seem way too complex for now and raise a lot of questions.
I guess the big question is whether we agree that personal pages is to be considered an external app and not a built-in feature of the User Profile Application of XS?
There is a possible variation of 1 which does not imply to modify anything to the user profile page: the fact that the user profile is “terminal” is more a UI thing than a real technical thing. Having sub-pages under the user profile works fine, see for example https://www.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/XWiki/ThomasMortagne/Page1/.
Another, more general approach, would be to add a section on the create page UI to initialize the rights on the newly created page (perhaps similarly and consistent to what we do in the wiki creation page UI).
Possible options:
Visible to:
Default (inherit from parent page rights)
Only me
Only users: <list of users>
Only groups: <list of groups>
Anyone from this wiki
Anyone from wikis: <list of wikis>
This would not create a “dedicated space” for user pages, since, as you mentioned, that’s not very consistent with the “wiki way”. Additionally, we can always have a user profile section that lists all wiki pages (created by the current user or not) which are private and have the current user as (not necessarily the only) viewer. We could call that “My private pages”, or something like that.
IMO, such a solution would fit well enough both the currently described usecase but others as well and would bring more value to users on the long run, as it would work more on improving the usage of what already exists and not introducing new concenpts/features.
Thanks @Enygma for the idea. I find it interesting. There are some downsides though from what I see from the needs expressed:
I think Admins would like a dedicated location where users of the wiki can put personal pages, and not have private pages lying a bit everywhere.
It’s not directive enough and too complex to use. Users would need to be taught how to create personal pages. It’s more complex than having a dedicated UI for it.
It makes the Create Page UI more complex. We could imagine that setting rights would be an advanced use case and make it available only for advanced users but then that beats that idea… Note that setting rights when creating page is not more wiki-friendly than a personal space (I would even say it’s worse on that regard since it would make it easier for users to set permissions on pages when they create them… ;)).
So my opinion ATM is that while I see the reason you mentioned this idea (adding a new generic feature that can be interesting for other use cases, skip having to find a location for private pages), I think it would not fulfill fully the requirements I’ve seen, but I’d gladly accept that I’m wrong, so I’ll check with a stakeholder/user who expressed the need to see what he thinks.
I like @Enygma idea and I’m wondering if this couldn’t be used also in a template provider. It would solve the first problem you raise:
In template provider you can specify specific locations restrictions. So we could imagine having a Personal page template having a location restriction and a right strategy.
Note that I’ve never really used the template provider with a location restriction, so maybe there’s usability bug to fix first on that side to guide the users on the location where they can put pages.
* Provide a dedicated UI to create a new private note (a la FAQ app)
* Ideally we would provide a "Private Notes" template to let users create private notes but we can't force creation of these pages inside a user-named space.
* If the user-named space doesn't exist, create it and set the permission on it so that only the current user can access it
* It's important to set the permission on the space and not the pages so that they can be later moved to public locations without having to force the user to manually change their permissions (see UC3)
The fact that if the option is there, users will be more likely to use it and create permissions for pages they create (which goes in an anti-wiki direction).
The way I was seeing it was to provide only a Personal page template by default, and only display the right scheme options for advanced users (like we display the box for terminal pages). So I don’t consider it makes the UI really more complex or that the feature would be used a lot more.
ok so I don’t think this is what Edy was suggesting initially.
So my opinion about it:
I’m ok with an advanced permission option, mostly because of the use case when you want to create a private page (vs creating a public page and then quickly setting permissions on it, in two steps).
For the template provider, I’d like that too but it’s not possible right now (see previous message). However, we could imagine implementing new features in the template provider, like the ability to associate some custom location restriction strategy + the ability to set permissions in the provider.
Every serious Confluence alternative provides personal spaces or an equivalent feature: Notion, Docmost, AFFiNE, Outline, AppFlowy, etc.
XWiki is advertised as a Confluence alternative, yet it lacks this capability. That doesn’t make sense to me. Does XWiki want to remain a ‘traditional wiki’, or does it want to be useful?
This is particularly frustrating because adding personal spaces would make XWiki a much stronger Confluence alternative and help it stand out among FOSS solutions. In my view, this is one of the key features that differentiates modern knowledge management platforms from traditional wikis.
I’m thinking the exact opposite ATM A bad knowledge management platform is when knowledge is not managed, and it’s a mess (personal pages are the opposite of knowledge management or rather they’re not about knowledge sharing, it’s personal and not benefitting others).
Thank you for the response! I actually agree with your point, and I may not have explained mine clearly enough.
I do not see personal spaces as the final destination for knowledge, or as a replacement for well-organized shared spaces. Quite the opposite: I see them as the place where knowledge often begins.
A personal space can act as a low-friction area for drafts, notes and ideas that are not yet mature enough to be properly classified or shared. Once they have been developed and polished, they can be moved into the appropriate shared space, where they become structured, discoverable and useful to others.
When someone first has an idea, they may not yet know where it belongs, or they may not feel ready to publish it in a shared area. If capturing it requires deciding on the correct location and structure immediately, the idea may simply be lost.
So, in my view, personal spaces are not the opposite of knowledge sharing. They can be the first stage of the knowledge-management lifecycle:
I agree with this but making it private is maybe not the best solution (because of the issues I mentioned re invisible silos). I feel it’s nicer to have an Idea or Drafts location (i.e. page) in the wiki where users can put not finished stuff/ideas. Now, that doesn’t work automatically too. What happens in general is that the number of drafts pages keep growing over time. For example: https://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Drafts/
So I think if you go in this direction you also need someone responsible to push for having this unfinished content be integrated into the proper places so that it doesn’t become stale and so that it increases the global structured/organized knowledge.
Also you should note that the Change Request Application has also been developed for the use case you mentioned.
We decided to draft live. We put a warning banner on top so every one can read, make it better and take all with a grain of salt. We don’t have procedures or workflows that are that risky so we think the pros are much more higher then the cons.
A bad knowledge management platform is when knowledge is not managed, and it’s a mess (personal pages are the opposite of knowledge management or rather they’re not about knowledge sharing, it’s personal and not benefitting others).