UseModWiki - ArticlesHub/posts GitHub Wiki
UseModWiki basically started the whole wiki revolution. Before MediaWiki became the big name we all know today, there was this humble Perl script that powered the first version of Wikipedia back in 2001. It's like the Model T of wiki engines - not fancy by today's standards, but revolutionary for its time. Created by Clifford Adams in 1999 (when dial-up was still a thing), UseModWiki was one of the first wiki applications that made it easy for regular people to set up collaborative websites. The name comes from its original home at "use.mod" - short for "users' modules." It's written in Perl, which was basically the PHP of the late 90s, and stores everything in plain text files rather than a database. Old school? Absolutely. But there's something charming about its simplicity.
The beauty of UseModWiki was in its straightforward approach. No complicated database setup - just upload some Perl scripts to your server, set the permissions, and boom, you've got a working wiki. All the pages were stored as text files in a directory, which made backups as easy as copying a folder. Editing used classic wiki markup - those double square brackets for links, asterisks for bullet points, and equals signs for headings. No WYSIWYG editors here - you had to learn the codes, which gave early wiki contributors a certain pride in their craft. The software automatically created new pages when someone linked to them, encouraging that organic growth that made wikis so special.
One quirky feature was the "SubPage" system, where you could create hierarchies using slashes in page names (like "MainPage/SubPage"). This was before namespaces became standard in wiki software, and while it worked, it could get messy real quick if you weren't careful with your naming.
In its heyday, UseModWiki had some serious advantages. First, it was ridiculously lightweight. We're talking about a single Perl script that could run on practically any web server with CGI support. No database meant fewer things that could break, and the text file storage made it super portable. The community features were pretty advanced for the time too. It had page histories, different viewing, and even a simple spam prevention system. The "RecentChanges" page became the social hub of every wiki, where you'd see all the activity at a glance.
Perhaps most importantly, it was free and open source. This meant anyone could set up a wiki without paying for expensive software, which was a big deal in the early days of the web. It democratized collaborative content creation in a way we take for granted now.
Here's a fun fact: Wikipedia actually started on UseModWiki. When Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched the project in January 2001, they used this very software. You can still see remnants of UseModWiki's influence in early Wikipedia conventions, like the "Talk:" prefix for discussion pages. But as Wikipedia grew explosively, UseModWiki started showing its limitations. The text-file storage couldn't handle the scale, and the software wasn't designed for that level of traffic. By mid-2001, Wikipedia had to switch to a new PHP-based system that eventually evolved into MediaWiki. Still, without UseModWiki proving the concept could work at all, Wikipedia might never have gotten off the ground. That's a pretty big legacy for a simple Perl script.
Let's be real - UseModWiki wasn't perfect, even by 2001 standards. The flat-file storage meant searches could be painfully slow once you had more than a few hundred pages. There was no real user account system initially, just "cookie identities" that were easily faked. The markup language had some... interesting choices. Want to make text italic? You had to use two single quotes on each side, except when you didn't. Tables? Forget about it - those came much later. And don't even get me started on trying to upload files - that required separate scripts and manual configuration.
Security was another weak point. Being written in Perl and using CGI made it vulnerable to all sorts of attacks if not properly configured. Many early wiki admins learned about server security the hard way thanks to UseModWiki installations.
You might be wondering - does anyone still use this antique in 2023? Surprisingly, yes! There are still some niche communities and personal wikis running on UseModWiki, often maintained by admins who've grown attached to its simplicity. Some people keep it around for archival purposes - there are knowledge bases that have been running continuously since the early 2000s, and migrating would be more trouble than it's worth. Others just prefer the minimalist approach, where you're not constantly fighting with software updates and compatibility issues.
That said, most active wikis have long since moved to more modern platforms. Even Clifford Adams himself stopped maintaining the software in 2006, though the source code is still out there for anyone brave enough to try running it.
Despite its limitations, UseModWiki's impact on internet culture is hard to overstate. It proved that open collaboration at scale was possible, paving the way for everything from Wikipedia to modern knowledge management systems. Many features we now take for granted in wiki software - like RecentChanges, diff comparisons, and simple markup - were popularized by UseModWiki. Even its limitations taught valuable lessons that influenced later wiki engines.
In a way, UseModWiki represents a simpler time on the web, when a single programmer could create tools that changed how people shared information. Today's wiki software may be more powerful, but it all stands on the shoulders of this unassuming Perl script.
Feeling nostalgic? You can still find the source code floating around the internet, and theoretically get it running if you can find a server that supports old-school Perl CGI. There are even some tutorials out there for getting it working on modern systems, though it's definitely not for the faint of heart. For most people today, it's probably better to appreciate UseModWiki as an important piece of internet history rather than a practical tool. But if you ever come across an ancient wiki that looks like it's from 2001, take a moment to appreciate the software that started it all - warts and all.