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The question Free wiki-like webapp with internationalization, no ads, anyone can edit, mobile-friendly was closed by a mod, referencing the meta-discussion Are hosting recommendation requests on-topic?.

In my opinion,

  • that meta-discussion does not apply to the question, and
  • the question is on-topic and should be reopened.

Are hosting recommendation requests on-topic? does not define what "hosting" exactly means, and the discussed question is deleted, but skimming the answers, it seems that it’s about web hosting services.
I don’t want to give a full definition here, but I think it’s safe to assume that not every hosted service which can produce web pages (GitHub, Tumblr, Google Docs, Dropbox, Flickr, …) is necessarily also a web hosting provider.

If the OP had a specific wiki in mind and was looking for a service to host an instance of (or even install) this wiki, I’d agree: off-topic as asking for hosting.
But the OP is looking for software with specific requirements (a wiki) hosted/managed/offered by a web service. Are web service recommendations off-topic? applies here.

The tag says (emphasis mine):

The web-apps tag is used when requesting software that has an interface appearing in a web browser. These applications may run on third party servers or be self hosted.

3 Answers 3

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Yeah, it is a grey area, and I made a judgement call there (of course, if it got reopened by 5 users of sufficient rep, I wouldn't be inclined to overrule it). I'll probably give the other mods a poke to get a sanity check on it in any case

There were a few things I was thinking of when I closed it.

Firstly, it was a user in good standing, which made me less inclined to want to close it.

I considered broad usefulness, and whether the answers would be relevant on the longer term - the answers are only good as long as the host exists .

I also considered an example of a broadly similar 'class' of question that cropped up at the same time - which I felt was definitely closeable.

With all this I felt the balance of reasons to close were greater than the balance of reasons not to close was greater.

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As indicated by Journeymans comment on the question itself, there's a causal chain:

"Hosted Wiki" → requires a service → requires hosting → Are hosting recommendation requests on-topic?

I agree with the term "grey area" here, as a minor change would make it completely on-topic – that is, if Nicolas would rather ask for the software to accomplish that, e.g. for a self-hosted solution. Whether he would end up self-hosting it then, or having it hosted with some service provider, would then be a completely different issue not to be discussed here – though the question might include something like "bonus point: any website using and offering it for use".

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Hosting:

  • Standard stack or protocol
  • Examples: Mediawiki, Drupal, WordPress, PHP, MySQL, HTTP, FTP, email, etc.
  • Many companies provide it
  • Offers only differ on price, usage limits, and service level agreement
  • → Off-topic

Web app:

  • Very specific requirements
  • Example: Wiki with rare feature X and rare feature Y
  • Hard to find, might not exist yet, no 2 companies provide it
  • → On-topic

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