Gadgets is a fully functional wiki + blog + simple CMS + threaded discussion board + mailing list manager with integrated tagging support, fulltext and tag search, multimedia attachment support, RSS feeds, a sophisitated permissioning system and complete email integration (with attachment support).

That may sound like a lot to swallow, but we feel that these applications have been begging to intermarry for some time. It's like Emacs for the web!

The first step in getting the most out of Gadgets is creating an account. This will allow you to create new posts (also via email), edit editable posts, reply to replyable posts (also via email) and manage your email subscriptions.

Registration

To register, click the "register" link in the upper right hand corner. Fill out the information on the screen and add yourself as a Gadgets user. If you uncheck "enable email", you will not be emailed anything, regardless of your email subscription preferences.

Once you have registered, click on the "home page" link. You will be at the Gadgets home page, and notice in the upper right hand corner (logged in box) that you are now logged into Gadgets.

Email Subscriptions

Now that you're logged in, when you mouse over the logged in box you will see some options, including "email subscriptions"; follow that link. The email subscription page allows you to control you preferences globally and by group, thread, tag, or author. You don't belong to any groups yet, and won't until a site administrator adds you to a group. If you're curious, the Subscription Algorithm has its own page, but we're going to use examples here.

If you want to receive everything from everyone, change the Global Subscription email preference to "subscribed". If you don't want to receive anything from anyone, change the Global Subscription email preference to "unsubscribed". If you want to receive everything except posts in the "Welcome to Gadgets" thread (you already feel welcome, of course), leave yourself globally subscribed, but set Welcome to Gadgets to "unsubscribed" under your Thread Subscription Preferences.

Creating a New Post

To create a new Gadgets post, click on "new post" in the nav bar. Give the post a title, and tag it however you would like. Please note there there are Special Tags. If you tag a post "Home Page", it will appear on the home page. If you tag a post "Blog", it will appear at the blog. Attach any files you would like to the post. Images will be automatically thumbnailed for you. The default permissions are that everyone can read the post, but only you can edit or reply to the post (like a simple CMS). If you click on the "Permissions..." text below the attachments you can alter these permissions in any way you see fit.

This permission system lets you treat posts in any way you like. If you would like a wiki post, give "All Users" edit permissions. If you want a wiki + threaded discussion, give "All Users" edit and reply permissions. If you want a private group discussion, only add your group to the permissions.

Now add some text, using the WYSIWYG editor. There is no special WikiWord syntax to bother you. If you want to link to a page, hilight some text and click the link button. If you want to create a Wiki link (the post will be automatically created when you click the link, if it doesn't already exist), hilight some text and click the link button with the "W" behind it. That's it.

Feel free to save a draft if you aren't ready to make your post public yet. It will be available to you via the "draft posts" link in your logged in box that we discussed earlier. Or publish away! You, as the post owner, will always be able to come back and edit, reply to, or delete your post.

Once you have published your post, it will be emailed to everyone who's subscription preferences call for it (well, 5 minutes after you have published it, to give you room to make any last minute edits you need to).

That's all there is to it. Welcome to Gadgets!