Private, Public, and Standard Wikis: What’s the Difference?

When you’re setting up a wiki, whether it’s your first or your 15th, you’ll have the opportunity to set that wiki’s access settings.

In Pilot, there are 3 access options to choose from:

Standard
Private
Public

More about these types below.

Wiki Access Settings

Standard Wiki

A Standard wiki, or an organizational wiki, is visible to anyone who is a member of your Pilot organization. People outside of the organization may also be given access to a Standard wiki by an organization admin.

💡If you grant an external (non-organization) member access to a standard wiki, that person will also have access to the corresponding Google drive.

This type of wiki is not visible to anyone outside of your organization, even if they have a link.

Setting up a Standard wiki works well for widely-applicable internal information, such as general organizational policy documents, and help guides for broadly used internal software like email clients or productivity software.

💡When you add someone new to your organization, they will automatically be added to any existing Standard wikis.

Private Wiki

A Private wiki is invite-only. This means that only people you add directly will be able to see this wiki.

A Private wiki is a good idea if the information in the wiki is intended for a specific internal audience. For example, a wiki that contains executive-level information, or secure documents that only certain people or departments need to access.

💡You may also want to set a wiki to Private while it’s under construction, to minimize access to unfinished content.

Public Wiki

A public wiki is visible to anyone who has the link – whether it was sent to them directly, or listed on a public-facing web page. A Pilot account or login is not required to access a public wiki.

Setting your wiki to Public is a good option if the wiki is intended for an audience of customers or users: for example if the wiki is a user guide, or a self-help center for customers.

💡Anyone accessing a Public wiki from a link will have view-only access (unless they are already a member of your organization).

Changing your Wiki Access Settings

You can edit your wiki’s access settings at any time. To do so, click the arrow next to your wiki name in the top left corner of your wiki homepage. Click Manage [wiki name].

Then, under the Members & Privacy tab, you’ll find the wiki access settings on the top bar.