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Comment by Gring | Hacker News Reader

We (25 people company) use Confluence, and we all truly hate it. The design is attrocious. It's ugly beyond the pinnacle of ugliness. We tried to use some custom styling to ease the pain, but Confluence uses so many badly designed elements that we had to capitulate.

If this incredibly crappy product sells itself, then it's only because there is nothing better. If you don't know what your next company should do - please consider creating a better corporate wiki. Confluence is truly an abomination.

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Amen. Last time I used it, it was a mess beyond belief. Code intermingling with presentation layer. Dependencies upon dependencies. A case study of bad software engineering.

There is probably already a company out there making awesome corporate wiki's and they are growing every year, but of course by the time you get it it will be out of date and there will some some new little company...

When I saw the headline, I was thinking the exact same thing. I hate Confluence, I hate JIRA.

I don't hate Bitbucket, but that's an acquisition product, not a home grown product.

Do you think there's demand for a "corporate wiki"? I've been toying with the idea of that on the side for months, but I'm unsure of the demand for it. It seems like wikis are something that people don't enjoy using and don't have a need for. What are your experiences? Where does Confluence fall short?

To sell a successful corporate wiki, you need hundreds of plug-ins to handle all those special cases that each company inevitably has. That would be your biggest stumbling block, because creating those takes time, and that's where Confluence trumps all others.

Where it falls short? Basically everywhere else. There is no taste.

If you want our business, create a wiki that puts the content front and center, and remove everything else by default. Then let us add our 3 extension wishes, while still staying minimalist. It's not that difficult.

Unfortunately, it seems that either the chief software architect at Confluence is not up to the task, or that the company values quick crappy changes in favor of good design.

Good luck with your endeavor!

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