Plainwire / This wiki / Colophon
Colophon
What this is
Plainwire started as a shared text file between four people who kept sending each other the same advice about the same appliances. It became a wiki when the file passed forty pages and nobody could find anything in it.
The four are still the four. We use handles here rather than names, not out of any great mystique but because the wiki outlasts our interest in it and a handle is easier to hand on than a byline.
| Handle | Mostly writes about | Editing since |
|---|---|---|
| hexnut | Portable computing, batteries, anything bonded shut | the original text file |
| bramble | Soldering, board-level work, the reference pages | the original text file |
| t.orme | White goods, motors, pumps and plumbing | 2024 |
| larkspur | Lighting, small mains appliances, the toolkit page | 2025 |
Editorial rules we hold ourselves to
- Nobody publishes a procedure they have not performed.
- Every guide is read by an editor who did not write it, before it goes up.
- Where we are inferring rather than reporting, the text says so in those words.
- Corrections change the page and are recorded, rather than being appended at the bottom.
- No page recommends a specific product. Specifications, yes; brands, no.
How the site is made
The pages are hand-written HTML. There is no content management system, no build step and no framework, which is a slightly obnoxious thing to say and is also the reason the wiki has never been down for a reason we could not fix in an evening.
One stylesheet, one print stylesheet, one SVG mark, and no scripts of any kind — not for navigation, not for search. Everything the browser needs comes from this site, so the pages render the same on a slow connection as on a fast one.
Typography
Body text is whatever your system serves for its default interface sans-serif, which is a deliberate choice rather than laziness: it renders instantly, it is the face your eyes are most used to, and it costs the reader nothing to download. Tabular material and revision stamps use the system monospace.
Licence
Text may be reused and adapted with attribution under a share-alike licence, which means a derivative has to carry the same terms. Photographs and diagrams belong to whoever made them and are marked individually where they differ. The wiki mark is not covered; please do not use it to imply we endorsed something.
What we are not
Not a shop, not a parts supplier, not a repair service and not a forum. We have no commercial relationship with any manufacturer, retailer or tool brand, and we have turned down the three approaches we have had. If that changes it will be written on this page before anything else changes.
Plainwire is written and maintained by volunteers. Text on this site may be reused and adapted with attribution under a share-alike licence; photographs and diagrams belong to whoever made them and are marked accordingly. No advertising, no trackers, no accounts.