This wiki is for the documentation, discussion, and development of the
MediaWiki software
, the software which powers websites like
Wikipedia
and other
projects
of the non-profit
Wikimedia Foundation
, as well as
many other wikis
around the world. It is kindly hosted by the
Wikimedia Foundation
.
All textual content of MediaWiki.org is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
(CC BY-SA 4.0) license and the
GNU Free Documentation License
(GFDL), except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the
public domain
. See
Project:Copyrights
for full details.
What MediaWiki.org is
- MediaWiki.org is for the documentation of the MediaWiki software, and software that integrates into it.
MediaWiki.org has only one topic: the wiki engine MediaWiki and connected software, such as extensions and skins.
It includes documentation for some related software that runs externally but connects to and relies on a MediaWiki installation.
- Manual:Contents
will be the front door to comprehensive
MediaWiki system administration documentation.
- Help:Contents
will be the front door to
MediaWiki generic site user help
(licensed as public domain for easy inclusion into any MediaWiki instance).
This site includes descriptions of and tutorials for the MediaWiki software. If you are looking to write a free manual for other software, have a look at
Wikibooks
, which is a sister-project that is suited for such things.
Discussion about Wikimedia projects in general should go to
Meta-Wiki
.
Even though there are some pages in other languages, English is the main language on this site.
Translation efforts
are needed.
What MediaWiki.org is not
- MediaWiki.org is not Wikipedia
- You are currently at a website called MediaWiki.org. Unless you are a
software developer
or someone who
installs computer software
, you probably ended up here accidentally. MediaWiki.org is not the free encyclopedia Wikipedia. Please read
this article
if you are confused about the names. Wikipedia is a wiki running the software documented by this site. If you're interested in working on the free encyclopedia,
check it out directly
.
- MediaWiki is not Wikimedia Wikitech
- MediaWiki.org is not intended for Wikimedia-specific technical documentation. Please read
this article
if you are confused about the names and scope. Wikimedia is a group of wikis running some software documented on this site. Please see
wikitech:Main Page
.
- MediaWiki.org is not a free host or webspace provider
- This site is not meant to store private, commercial or any other content that is unrelated to the MediaWiki software. It is also not meant to be used as a test wiki, e.g. to try out formatting (only use our
Project:Sandbox
for that or have a look at our
test wiki
) or to create valid
XHTML
contents for foreign projects.
- You may not host your own website, homepage,
blog
, or wiki at MediaWiki.org. If you are interested in using the wiki technology for a collaborative effort on something else, even if it is just a single page, there are many
websites that provide wiki hosting
, either free or for money. You can also
install wiki software on your server
; see the
Wiki science
wikibook for information on doing this.
- Of course, users can have their own personal pages, but they are used for information relevant to working on MediaWiki.org. If you are looking to make a personal webpage that is not related to MediaWiki, please make use of one of the many free homepage providers on the Internet or
find a suitable blog
. Advertising, especially external links, may be removed from a user's page when there are no relevant contributions related to MediaWiki.
- MediaWiki.org is not a repository of links, images, or media files
- This site is neither a
mirror
nor a repository of links, images, or media files. Please upload only files that are useful for MediaWiki.org and provide full information on source and a free license; everything else will be
deleted
. Read the upload instructions carefully and consider uploading media files to the
Wikimedia Commons
, where they can be linked from all Wikimedia projects.
- All content added to MediaWiki.org may have to be edited mercilessly, and can be redistributed at will. By submitting any content, you agree to release it for free use under the
Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
(CC BY-SA) or if it is stated explicitly, as Public Domain.
- MediaWiki.org is not a vehicle for advertising
- This site is not to be used for commercial
promotion
,
advertising
,
propaganda
or
advocacy
- other than for MediaWiki itself and the Wikimedia projects.
- MediaWiki.org is not an indiscriminate collection of information
- This site is not an indiscriminate collection of items relating to every project utilizing MediaWiki software. Articles dealing with other software issues, or issues with individual wikis, are not suitable for this site. Please try to stay on the task of creating contents concerning the MediaWiki software itself.
- MediaWiki.org is not a forum or a chatroom
- Don't (mis)use this site, especially user pages and talk pages, as a forum, bulletin board or chatroom. We have an
IRC channel
for that:
#mediawiki
connect
.
- Also see the recommended
communications channels
.
MediaWiki.org history
The first edit in the current wiki on this site happened in August 2004. All the content still is and, of course, will be
work in progress
. For more about the software history, see
MediaWiki history
.
Contact
Please see
Communication
.
See also
- Introduction
? multi-page intro to MediaWiki with navigation box