Dear all,

It is great to have this new list.

To introduce myself, I have been a wikipedia contributor for a few years and recently started dabbling with Mediawiki.

I have been trying to put together a mediawiki based site for a specific purpose. That's when I discovered that the many things we take for granted on Wikipedia don't come out of the box in a new media wiki installation and need to be added.

For example:

Templates (especially infobox, which we are so used to on WP, havent figured how to add these)
Having to install Extension cite (for references) and not being out of the box was a surprise.
Addition to addon like Wikilove and WikiEditor.
Extensions I had not heard of like Parser, Validator seem essential
Extensions to manage spam need to be installed additionally

Also I had a few other struggles:

There are so many extensions but still difficult to choose. Wish they were organised better.

Also Many don't have links to examples where they are deployed, that would a be very helpful.

Help doesn't get installed for a new mediawiki and needs to be copied for from mediawiki.org

Also the user manual has so much detail, that it would scare off a new user. I have grouped the help into 4 sets - reader, editor, experienced, advanced editor and admin on my instance to make it easy for new users.

Thought of sharing my experience and seeks any inputs or advise from the more experience folks on the list (Apologies if I am wrong in any of the above).

I found SMW very exciting in terms of capability and impact it could create. I would be keen to connect with folks who are familiar with SMW.

Some suggestions for projects that could be considered:

Base template kit to import for new wikis

Create more add on bundles like the Semantic Bundle.

Great to be on this list.

regards

Arun