>I see why Fred suggested
>Google as a better MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia search master, perhaps
>more so than MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia searching within itself. I'm
>getting the feeling that MediaWiki is w-a-y less mature or sophisticated
>than it's notoriety and popularity suggests.
Actually my suggestion is if you have a question which involves say, wgSpamBlacklistSettings that before you come to the list, you can probably see some discussion, and the parts of MediaWiki it is included in, by googling for it. That will allow you to try to figure things out on your own. If you have the usual questions, someone has asked them before.
As to sophistication, there are types of sophistication, I doubt most the MediaWiki crew would get far in the Federal bureaucracy, but there you go. This list seems to be heavy sledding for you, but I'm sure you're a pretty sophisticated guy, just not experienced in every conceivable aspect of life.
Fred
>Thank you. Great stuff in your wiki. Wanna host a WorldLawWiki
>(Wikilegalia?), starting with a United Stated Trademark Manual of
>Examining Procedure and the supporting law, rules and citations?
I'll get one of my clones right on it. Can we log in yet?
Fred
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Monahon, Peter B. [mailto:Peter.Monahon@USPTO.GOV]
>Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 02:15 PM
>To: mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
>Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] Any leads on a basic wikisetup-and-configure instruction manual?
>
>> Kasimir wrote:
>> run 'php maintenance/createAndPromote.php
>> ##username## ##password##'
>> (replacing ##username## with your desired
>> username, and ##password## with your
>> desired password)
>
>Peter Blaise responds: Thanks. "Run" ... from where? I have
>\www\mediawiki\maintenance\createAndPromote.php but no "run" or "php"
>command or executable (WinXPPro/DOS), and the file does not open in my
>browser (IE6).
There usually is no run command, but you should have a php command, so (from the command line, in the maintenance directory)
php maintenance/createAndPromote.php
should do things (looks like more is required, but I'm unfamiliar with this.
Fred
> Peter Blaise wrote: ... specific MediaWiki
> struggles ... shared ... in my first post, but ...
> was rejected by the list-serve admin ...
> Rob wrote: ... A decent explanation was given
> the first time ...
Peter Blaise responds: By whom? To whom?? Are you saying my first post
(the missing quashed one) was decent? Are you saying the admin's
private reply to me quashing my first post was decent? Are you saying
my subsequent first post, which was an edited down version of my real
first attempted post, was decent? Are you saying the replies to my
watered-down post were decent? Pick one, or clarify, please!
I think as technical people, we're not used to writing clearly,
unambiguously, or writing at all, for ourselves, and certainly not for
lay people (I am proudly both) and this is the challenge I have in
finding complete and expansive documentation on the nascent MediaWiki
world.
> Rob wrote ... this is wikitech-l ...
Peter Blaise responds: I get confused sometimes, too. This is
mediawiki-l! However, I cross posted to both because (a) the
instructions at both said to cross post to both, and (b) I felt my post
was appropriate for both. No one has to agree with me (obviously!).
> Rob wrote ... wikitech-l ... [is] the mailing list for
> internal developer discussion of technical issues
> related to the Wikimedia Foundation ...
Peter Blaise responds: ... and I think they are the main audience for my
inquiries. Why should they not be aware of my needs? Automotive
analogy wise, are you saying Ford engineers should be isolated from
customers asking for, say, intermittent wipers or electric locks? I've
got a vehicle with no locks or keys, and no documentation or on-vehicle
avenue of resolution. Why not tell the makers? I'd think they're the
ones most highly motivated to make their vehicle the best customer
service product they can muster. Or, is that the problem - they're
struggling or otherwise preoccupied and are unable to listen to their
customers at the moment? Is it a financial thing - MediaWiki is tiny
and broke, and their fantastic startup idea is all they can muster?
> Rob wrote: ... General MediaWiki support posts
> need to be made to mediawiki-l, which is a list
> set up for that purpose. You'll find considerable
> more help in the list archives there ...
Peter Blaise responds: Rob, are you saying "I (Rob) have found that
wikitech-l folk don't wanna hear from the like of you (Peter Blaise), so
my helpful advice is to look where you might find helpful people," or,
are you saying "I (Rob) as list-serve admin of wikitech-l, am preventing
you from bothering wikitech-l folk, and I'm doing that by quashing your
posts to them"?
- Peter Blaise
> Peter Blaise wrote: How do you create an admin
> or sysops after the Wiki's built?
> Rob wrote: * Register accounts in the usual fashion
> Peter Blaise wrote: ... and, I've got w-a-y more
> MediaWiki questions ...
> Rob wrote: Then post them here. That's how a
> mailing list works.
Peter Blaise responds: Thanks!
So ... how do I "Register accounts in the usual fashion"?
> Dave wrote: ... Programmers who do not, can
> not or will not document haven't earned their
> chops. If someone is coding a system to track
> their groceries at home and they don't want to
> document then fine. Any time someone is
> working on any system, open-source,
> closed-source, free-ware or charge-ware,
> documentation is part of the job ...
Thanks, Dave, nice reminder that "the job's not finished until the
paperwork's done" (toilet humor).
Sadly, I find writing, documentation, incredibly difficult, and for at
least the first 10 revisions, my writing reads myopic and seems
understandable only by me. (Is anyone really surprised?) But, "writing
is rewriting," and therein lies the rub. I think much of what
documentation I've read so far on MediaWiki and extensions is
first-draft stuff. C'mon, people, in a Wiki world, aren't we
accelerating to the 10th revision toute suite? I guess not!
I'm also reading Microsoft's offering on technical help documentation:
"Microsoft Manual of Style"
Book $$: <<http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/6074.aspx>> or
http://tinyurl.com/3yrbnj
<<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Manual_of_Style_for_Technical_P
ublications>> or http://tinyurl.com/38ryfu
Download free:
<<http://www.vanossy.de/download.php?id=1090295,49,1&PHPSESSID=61c8e22f7
ce7e849eba2c97094839338>> or http://tinyurl.com/kqjmj
See also their HTML help authoring system - free:
<<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/htmlh
elp/html/hwMicrosoftHTMLHelpDownloads.asp>> or http://tinyurl.com/3nznp
There's way more at Microsoft, much of it free. IBM used to publish
something like this for PC user software submissions (when we used 5
1/4" floppies, and Microsoft was the "little guy"!). I went to 3-day
RoboHelp training $$$ but it was all about operating the software, not
generating accurate and comprehendible content! I find the hardest part
to write succinctly and unambiguously is digging to find the specific
"...by doing what..." part of the report. And then testing it. Almost
every time I finally get some documentation to accurately represent the
behavior of my system, I walk it to another system and invariably it
fails there.
Argh. Starting over ...
So, I know exactly what I'm asking for when I ask if there are "Any
leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?"
http://www.packtpub.com/MediaWiki/book
"MediaWiki Administrators' Tutorial Guide"
by Mizanur Rahman
... is excellent, but NOT a troubleshooter's guide nor an exhaustive
reference on MediaWiki ownership, which for me means not only a complete
inventory of parts needed to build one, but also how to back up and
restore and migrate and import and export your precious data all by
itself regardless of the replaceable shell components. I presume we're
still on our own to synthesize all that from various other MySQL and PHP
references along with whatever MediaWiki and extensions documentation we
can scrounge up on our own.
Now if I can just get Google on fire with this idea. I LOVE to
subcontract my work (oh, sorry, was that yelling?).
- Peter Blaise
> Gary wrote: you would need to be logged-in as
> the bureaucrat user you created during
> installation to do anything at Special:Userrights.
Peter Blaise responds: Thanks, Gary, but as mentioned, how might I log
in as bureaucrat?
I'll keep researching.
Perhaps the real question is how to export and import ALL our data and
settings so I can migrate our content and configuration to a new home
whenever I want to, and then I'd also know how to back it up without
needing to backup the non-changing, reinstallable master programming of
MySQL, PHP, MediaWiki and so on.
I'll keep researching.
- Peter Blaise
> Kasimir wrote:
> run 'php maintenance/createAndPromote.php
> ##username## ##password##'
> (replacing ##username## with your desired
> username, and ##password## with your
> desired password)
Peter Blaise responds: Thanks. "Run" ... from where? I have
\www\mediawiki\maintenance\createAndPromote.php but no "run" or "php"
command or executable (WinXPPro/DOS), and the file does not open in my
browser (IE6).
My GISlounge.com site is more of a portal for Geographic Information Systems
and isn't a wiki.
The two wikis that I am working on are:
http://thecatholicwiki.com - Roman Catholicism wiki
and
(I've just started this one so I haven't gotten very far yet):
http://subjectgeo.com - will be about concepts and technologies relating to
geography
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:43:22 -0400
From: "Monahon, Peter B." <Peter.Monahon(a)USPTO.GOV>
Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] What Wiki are we each working on?
To: mediawiki-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Message-ID:
<13E609DD5C46E64EBC847D37B677370D06A991F2(a)EXCHANGE2.uspto.gov>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Caitlin wrote: You should visit Wiki Index -
http://www.wikiindex.org/index.php?title=Welcome
> ... see what every one in the Wiki world is
> working on and add your own wiki to the list.
Thanks Caitlin! It seems that you all don't have your own Wiki at
http://gislounge.com/ yet, right? Are you working on one?
Part of my inquiry is not just to see developmental Wikis all over, but
to see what each person who contributes here is working on. Sadly, my
US TMEP Wiki is on a USB flash drive at the moment, so you all can't see
it and play. Perhaps I could send it to 'round to you all with a Flat
Stanley! ;-) http://www.flatstanley.com/how.html
- Peter Blaise
> Peter Blaise wrote: Thanks ... I'm not sure
> what you mean, though. "... include the
> Wikipedia: namespace in the search..." by
> doing what?
> Someone responded: ... If you're going to set
> up a MediaWiki site, then the first thing you
> have to do is get familiar with using MediaWiki ...
Peter Blaise responds: Oh? How so? After using Wikipedia for a while
now, I built one on my own and have ~1/2 a million words in ~4,500
[Edit]able paragraphs ...
<smarta** on> what was the *first* thing I should do, again? </smarta**
off>
Seriously, Ian, I think most people read as much as they can find and
believe they need to get started, then troubleshoot anything that needs
attention from there. Sadly, by teaching ourselves, we can hardly be
expected to get smarter than our masters. ;-) So, without a thorough
and complete instruction manual based on successful, and unsuccessful,
experience, how would anyone even know to think about, say, "categories"
or user hierarchies before implementing a Wiki? Just one example.
> Someone responded further: ... In Wikipedia,
> if you click the button marked "Search", it will
> take you to a page that explains all about
> searching -- including how to search specific
> namespaces ...
Oh really?!? Here's the entire screen contents when following your
instructions:
=====
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=&fulltext=Search
Search
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For more information about searching Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Searching
=====
Thanks! ... but ... that's not only not what you promised, but it's not
what I asked! But, let's just suppose it's merely sloppy documentation
on your part. Let me type "search" in the search box and search for
that ... (Does anyone want to explain the difference between the [GO]
button and the [Search] button underneath the [__________] search
window, by the way?)
=====
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search
Searching
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikibooks has more about this subject:
How to search Look up search, searching in Wiktionary, the free
dictionary. For searching in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Searching.
Searching is to thoroughly examine in order to find something concealed.
Web searching benefits from specific techniques, which are detailed in
the search engine article (see also: list of search engines). An online
search engine is any device that allows the user to quickly search and
view multiple online articles/websites.
Searching can also refer to the following:
Computers and computer science
Search algorithm
Boolean search
Tree search
Search engine
Social Search
Web directory
Rescue related
Air-sea rescue
Missing people
Search and rescue dog
Military and police related
Search and seizure
Detection dog
Strip search
Search warrant
Entertainment
The Search (1948 film)
The Search (DS9 episode)
Search (TV series)
Other
Seeker
Job search
Search for Common Ground
Novelty search (in patent law)
Visual search, a type of perceptual task
=====
Hmm ... nothing there about "namespace". Maybe there's another trick.
Let's go back to the first tip and wander around there ... oh, there's a
"Wikipedia:Searching" link, let's try that:
=====
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Searching
Wikipedia:Searching
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
...[snip 499 words] ...
Namespaces searched by default
The search only applies to the namespaces selected in the user's
preferences. To search the other namespaces check or uncheck the
tickboxes in "Search in namespaces" box found at the bottom of a search
results page. Depending on the browser, a box may still be checked from
a previous search, but without being effective any longer! To make
sure, uncheck and recheck it.
Searching the image namespace means searching the image descriptions,
i.e. the first parts of the image description pages.
... [snip 605 words] ...
Google indexes all namespaces
... [snip 1,478 words] ...
=====
Oh, is that what you mean? "The search only applies to the namespaces
selected in the user's preferences." ...so, if I'm not a logged in user,
what default preferences are used for namespace searches? Oh, that's
not in this page ...
> Peter Blaise wrote: How do you create an
> admin or sysops after the Wiki's built?
> Someone responded: Have the person create
> a user ID, then edit the user's privileges in
> Special:Userrights.
Thanks! Lemme try:
=====
http://localhost/mediawiki/index.php/Special:Userrights
Permission error
The action you have requested is limited to users in the group
"Bureaucrats".
Return to Main Page.
=====
Argh!
- Peter Blaise