New subject: [Mediawiki-l] Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?

9 Apr 2007


      Thanks, folks, for the replies.
1 - In response to the suggestion that I NOT "bother" (my interpretation) the MediaWiki folks with my inquiry:  I disagree.  ANY customer-need is a signal for the original programmers to tune their product, or marketing, to better align with their audience.  Grow or die.  Nature abhors a vacuum, information fills it.  Hey, and if these listservs can tolerate "out of office replies" and cc's of the entire threads, I'm quite confident readers can also handle seeing my full original inquiry.
2 - I note no one has "Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?" except (a) web links that contain contents that are not responsive to my inquiry (and I've printed and read hundreds of those pages already) or direct answers (thank you very much, but ... I'm asking how'd YOU learn so I can teach myself - I want read what YOU read to answer these questions for myself, and more!)
I'll keep hunting.
- Peter Blaise Monahon, USPTO/OTPC, 571-272-3950, MDE 4D68, WS01419
- Monday, April 09, 2007 9:13:07 AM
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michael.ittner@elixic.de wrote: I will be out 
of the office starting  17.03.2007 and will 
not return until 06.04.2007.
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Jim Hu jimhu@tamu.edu wrote: 
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents
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michael.ittner@elixic.de wrote again: I will 
be out of the office starting  17.03.2007 
and will not return until 06.04.2007.
...
Angela beesley@gmail.com wrote: 
Hi Peter, It's best to ask only the MediaWiki 
mailing list about this rather than cc'ing the 
Wikitech list which is meant for Wikimedia's 
own projects rather than external projects 
that use MediaWiki.  There's a FAQ at 
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ 
and MediaWiki forums at http://mwusers.com/ 
which you may find answer some of your 
questions.
[Peter Blaise says: My original (refused) post shared my particular comments that those exact resources as offered were unresponsive to my specific challenges.  The FAQ is a mere 20 pages.  Remember, though, that I'm asking about an INSTRUCTION MANUAL so I can answer my own questions, and I offered 4 sample questions, which you very kindly tried to address below.]
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1 - Sign in as admin.  Is that so hard?  
     How do I sign in as admin?
Go to [[Special:Userlogin]] on your wiki.  
You will have created an admin account 
when you installed MediaWiki.  If you don't 
remember that user's name, try looking at 
[[Special:Listadmins]] on your wiki to see
if there is anyone with admin access.  If not, 
you'll need to add that via the database.
[Peter Blaise says: Nope.  I presume you mean "Go to [[Special:Userlogin]] on your wiki by typing "Special:Userlogin" into the [Search] box" ... however, even "going" to "Special:Listusers" I only get red "Admin ‎(Bureaucrat, Sysop)" links.  When you suggest that I "add that via the database" - what I'm asking is "...by doing what...?"  In other words, I'm looking for a MediaWiki INSTRUCTION MANUAL someplace.  Has anyone else found one that provides a referential resource for MediaWiki?  Letting MediaWiki know I'd like one seems a logical act.  Hello?  MediaWiki?  Are you li$tening?  Hello?
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2 - Make others sign-in as lesser-editors 
     and contributors.  I need to see how 
     hierarchies of user-capabilities work 
     before I go live.
Other users should be able to create 
normal accounts at [[Special:Userlogin]].
[Peter Blaise says: Ahhh ... but I want to prevent anonymous contributions, hence my wording "MAKE others sign in as lesser editors".  Again, thanks for some insight (which does not work for me), but I'm asking how you learned, and if there's a MediaWiki INSTRUCTION MANUAL someplace.]
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3 - Lock parts of article contents so users 
     can add to them but not delete the 
     locked part, admins can change anything.
You can only lock an entire article, not part of 
it.  A way around that is to add content to a 
template and lock the template.  For example,
put your content at [[Template:Main]] and 
type {{main}} on a page to include that 
content there.
[Peter Blaise says: Yes, I was reading about templates over the weekend and wondered if that might work.  How'd you learn that?  Have you tried it, actually?  Anyway, I'll try, but I imagine the call to the template will be visible when editing the page, so the original page contents will not only NOT be visible during editing, but the call itself can then be munged.  In other words, I'll explore.  I was hoping MediaWiki or someone already explored what to me is hard to imagine is unprecedented, and that there might be a MediaWiki INSTRUCTION MANUAL someplace...]
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4 - Change/customize a few visual things, 
     like the sidebar.
The sidebar can be edited by any admin 
at [[MediaWiki:Sidebar]].  Angela, Angela
Beesley http://www.Wikia.com/
[Peter Blaise says: By doing what?  " MediaWiki:Sidebar" brings up "There is no page titled "MediaWiki:Sidebar". You can create this page."  Is that an error?  Do I need to be "admin" first?  Is that an okay default message, meaning that if I want a custom, non-default SideBar, I need to create a new SideBar from scratch?  Do I ... oh, too many questions.
Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?]

Re: [Mediawiki-l] Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?