I'm currently in the proces of setting up a MediaWiki site, using v.1.3.8. I was overwhelmingly surprised at the ease of setting things up, and everything works quite well, (although a few things does not yet so). I have a number of questions, I would like to have shed some light on. And this seems like a good place to ask them. (Maybe someone would one day collect the questions asked here, and expand on the online documentation on the WikiMedia site help pages? -maybe I can contribute to that some day...!) I intend to upgrade to v1.4 as soon as it is out, so if any of the following is too much trouble with v1.3.8 and will be solved with v1.4 I would like to know. LANGUAGE What is causing me the most trouble is the language issue, and the special messages. While I intend the site to be informative and inviting to global users, I reckon it will mostly be used by danish-speaking local people, cooperating on creative projects and expanding a base of knowledge. When setting up the wiki, I decided to set up with the english version of the text, which it seems I am now stuck with? -is it possible to change the interface language from english to danish (including all the special messages) after setup and with a growing database? - which files are relevant? Is it possible with MediaWiki 1.4 for users to specify their preferred site language in their preferences, for the interface and system messages? - how is this managed more precisely? - Which files will still be of concern to me, after the install of MediaWiki 1.4? Is it possible to limit the languages available to users, if one cannot commit to customizing one's wiki to all kinds of languages? -or the system messages can be kept to such a minimum, that I won't have to (which I doubt)? IMAGES Another concern of mine, is images. Since my server runs in PHP Safe Mode, image upload is automatically disabled (I strongly suppose that is why it doesn't work, even though all the flags should be correct). I'd really want image upload to be enabled, so what are my alternatives? -will this be solved in MediaWiki v1.4.? -as suggested in the beta release document? -can I alternatively add the information included when uploading to the database by directly querying the MySQL db myself, and uploading the images manually via FTP? - this would be the best solution to get me started for real using images, if possible. Right now all I do is manually upload images and create tables with direct links to them. Clearly this is not an optimal solution and use of the software. And it breaks the creative flow, as all images will have to go through the administrator. OTHER QUESTIONS & COMMENTS How does one best limit the menu items, user preferences or special pages of no relevance to one's customization? Which files are the important ones to meddle with, to remove, say, certain skins, from being selectable by a user? The site has been designed with a site-particular skin, a modified monobook-css etc. and you don't want the site style to appear otherwise to the user. How do you do that? Why not keep all the system messages within the file system, easily accessible from the root system, - and keep them all out of the wiki? There are quite a few "wikipedia leftovers" for instance, in the special messages, such as a number of unneccessary references or links, that are empty, and a bit of a hazzle to track down and eliminate. No need to refer in the special messages to a 'policy' if a small site doesn't have one (yet)... No need either IMO to wet everything in a copyright/disclaimer context, if the site in question or users has no need for them, but only loads their base engine with existing links to a lot of non-creative empty 'paragraph pages' (and all that even before there's any creative content). This is just constructive criticism - so far from ever becoming a programmer myself, I can only hack, copy n' paste and learn bits everywhere. I love the power of the wiki concept - I feel I am witnessing the maturing of the internet and its real creative power here. Keep up the good work :-) Cheers :-) -- Morten Blaabjerg morten(a)crewscut.com Tlf. +45 65 90 60 88