Arthur wrote: I thought you had set it up already, why do you need more instructions?

Peter Blaise responds: Thanks for hanging in there, Arthur, and showing ongoing interest.

For me, support is support. I have the service manuals for everything in my life - my car, my tape recorders (reel-to-reel and cassette), my turntable (hmm ... hi-fi buff here), my cameras, and so on. I tend to red-pen them and add much to them because they're not perfect, nor are they complete. But they're a start. I also join Internet groups of like-minded owners who share our experiences and share our documentation, FAQs, detail instructions on maintenance, repair, customization, and so on. In other words, for me, support is support.

MediaWiki wise, I have the additional challenge of selling MediaWiki (versus Peter Thoeny's TWiki, or about 60 other Wikis, versus CMS Content Management Systems, versus Microsoft Share Point, and other non-Wikis) to my "group". Open source is scary since there is seldom an 800 number or warranty that comes with the product (though us techies know that 800 numbers and warranties with no one who is smart at the other end is mere marketing chutzpah - but it makes the sale!).

MediaWiki is further compromised by depending on 3 or 4 *other* open source products being "properly" installed and working, first. Having reliable, dependable documentation of other people's success with MediaWiki and the other supporting open source programs would go a long way towards encouraging MediaWiki's success in my arena.

And, besides, just like the documentation I collect on my other high tech stuff, it reduces the time-wasting, "reinventing the wheel" syndrome for the next person. If we can stand on each other's shoulders, I imagine each MediaWiki newbie will see a lot farther, versus standing shoulder to shoulder, with each person reinventing how to install and tune and troubleshoot each of the myriad components from scratch on their way to their own MediaWiki ... or to one of the 60 others Wiki's out there.

Anyway, Arthur, as I mentioned, "no" (or no response) is an appropriate answer to the question: "Any leads on a basic wiki setup-and-configure instruction manual?" Offering to help me troubleshoot is very nice, and will definitely help me create the reliable documentation I am after, and I thank everyone who has contacted me on and off list. I'll send you all a link on MediaWiki.org when I publish whatever works for me!

And, again, if anyone wants to update MediaWiki.org and document their own successful install, please do so, since MediaWiki.org resources were never complete, and what's there is also outdated.

My own target will be working on: (a) "Why MediaWiki at all?" - features and benefits listings, how to decide if MediaWiki can do what you want to do, (b) "WAMPPM" - Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP, PHPMyAdmin, MediaWiki, and so on, with an emphasis on minimum footprint installation without requiring administrative privileges!

I'm sure each of us has our own custom avenue of successful experience. Sharing it on demand in response to inquiries here is very considerate and helpful. I'm also asking for preemptive assistance by putting it up on MediaWiki.org before someone asks or has a problem. What's the phrase, "... an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ..."?

-- Peter Blaise