Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
I leave it to your call if you feel the dumps should exclude some of the MediaWiki settings. Personally, I would advise against it since it is always possible someone could inadvertantly insert some text or content that could create a security exploit or problems with other MediaWiki versions, but as I said, this is your call. I think documenting and understanding there could be a potential issue down the road or if someone uses the MediaWiki software to import dumps across languages there could be compatibility issues.
I doubt users would inadvertantly insert a security exploit for older versions. More likely, you may get javascript errors. And if you remove the messages, you will get people complaining of NavFramem RealTitleBanner, featured articles Interwikis... not working