Hi all,
Following Tim's request for people to speak up, if they would like to contribute to MediaWiki, here it is:
I would liket to ask for developer-status and offer some of my Wikipedia-time to write MediaWiki-PHP scripts.
To give you an idea about what you can expect from me: - I worked 4 years in the database field. - No experience with PHP, but my first look at the PHP-scipts gave me the feeling that I will be able to understand how Wikipedia works and how I can contribute, and I got Wikipedia up and running at home already ;-) - I would not like to give up all my Wikipedia-Time to development, I see my involvement more as a long-time contribution, something like 50% - I contribute to Wikipedia nearly a year and I am admin in en/de/it.
The fields I would prefer to help: - http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiImages.org - DE/IT Server issues - One central user-registration for all wikipedias (I don't know the current status of this Idea) - ...whereever I can give Brion and other Developers a hand on simple tasks that just take time away from them and help me learn MediaWiki.
I look forward to your replies, Fantasy :-)
On Nov 30, 2003, at 02:59, Fantasy wrote:
Following Tim's request for people to speak up, if they would like to contribute to MediaWiki, here it is:
I would liket to ask for developer-status and offer some of my Wikipedia-time to write MediaWiki-PHP scripts.
*poof* you're a developer! Welcome to the team! :)
If you need bug tracker & up-to-date CVS access, let me know your Sourceforge account name and I'll add you.
Note that "developer status" for wiki user accounts is vestigial and will likely be phased out completely soon; read-write database access is too dangerous to leave on an unencrypted web connection secured only by cookies so this is no longer done. There isn't really much of anything else that "developer status" confers; most of our developers don't have it, and nobody really needs it.
- I would not like to give up all my Wikipedia-Time to development
Exercise self-restraint, with luck you'll be able. :D
The fields I would prefer to help:
Yeah, we need something there...
- DE/IT Server issues
IT needs to be migrated to the new software, but in the 4,000 article range it will be a lot of work to manually fix up. (Catalan is another one that's fairly large.) Improvements to the conversion script to get case-sensitivity renaming and other fixes done automatically would probably be useful.
- One central user-registration for all wikipedias (I don't know the
current status of this Idea)
Everybody thinks it's a great idea, but there's no code for it. :) Two issues: - technically, we need to either use a single common database whenever we use the user table, or else have a central database that each wiki snarfs data from at account creation or login time - we have to sort out existing usernames to see which are conflicting and which are the same user, and how to deal with conflicts
- ...whereever I can give Brion and other Developers a hand on simple
tasks that just take time away from them and help me learn MediaWiki.
Evan's been cleaning up the bug reports and feature requests; there's plenty of material!
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
"BV" == Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com writes:
BV> Evan's been cleaning up the bug reports and feature requests; BV> there's plenty of material!
So, I'd like to make a category of bugs and RFEs that are just about Wikipedia's implementation and configuration of MediaWiki, and not about the software itself.
Examples would be replacing text in the Language.php file, or changing the English Wikipedia to UTF-8.
Is this reasonable?
~ESP
Brion Vibber wrote:
*poof* you're a developer! Welcome to the team! :)
Thanks a lot, I am honoured ;-)
If you need bug tracker & up-to-date CVS access, let me know your Sourceforge account name and I'll add you.
"Fantasy" was already taken :-( So my SourceForge Account is "wiki-fantasy"
...tasks that just take time away from them and help me learn MediaWiki.
Evan's been cleaning up the bug reports and feature requests; there's plenty of material!
I will look for some small tasks for the beginning. Maybe documentation? In Germany we are now officially the "number one choice" in Wiki-Software for large wikis. I guess, we will get more Software- questions in the near future...
Thanks for letting me be part of the team, Fantasy :-)
Hi Fantasy,
I will look for some small tasks for the beginning. Maybe documentation?
You can have a look at the old and current official documentation (the so-called User's Guide at meta), or you can help out in my attempt to restructure and rewrite the complete documentation which I started just about two weeks ago (http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation). I want roughly the following structure:
PART 1: Introduction - General Information and Architecture. PART 2: Administrator's Guide - Installation, Configuration, Administration, Care & Feeding. PART 3: User's Guide - Usage of the MediaWiki Software. PART 4: Developer's Guide - Development, Bug Tracking, Roadmap, Known Issues, (Feature Requests). APPENDIX: Additional Information. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions.
I need help especially in two areas:
* Administration - best practices, security issues; part of the outlined "Administrator's Guide"; wanted: someone with a few months of experience in administering MediaWiki.
* Development - wanted: someone with experience in PHP and SQL who is able to write some short intructions how the code works, which scripts do what, and maybe later some coding guidelines - simply someone to do some hard work helping other developers to get started easier; this should be someone not yet involved in the all day's work since I don't want to absorb time from coding and debugging; part of the outlined "Developer's Guide".
In Germany we are now officially the "number one choice" in Wiki-Software for large wikis.
Thanks to Erik and the c't ;)
Greetings, -asb
Note: This is not a fork from the current "User's Guide"; more about this is on my Talk page on meta.
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