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

[Monahon, Peter B.]

> Gary wrote: Look at a random Wikipedia article 
> to see categories 'in action ... I would hazard a 
> guess that the reason Wikipedia's search didn't 
> find anything was because you did not elect to 
> include the Wikipedia: namespace in the search...

Peter Blaise responds:  Thanks, Gary, I'm not sure what you mean,
though.  "... include the Wikipedia: namespace in the search..." by
doing what?  I searched inside MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia and found
nothing inside them.  They brought up a screen showing Google and Yahoo
searches as alternatives since the found nothing.  I then clicked on
Google.  With the exact same search, Google found many
MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia articles.  I was then back in
MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia from there.  I see why Fred suggested
Google as a better MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia search master, perhaps
more so than MediaWiki/WikiMedia/Wikipedia searching within itself.  I'm
getting the feeling that MediaWiki is w-a-y less mature or sophisticated
than it's notoriety and popularity suggests.

> Gary wrote: Please don't SHOUT, it only gets 
> people's backs up... 

Peter Blaise responds: Oh.  Sorry.  I thought shouting was thought of as
all caps in the entire message, not just occasional emphasis.  I re-read
my post and out of my 728 words (thank you MS Word for counting for me)
all I capitalized were the words: nowhere, totally unrelated, within,
and with - about a 0.007% "shouting".  But, if you picked up even those
few words as shouting, then even my 5 all-caps words out of my 728 total
words is too much.  I'll refrain, thanks for the sensitivity training.
Seriously.

> Gary wrote: ... We're all, aside from a 
> select few, volunteers, and don't have to help 
> you at all.  The text found when you type 
> Special:Version into the search box and click 
> go says "MediaWiki is distributed in the hope 
> that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY 
> WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty 
> of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A 
> PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General 
> Public License for more details."

Peter Blaise responds: Oh, I get it, Gary, you're showing me how
obnoxious you find it when even MediaWiki SHOUTS (oops!).  Got it.  I
think.  Who are the select few here who are not volunteers, who have to
help me, presumably for pay?  Seriously.  I've got questions for them
(or anyone): 

How do you create an admin or sysops after the Wiki's built?

... and, I've got w-a-y more MediaWiki questions at
peter.monahon at uspto.gov  Thank you.

- Peter Blaise