[Mediawiki-l] Three questions...

[khuffman at NGS.ORG]

Hi, I'm using MediaWiki 1.8.x (mostly) and have three questions:

1) Does MediaWiki have the ability to check for bad links/link checker 
functionality?  I saw/tested this extension 
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:LinkSearch  but looks like it's 
more for "information" than has the additional utility I'm looking for. 
How do others handle the management of links going bad/dead links with 
MediaWiki?

2) Is upgrading from 1.8.x to 1.10.x okay to do OR do you recommend going 
from 1.8.x to 1.9.x to 1.10.x?

3) I have gotten my bulk import to work using an XML file and 
Special:Import page.  Is there another way that you could bulk export ALL 
your records without have to do it manually using the Special:Export page? 
 I suppose I could extract from MySQL table just the page titles... and 
then paste into the Special:Export page but just thought I'd check first 
on the listserv.
 

Thank you, Karen