Help talk:Contents/Archive 1

Download Help
How can I download all the Help pages so that I can install them on a intranet wiki? --Magick 12:11, 23 October 2006 (UTC)


 * This feature is not yet available, but we are working on it. --HappyDog 12:47, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Quick Introduction
What about having a quick introduction page that explains what a wiki is, how to edit, and has a description that explains the purpose of the wiki instance. First time users of a wiki may have trouble getting started, or understanding the purpose of the wiki, this could help answer both those questions.

Coffeyman11 18:07, 26 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree - I've been meaning to do this for a while. I won't get round to it for a little while, so if someone wants to step up to the bat then go ahead! --HappyDog 03:27, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Monobook.css
I want help editing monobook.css. Where can I get? I searched for monobook.css, and I didn't find nothing. Smiddle 15:04, 24 September 2006 (UTC)


 * 'MediaWiki skin tweaks' on wikidev.net looks like a good explanation.
 * From a user perspective, on some wikis you can create your own 'User Style' by creating a page "User:Username/monobook.css". That's explained on meta: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_styles
 * As for where this information should be found... It should probably be built from the Manual:Skins page. ...which needs some work -- Harry Wood 13:42, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Linking out of help
Shouldn't we try to avoid linking to pages that are outside of the help namespace? Or are namespaces like Manual: planned to be in the final export as well?


 * Our current plan for the export process is that any links outside of the Help: namespace (whether on-wiki or interwiki) will be replaced with full URLs to the content at MediaWiki.org. For example, when we automate the export, the link   would be replaced with  .  Therefore any links out of the Help: namespace will continue to work as expected.
 * That said, you should consider whether it would be better to add the information to the Help: namespace (being careful to adhere to the PD license) and if not, whether it is actually useful to link to it at all.
 * So I guess the short answer is: external links are discouraged but not disallowed. Please see Automating help page export for more details. --HappyDog 15:40, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

FCKEditor installed...
Has anyone been able to import pages with wiki text into a Wiki with the FCKEditor extension installed? It fails to format the wiki text and won't allow for any transclusions.--CWPPWiki 22:25, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * You might want to ask at the Support desk, or is this question related to Help:Contents? -- :Bdk: 13:30, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

We need THE administrator's guide.
While there is a lot of documentation on installing and customizing MediaWiki, I think we can all agree that finding exactly what you need, especially for a newbie, is quite difficult. Compounding the problem is that documentation is spread across numerous sites (here, wikimedia, wikipedia, etc.). Is anyone else interested in working with me to create THE administrator's guide? I would like to see a complete walk-through of the entire installation, configuration, and customization process, organized in a reasonably chronological order. This page would be a portal for all of the administrator's help documentation.


 * Installing Wikimedia
 * one
 * two
 * 1) three


 * Customizing and configuring Wikimedia
 * one
 * two
 * 1) three

I think this is sorely needed. Jonathan Kovaciny 20:04, 16 April 2007 (UTC)


 * A noble idea. The problem is that things are not quite as neat as all that, and you're more likely to end up with the following:


 * Installing Wikimedia
 * one
 * two, except in certain situations three.
 * four on linux, five on windows
 * six, or if you don't have command line-access, seven, or alternatively eight which is easier but a bit slower.


 * However, you're right our docs are teh suck. Please feel free to get stuck in and fix them up!
 * For your information, this page (Help:Contents) is for user-directed help. See Manual:Contents for administrator help (and you may particularly be interested in Manual:Contents/To_do).  Note that references to 'administration' on this page are about wiki administration from within the interface (i.e. as a user) not system administration. --HappyDog 01:25, 2 May 2007 (UTC)


 * That really is the point of MediaWiki.org, and we're trying to do that gradually. Half of the codes on Meta are old, and the other half suck... so it really requires a rewrite of almost everything. We do need better instructions, no one will disagree on that. Titoxd (?!?) 01:45, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
 * The installation part should be more or less done. See Manual:Installation. Titoxd (?!?) 04:23, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

"Server Administration" pages don't belong in PD Help
The section "Server Administration" doesn't belong in Project:PD help because...

"The idea [ofProject:PD help] is to provide a set of pages which can be copied into a fresh wiki installation, or included in the mediawiki distribution. This will include basic user information and other Meta information, in a reasonably concise form. The basic concept is to create a compressed user guide"

While we might talk about things like 'Interwiki linking', 'Namespaces' and 'User rights' from a user perspective, the current contents of Help:Interwiki linking, Help:Namespaces, and Help:User rights ...are clearly talking about server admin config settings, and as such they clearly belong in the Technical Manual.

This would make more sense in terms of basic organisation, but also because there is no nead to copy that kind of information into lots of other wiki installations, therefore no need to release as public domain.

The relationship between the user help pages and the rest of the documentation can be tricky in places, but basically I would advocate making zero reference to config settings within any of these user help pages.

-- Harry Wood 16:48, 22 October 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree - I've noticed this before but have not had time to do anything about it. Feel free to fix this up (move inappropriate content to the Manual: namespace - don't just delete it... though I think you now that. :0 ) --HappyDog 01:32, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

command & conquer wiki
What kind of place is this? Also if this place made the Wikipedia can someone make a Command and Conquer Wiki that is separate from Wikia?(76.247.222.101 06:24, 21 January 2008 (UTC))


 * Erm... Well somebody could install mediawiki somewhere, and try to attract a community of wiki contributors to build another command & conquer wiki, but that would be duplicating a lot of the effort which has gone into building Command & Conquer wiki on wikia. Installing mediawiki is pretty easy, but attracting a community, and fighting wiki spam is not a massively easy thing to undertake. Why bother, when wikia does that for you?
 * Anyway this area is for discussion of the help pages, so not really the right place to discuss it
 * -- Harry Wood 08:24, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Account rename
Hello. Please, it is possible to rename my account from WizzardSK to Wizzard in order to complete my global account? Sorry, I could not find a page dedicated to this, so I write it here. Please help me. Thank you very much. --WizzardSK 10:24, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
 * That name is already taken by a user here. Aaron 16:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Yes, but that user has 0 contributions and it is registered here almost 2 years. At English Wikipedia, it is possible to usurp 0 contribution users and to free the name for another user. --WizzardSK 09:00, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I've moved the old account out of the way. I cannot move yours to your global one due to an SUL restriction. Eventually, that restriction will be removed, hopefully soon. Aaron 15:32, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you very much! Please lock my old account WizzardSK, it is no longer necessary. --Wizzard 07:44, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

A plea - please avoid RED LINKS, links to other namespaces except MANUAL, and non-default interwiki links
After importing the Help namespace into a fresh Mediawiki installation I get over 50 wanted pages (i.e. red links). Please:


 * Don't put information about being a wiki webmaster into the PD Help namespace. That belongs in the Manual:
 * Don't link to Manual: pages from Help. If at all possible, don't link to anywhere except Help: from within Help: pages!
 * If links to mediawiki.org pages outside Help: are absolutely necessary use an interwiki link, and make sure that interwiki prefix is supplied in the default interwiki table of Mediawiki installs. Addendum: Or use Mediawiki.
 * Don't link to meta:. Mediawiki content from meta belongs on this site, and help content from meta needs to be rewritten. and improved on here. Linking every help page to meta: is just downright sloppy. Certainly don't use meta which contains the copyrighted logo of the Wikimedia Foundation.
 * Don't use other interwiki links unless they are first added to the default interwiki table created at Mediawiki install time.

The bottom line is: before adding content, ask yourself if it benefits the end user. Before adding a link, ask yourself if it will be a valid link on every standard installation of Mediawiki. --kingboyk 17:31, 15 June 2008 (UTC)