Project:Forum

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moved to MediaWiki talk:Sidebar. -- :bdk: 07:27, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Extension help
Where should we put help content that relates to extensions? In the Help: namespace, or perhaps in another custom namespace "Extension help:"?? Happy ‑ melon 17:41, 22 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Manual: is fine. —Emufarmers(T 00:33, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * That doesn't strike me as very sensible: extension help content should still be licensed to PD, which won't be the case in Manual: namespace. Manual: isn't even where technical data on extensions is kept, that's Extension:... I can't think of any reason to put content like meta:Help:ParserFunctions at Manual:ParserFunctions or somesuch. Happy ‑ melon 15:29, 23 December 2008 (UTC)
 * How about subpages in the "Extension:" namespace? (e.g. Extension:ParserFunction/Installation) – rotemliss – Talk 19:41, 23 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It helps when you explain what "help content that relates to extensions" actually means. :) (Manual: holds documentation on developing extensions.)
 * Documenting lengthy usage instructions using subpages is common practice; is there a compelling reason why we would want to do it another way in this case? ParserFunctions is installed on lots and lots of wikis, to the point where it might seem like core help material, but it's still an extension.  We could document the functions from the extension in Help:Variables and mark them as "functions that may not be available depending on the wiki setup," but I think we're aiming to keep the PD help pages describing an out-of-the-box setup, to the extent that we can. —Emufarmers(T 08:06, 24 December 2008 (UTC)


 * Indeed, which is why I was hesitant to just recreate Help:ParserFunctions. The issue is, as ever, the license; wouldn't we want the extension help pages like meta:Help:ParserFunctions, en:Help:EasyTimeline syntax to be PD so they can be distributed more easily? I'm concerned that if we drop content like this into the Extension: namespace then A) it is likely to get muddled with the 'developer-level' information and be hard to find, B) be difficult to locate and extract from the set of pages in that namespace, and C) be hard to cleanly and easily port of this site. Not everyone will want to link their help documentation here. So my thoughts are that this kind of help content (that is aimed at editors of www.randomwiki.org) needs to be both PD and contained in its own little set such that admins there can come over here, export the whole of our 'standard help', plus the help pages for whichever extensions they've got installed. My immediate reaction is that it would be quickest and cleanest to create another PD namespace, say "Extension help:" so we could have Extension help:ParserFunctions, Extension help:ImageMap, Extension help:Cite, etc.  Another possible solution, either an interim measure or a permanent decision, would be what I've done by creating Help:Extension:ParserFunctions.  Upsides, no need for another namespace, downside slightly confusing page name.  As I say, however, my overriding impression is that this content needs to be public domain. Happy ‑ melon 12:20, 24 December 2008 (UTC)