Manual:What is MediaWiki?

This page describes what MediaWiki is, and why you should (or perhaps shouldn't!) use it.

What MediaWiki is...

 * MediaWiki is wiki software.
 * If you don't know what a wiki is, then read this Wikipedia article before going any further!


 * MediaWiki is server software.
 * As with any software that you expose to the internet, there may be bugs or security problems. Do not install MediaWiki unless you intend to keep up with security upgrades (please subscribe to receive announcements of security updates).


 * MediaWiki is geared towards the needs of the Wikimedia Foundation.
 * The program is primarily developed to run on a large server farm for Wikipedia and its sister projects. Features, performance, configurability, ease-of-use, etc are designed in this light; if your needs are radically different the software might not be appropriate for you.


 * MediaWiki is free software.
 * No guarantee or warranty of any kind is provided.

Some things MediaWiki doesn't do so well...

 * Because MediaWiki was designed for open-content, it is often not suitable for situations where you want to restrict access to part of the wiki.
 * MediaWiki has been designed to serve very high-traffic websites such as Wikipedia. It has been optimised for this use and may not be so suitable for smaller sites, where disk space or memory are bigger restrictions than bandwidth.
 * MediaWiki is not normally a suitable replacement for dedicated forum/blogging software if that is what you are after.

In the above cases there may be other wiki software which better serves your needs.