Manual:Footer

Add links to the footer
For 1.17.0, you can add links to the footer by opening monobook.php in the skins folder. Search for the following code:

data[$aLink] ) && $this->data[$aLink] ) { $validFooterLinks[] = $aLink; }		}		if ( count( $validFooterLinks ) > 0 ) { ?>	 data[$aLink] ) && $this->data[$aLink] ) { ?>		">html($aLink) ?>  

Now find your way to the MediaWiki page that will be linked to from the new footer link. Copy the URL from the address bar (you will add it to the below code).

Then, before the last  in the above code, add the following code:

Title of link goes here

Repeat the above to add another link.

Editing
To add or remove items from the footer on your MediaWiki page, you must edit the skin.

For example: if you go in to MonoBook.php (located by default in the skins folder) you will find the following code:

In the above you can simply add and remove items from the array that you wish to appear in your footer. This must be done for each template, though, and remember it may take a while to update due to MediaWiki caches.

If you want to change the settings globally, go to the file includes/SkinTemplate.php and change this array

The above code would allow you to remove the Privacy Policy or Disclaimer that is defaulted into the MediaWiki install.

You can also customize the individual items by modifying certain pages or parameters:
 * lastmod - edit MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedat (version 1.8 and after) or MediaWiki:Lastmodified (version 1.7 and before). If $wgMaxCredits is enabled, then edit MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedatby (verison 1.8 and after) or MediaWiki:Lastmodifiedby (version 1.7 and before). You may also want to edit MediaWiki:othercontribs that shows other contributors. (6518)
 * viewcount - edit MediaWiki:Viewcount
 * numberofwatchingusers - edit MediaWiki:Number of watching users pageview. This only appears if you also add  to LocalSettings.php.
 * credits - If $wgMaxCredits is not zero it will display page editors
 * copyright - edit MediaWiki:Copyright. The parameter $1 on that page is replaced with a link to the details of copyright for your wiki. In LocalSettings.php $wgRightsText for the link text and set either $wgRightsPage or $wgRightsUrl with the location of a wiki page or external URL.
 * privacy - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Privacy for the link text and MediaWiki:Privacypage for the wiki page to which to link.
 * about - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Aboutsite for the link text and MediaWiki:Aboutpage for the wiki page to which to link.
 * disclaimer - this is a link only. Edit MediaWiki:Disclaimers for the link text and MediaWiki:Disclaimerpage for the wiki page to which to link.
 * tagline - not currently used in the footer

Edit MediaWiki:Copyright and add &lt;br /&gt;</tt> tag before and after the actual text of the message.
 * Line breaks in footer

Images

 * Left image: copyrightico, cf. Manual:Configuration settings
 * Right image: poweredbyico