README

   1 2005-06-12
   2
   3 MediaWiki
   4 ---------
   5
   6 MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) and the
   7 other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an
   8 excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites using
   9 multiple servers (Wikimedia sites peak in the 5000+ requests per second range
  10 as of November 2005).
  11
  12 While quite usable on smaller sites, you may find you have to "roll your own"
  13 local documentation, and some aspects of configuration may seem overcomplicated
  14 because MediaWiki is primarily targeted as an in-house tool.
  15
  16 See the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL, and UPGRADE for details on system
  17 requirements and installation procedure.
  18
  19
  20 The MediaWiki software was written by:
  21  * Lee Daniel Crocker
  22  * Magnus Manske
  23  * Jan Hidders
  24  * Brion Vibber
  25  * Axel Boldt
  26  * Geoffrey T. Dairiki
  27  * Tomasz Wegrzanowski
  28  * Erik Moeller
  29  * Tim Starling
  30  * Gabriel Wicke
  31  * Ashar Voultoiz
  32  * Evan Prodromou
  33  * Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
  34  * Niklas Laxström
  35  * Several others
  36
  37 The contributors hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed
  38 under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later[1]
  39 (see http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works and later
  40 versions of the code must be free software licensed under the same
  41 terms. This includes "extensions" that use MediaWiki functions or
  42 variables; see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins
  43 for details.
  44
  45 The Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the software and has
  46 not funded any of the development work.
  47
  48 [1] Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are
  49 also released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of
  50 users under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
  51
  52 [2] MediaWiki makes use of the Sajax Toolkit by modernmethod,
  53         http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/
  54     which has the following license:
  55
  56        'This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
  57         License. To view a copy of this license, visit
  58         http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ or send a letter
  59         to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
  60         Stanford, California 94305, USA.'
  61
  62 Many thanks to the Wikipedia regulars for testing and suggestions.
  63
  64 The official website for mediawiki is located at:
  65   http://www.mediawiki.org/
  66
  67 The code is currently maintained at SourceForge under the project "wikipedia",
  68 module name "phase3". You can view the code in CVS there:
  69
  70   http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/wikipedia/phase3/
  71
  72 Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:
  73
  74   http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org
  75
  76 Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:
  77
  78   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ
  79   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide
  80   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_development
  81
  82
  83 If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
  84 recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:
  85
  86   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
  87
  88 The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for
  89 announcements of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.
  90
  91
  92 For installation and upgrade details, see the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL,
  93 and UPGRADE.