README

   1 2006-04-05
   2
   3 For system requirements, installation and upgrade details, see the files RELEASE-NOTES,
   4 INSTALL, and UPGRADE.
   5
   6 == MediaWiki ==
   7
   8 MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org/] and the
   9 other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an
  10 excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites using
  11 multiple servers (Wikimedia sites peak in the 5000+ requests per second range
  12 as of November 2005).
  13
  14 While quite usable on smaller sites, you may find you have to "roll your own"
  15 local documentation, and some aspects of configuration may seem overcomplicated
  16 because MediaWiki is primarily targeted as an in-house tool.
  17
  18 The MediaWiki software was written by:
  19 * Lee Daniel Crocker
  20 * Magnus Manske
  21 * Jan Hidders
  22 * Brion Vibber
  23 * Axel Boldt
  24 * Geoffrey T. Dairiki
  25 * Tomasz Wegrzanowski
  26 * Erik Moeller
  27 * Tim Starling
  28 * Gabriel Wicke
  29 * Ashar Voultoiz
  30 * Evan Prodromou
  31 * Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
  32 * Niklas Laxström
  33 * Domas Mituzas
  34 * Rob Church
  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.
  46
  47 [1] Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are
  48 also released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of
  49 users under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
  50
  51 [2] MediaWiki makes use of the Sajax Toolkit by modernmethod,
  52         http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/
  53     which has the following license:
  54
  55        'This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
  56         License. To view a copy of this license, visit
  57         http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ or send a letter
  58         to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way,
  59         Stanford, California 94305, USA.'
  60
  61 Many thanks to the Wikimedia regulars for testing and suggestions.
  62
  63 The official website for mediawiki is located at:
  64
  65   http://www.mediawiki.org/
  66
  67 The code is currently maintained in a Subversion repository
  68 at svn.wikimedia.org. See http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Subversion
  69 for details.
  70
  71 Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:
  72
  73   http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/
  74
  75 Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:
  76
  77   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:FAQ
  78   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
  79   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Development
  80
  81 Extensions are listed at:
  82
  83   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MediaWiki_extensions
  84
  85 If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
  86 recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:
  87
  88   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
  89
  90 The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for
  91 announcements of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.
  92
  93 A higher volume support mailing list can be found at:
  94
  95   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
  96
  97 Developer discussion takes place at:
  98
  99   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
 100
 101 There is also a development and support channel #mediawiki on
 102 irc.freenode.net, and an unoffical support forum at www.mwusers.com.