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 These developers hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed under the
  38 terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (see
  39 http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works, including
  40 "extensions" which use the MediaWiki code) and later versions of the code
  41 will also be considered free software licensed under the same terms.
  42
  43 The Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the software,
  44 although copyright may be assigned to it by individual contributors at a later
  45 date. Wikimedia has not funded any of the development work.
  46
  47 Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are also
  48 released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of users
  49 under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
  50
  51 Many thanks to the Wikipedia regulars for testing and suggestions.
  52
  53 The official website for mediawiki is located at:
  54   http://www.mediawiki.org/
  55
  56 The code is currently maintained at SourceForge under the project "wikipedia",
  57 module name "phase3". You can view the code in CVS there:
  58
  59   http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/wikipedia/phase3/
  60
  61 Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:
  62
  63   http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org
  64
  65 Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:
  66
  67   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ
  68   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide
  69   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_development
  70
  71
  72 If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
  73 recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:
  74
  75   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
  76
  77 The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for
  78 announcements of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.
  79
  80
  81 For installation and upgrade details, see the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL,
  82 and UPGRADE.