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 (Wikipedia peaks in the 2500+ requests per second range
  10 as of June 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  * Several others
  34
  35 These developers hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed under the
  36 terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 (see
  37 http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works and later versions of
  38 the code will also be considered free software licensed under the same terms.
  39
  40 The newly-founded Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the
  41 software, although copyright may be assigned to it at a later date. Wikimedia
  42 has not funded any of the development work.
  43
  44 Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are also
  45 released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of users
  46 under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
  47
  48 Many thanks to the Wikipedia regulars for testing and suggestions.
  49
  50 The code is currently maintained at SourceForge under the project "wikipedia",
  51 module name "phase3". You can view the code in CVS there:
  52
  53   http://www.mediawiki.org/
  54
  55 Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:
  56
  57   http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org
  58
  59 Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:
  60
  61   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ
  62   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide
  63   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_development
  64
  65
  66 If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
  67 recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:
  68
  69   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
  70
  71 The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for
  72 announcements of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.
  73
  74
  75 For installation and upgrade details, see the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL,
  76 and UPGRADE.