SwarmWiki:Help

Revision as of 23:46, 1 September 2005

Post any questions here by adding a new section, and the CSCS and SwarmWiki sysadmins can (hopefully) post some answers. See also the FAQ.

Q: I have a question about the Swarm software

A: This page is about help for the SwarmWiki itself. Please ask your question on the mailing lists or look at Swarm FAQ.

Q: how does one get added to the WikiDeveloper/WikiSysop and how does that work?

by Alex

A: Ask a developer (e.g. Josh, Mike or Jesse) to add you as a sysop.

Q: Can we customize the logo etc?

by Alex

A: Alex,as you can see the logo is do-able. to add someone to the WikiDeveloper/WikiSysop i need to go into the MySQL database that the wikipedia is stored in and change the user rights.

this is what www.wikipedia.org says about sysops:

http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3AAdministrators

-Mike

Thanks, Mike. Is it possible to add a few of us as sysops at some point? Next question, can we change the default "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" under each page title to something more sensible like "From the Swarm wiki", or perhaps just blank, because it's not really an encyclopedia. Also there are many places where "Wikipedia" appears and we should really remove those to avoid confusion with the Wikipedia.org project since we just use the software. -- Alex 11:13 3 Jul 2003 (EDT)

I see that it must be possible to customize the wiki to not mention wikipedia, here is the Consumerism wiki which uses the wikipedia software:

http://www.consumerium.org/wiki/wiki.phtml

I had a quick look at the Wikipedia code under CVS and I think a lot of these standard system-wide strings are stored in the Languages.php file under the "languages" subdirectory. -- Alex 14:29 3 Jul 2003 (EDT)

Q: Can we remove the subtitle: "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia."?

by gepr 15:22 24 Jul 2003 (EDT)

A:This was a question that I was asking earlier in the month. After looking at the wikipedia.sf.net and the CVS code repository (see above), it looks like it's possible to customize these things, but not at the user level. There is a file "Languages.php" that stores many system-wide strings. If Mike could have a look into what's required to change that file, we could send him the changes we should make.

There are several other sites that run the "de-branded" wikipedia software, mentioned at http://wikipedia.sf.net. In particular see the consumerism site, mentioned above. Unfortunately, I could not find a simple "HOW TO run wikipedia for your own wiki"-type document. --Alex 07:49 25 Jul 2003 (EDT)

Updated 11:03, 15 Jan 2005 (EST): yes, site has been thoroughly debranded now. --Alex 11:03, 15 Jan 2005 (EST)

Q: Is there a way to get "breadcrumbs" so I can walk the tree back from where I am without using the browser back button (and going through any "edit this pages" etc)?

by gepr 15:08 28 Jan 2004 (EST)

A: AFAIK with the wiki software MediaWiki, it has no special page hierarchy, if that's what you're asking, it's essentially a flat structure. This is why I have simulated the navigation structure on the current site with the navboxes (which I borrowed from wikipedia itself) on the Introduction to Swarm hierarchy which I intend to duplicate with the other sections. --Alex 19:36 28 Jan 2004 (EST)

Q: Can we lock pages? If so, how? Can a normal user do it?

by gepr 12:03 1 Mar 2004 (EST)

A: Yes, you can (and Rick and I can), because you're a sysop, see: Special:Listusers (all sysops are listed with sysop next to the name). When you login, each page has a "Protect this page" link. If you use the wiki anonymously, you won't see this and you won't be able to edit the page. --Alex 03:11 2 Mar 2004 (EST)

Q: Allrighty, then. So, the paypal buttons come in the form of html forms. Can we include html on the page? Or, alternatively, does wikipedia have a form markup?

by gepr 14:00 16 Mar 2004 (EST)

Q: How do I "block" a particular IP address and when should I do it?

by rlr

A: To block an IP address, you must be logged in, and Mike or Josh (who set up the wiki) must make you a sysop (which have blocking privileges). The full list of users is at Special:Listusers and sysops privilege is noted after the username, if it is granted. If are logged in and a sysop, in the Special:Recentchanges, after each change by an anonymous IP address, you will see a "block" link, click on that link and fill out the information, and note the reason as "spam". If a spammer, leave the expiry as "infinite".

Currently I, Mike, Jesse and Glen have sysop privileges. In general, a good policy is to block an anonymous IP address immediately somebody posts a random set of spam links with no content. --Alex 07:51, 8 Sep 2004 (EDT)