Mailing List Archive: User-less wiki?

User-less wiki?

pablo at nothing

Oct 15, 2004, 9:49 AM

Post #1 of 7 (764 views)

We want to use the Wikipedia database in a public project, wrapping it in
our own skin using MediaWiki as (more or less) middleware. In order to keep
our MediaWiki customizations to a minimum, we've been focusing on modifying
index.php to do the dirty work.

What we're looking for is a simple way to have a user-less, read-only wiki.
Since our content comes from the Wikipedia database, and we don't want to be
involved in accepting submissions or moderation, we will be directing all
edits and contributions to wikipedia.org. Because of this, we have no need
for users and such.

We expect to direct a fairly high amount of traffic to wikipedia.org as our
project will be deployed on a network of very high traffic sites.

I've stripped out the login box from the template and prevented such pages
as [[Special::Userlogin]] from displaying, even if one knows enough about
MediaWiki to munge our URLs. Furthermore, no pages that are not in the Main
NS will display. I have this functioning with MediaWiki 1.3.6, but I've been
working on it since 1.2.5. Unfortunately (for me), as MediaWiki matures, I
find myself coding around its changes - for example when
$wgValidSpecialPagesEn disappeared from Language.php in 1.3.0, I could no
longer rely on this array.

What I'm proposing is one or more settings in LocalSettings.php (or
something equally straightforward) that will enable MediaWiki to operate in
a read-only, no-user mode. Naturally, I will offer any help to achieve this.

What do you think, MediaWiki developers?

Paul

Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

Oct 16, 2004, 2:50 AM

Post #2 of 7 (742 views)

On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 11:49:12AM -0500, Paul Fierro wrote:
> What I'm proposing is one or more settings in LocalSettings.php (or
> something equally straightforward) that will enable MediaWiki to operate in
> a read-only, no-user mode. Naturally, I will offer any help to achieve this.
>
> What do you think, MediaWiki developers?

Uhmm try $wgReadOnly in includes/DefaultSettings.php and don't forget to bang
your head against the wall...

ciao, tom
--
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Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

pablo at nothing

Oct 16, 2004, 5:36 AM

Post #3 of 7 (735 views)

On 10/16/2004 4:50 AM, Thomas R. Koll <tomk32@gmx.de> wrote:

> On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 11:49:12AM -0500, Paul Fierro wrote:
>> What I'm proposing is one or more settings in LocalSettings.php (or
>> something equally straightforward) that will enable MediaWiki to operate in
>> a read-only, no-user mode. Naturally, I will offer any help to achieve this.
>>
>> What do you think, MediaWiki developers?
>
>
> Uhmm try $wgReadOnly in includes/DefaultSettings.php and don't forget to bang
> your head against the wall...

Does setting $wgReadOnly = true disable the creation of users and remove the
appropriate UI elements for doing the same?

I'll float my proposal on wikitech-l - it's probably a more suitable list.

Paul

Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

ribamar at cwazy

Oct 18, 2004, 5:12 AM

Post #4 of 7 (749 views)

On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 11:49:12AM -0500, Paul Fierro wrote:
> We want to use the Wikipedia database in a public project, wrapping it in
> our own skin using MediaWiki as (more or less) middleware. In order to keep
> our MediaWiki customizations to a minimum, we've been focusing on modifying
> index.php to do the dirty work.
>
> What we're looking for is a simple way to have a user-less, read-only wiki.
> Since our content comes from the Wikipedia database, and we don't want to be
> involved in accepting submissions or moderation, we will be directing all
> edits and contributions to wikipedia.org. Because of this, we have no need
> for users and such.
>
> We expect to direct a fairly high amount of traffic to wikipedia.org as our
> project will be deployed on a network of very high traffic sites.
>
> I've stripped out the login box from the template and prevented such pages
> as [[Special::Userlogin]] from displaying, even if one knows enough about
> MediaWiki to munge our URLs. Furthermore, no pages that are not in the Main
> NS will display. I have this functioning with MediaWiki 1.3.6, but I've been
> working on it since 1.2.5. Unfortunately (for me), as MediaWiki matures, I
> find myself coding around its changes - for example when
> $wgValidSpecialPagesEn disappeared from Language.php in 1.3.0, I could no
> longer rely on this array.
>
> What I'm proposing is one or more settings in LocalSettings.php (or
> something equally straightforward) that will enable MediaWiki to operate in
> a read-only, no-user mode. Naturally, I will offer any help to achieve this.
>
> What do you think, MediaWiki developers?
>
> Paul
>

Is really a wiki you're needing? There are several no-wiki sites using
the content of wikipedia, e.g http://www.fact-index.com/ or
and http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ (this has a interesting
feature: when you pass mouse over a link to anothe page, the firts lines
of content of the linked page is shown. This would be interesting to be
implemented in mediawiki).

-Riba

Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

Oct 18, 2004, 7:51 AM

Post #5 of 7 (751 views)

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:12:36 -0200, Ribamar Santarosa de Sousa <ribamar@cwazy.co.uk> wrote:
> http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ (this has a interesting
> feature: when you pass mouse over a link to anothe page, the firts lines
> of content of the linked page is shown. This would be interesting to be
> implemented in mediawiki).

Egad, I hope not. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ is entirely unreadable to me.

Screenshot:
http://frath.net/stuff/freedictionary.png

Maybe it's useful for some people, but for me it's just clutter in google results :(

*Muke!
--
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LiveJournal: http://kohath.livejournal.com/
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FrathWiki, a conlang and conculture wiki:
http://wiki.frath.net/

Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

ribamar at cwazy

Oct 18, 2004, 8:13 AM

Post #6 of 7 (740 views)

On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 08:51:19AM -0600, Muke Tever wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:12:36 -0200, Ribamar Santarosa de Sousa
> <ribamar@cwazy.co.uk> wrote:
> >http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ (this has a interesting
> >feature: when you pass mouse over a link to anothe page, the firts lines
> >of content of the linked page is shown. This would be interesting to be
> >implemented in mediawiki).
>
> Egad, I hope not. http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ is entirely
> unreadable to me.
>
> Screenshot:
> http://frath.net/stuff/freedictionary.png
>
> Maybe it's useful for some people, but for me it's just clutter in google
> results :(
>
>
> *Muke!

Hum... really this page is not a good page.... but does that error are caused
by misinterpretation of the "mouse-over feature" i mencioned?.... i
think, despite of that page, mouse-over sumarize of the linked page is
still a good idea and can be developed in a any-browser way.

Regards,
-Riba

Re: User-less wiki? [ In reply to ]

Oct 18, 2004, 9:08 AM

Post #7 of 7 (733 views)

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 13:13:07 -0200, Ribamar Santarosa de Sousa <ribamar@cwazy.co.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 08:51:19AM -0600, Muke Tever wrote:
>> Screenshot:
>> http://frath.net/stuff/freedictionary.png
>>
>> Maybe it's useful for some people, but for me it's just clutter in google
>> results :(
>
> Hum... really this page is not a good page.... but does that error are caused
> by misinterpretation of the "mouse-over feature" i mencioned?....

Probably. The text that appears after every link seems to come from the linked page. The worst part is in actually using the page: whenever the mouse passes over a link, the mouseover text appears apparently as intended, but _more_ of the text is dumped into the page itself! [.The exception is when, randomly, the more text is already shown in-page.]

> i think, despite of that page, mouse-over sumarize of the linked page is
> still a good idea and can be developed in a any-browser way.

Yeah, if it can be developed in a better cross-browser way, it might be okay. (Although, when the initial text on a page is a taxobox, it may be less than useful--it's only good for when the text is the initial summary/definition that most articles have).

*Muke!
--
website: http://frath.net/
LiveJournal: http://kohath.livejournal.com/
deviantArt: http://kohath.deviantart.com/

FrathWiki, a conlang and conculture wiki:
http://wiki.frath.net/