Category:MediaWiki

MediaWiki (MW) is the  software package that runs or 'powers' this WikiIndex wiki site. Originally designed, created, and developed for the then fledgling Wikipedia wiki site in (though not the original wiki engine that powered the original Wikipedia from 2001; that was the Perl-based UseMod Wiki software); MediaWiki software is now used by the most active and largest wiki sites. MediaWiki is also used extensively, and exclusively by all other wiki sites hosted by the  (WMF) (including all of their wiki ''); along with many, many other independently-hosted wiki sites. MediaWiki is also the software of first choice to power many different free and commercial wiki farms.

After it was discovered that the UseMod Wiki software was not adequate nor appropriate to power a wiki-based encyclopedia, a new software solution was required for Wikipedia. The initial 'pre-version' software (known as 'Phase II (2) software' in Wikipedia circles) was created by Magnus Manske, and was used on all available Wikipedia versions from 25 January. A 'Phase III (3) software' became the first 'official' MediaWiki software, and this was a substantial re-write of Phase II by Lee Daniel Crocker; this new 'MediaWiki' software was first used on the English Wikipedia on 20 July 2002.
 * ''History and features

MediaWiki is compiled and written in the  programming language, and is probably one of the most widely deployed wiki engines in the global wikisphere. Some might argue that a wiki should be more simplistic, with fewer features, and some have commented that MediaWiki has now become bloatware; however, MediaWikis' design, and its prolific success speaks for itself. MediaWiki has spawned many s, or 'forks', the most notable being Wikia (now as Fandom), along with GetWiki (created for Wikinfo.org). MediaWiki is extremely highly (and constantly) developed, it is feature-rich, , and is now very complex , that is released under version 2 of the  (GNU GPL v2). MediaWiki requires either MySQL 5.0.2+, PostgreSQL, or SQLite for data storage; it can not use 'flat-file' data storage.

In December 2008, a guy found all open installs (Archive.org link) of the MediaWiki code. And until mid-2013, there used to be the MediaWiki Users forums (Archive.org link).


 * ''MediaWiki size information
 * add /Special:Statistics at the end of the URL –   (non-English language interface versions will automatically convert this to their actual language).  Dependent on MW software, there is a number called 'Content pages', or on earlier MW versions 'pages that are probably legitimate content pages'; use that lower number.  Ignore the (often much larger) 'all pages in the wiki, including redirects' number.  It is also possible to add a private MediaWiki site entry to the WikiStats by S23 list of MediaWiki sites system (at S23-Wiki), which tracks various statistics of MediaWiki-powered wiki sites.


 * ''MediaWiki wikiFactor (wF) information
 * go to the /Special:PopularPages page of the wiki – e.g..
 * Note: from around, the then included standard internal tool which provided the 'page views' output and popular pages list rankings was globally disabled (removed) from all future releases of MediaWiki. It is still possible to use the 'Special:PopularPages' link, but only if the wiki site owner or server-side system administrator subsequently added , available from MediaWiki.org.  If popular pages is no longer available, it is acceptable to use an archived value of wikiFactor, supported by an appropriate archived Special:PopularPages URL.


 * ''See also
 * MediaWiki.org — home wiki site for discussion, help, development, and advice for use on the specific MediaWiki software and extensions
 * Category: MediaWiki wiki farm — hosting services (typically 'paid-for' commercial) for wiki sites which use MediaWiki
 * Category: Free MediaWiki wiki farm — hosting services for wiki sites which use MediaWiki without charge or fee (typically funded by inclusion of advertising)
 * WikiApiary — the wiki site for detailed information on all MediaWiki-powered websites, itself powered by MediaWiki, together with Semantic MediaWiki
 * Template: WikiStats by S23.org MediaWiki projects table — original WikiStats data from, last updated 2014-12-30 but interesting historical data


 * ''External links


 * MediaWiki-announce – MediaWiki update and security announcements list — at Lists.Wikimedia.org from Wikimedia Lists
 * MediaWiki-l – MediaWiki announcements and site admin list — at Lists.Wikimedia.org from Wikimedia Lists
 * Directory of all MediaWiki releases — at Releases.Wikimedia.org from Wikimedia Releases
 * MediaWiki / core — at Gerrit.Wikimedia.org
 * — at MediaWiki.org
 * — at MediaWiki.org
 * — at MediaWiki.org
 * — at MediaWiki.org
 * — at MediaWiki.org


 * List of largest MediaWikis — sortable tabulated list of largest wiki sites (from any host) by 'good' pages, in html output
 * List of largest MediaWikis — tabulated list of largest wiki sites (from any host) by 'good' pages, in downloadable csv (spreadsheet) output
 * List of largest MediaWikis — tabulated list of largest wiki sites (from any host) by 'good' pages, in wikitext (wikitable) output
 * List of 1308 private MediaWikis — sortable list from WikiStats by S23.org (last updated 30 December 2014, but still useful historical information)
 * Wikistats — at wiki.S23.org, the new site of S23-Wiki, now hosted by Miraheze
 * MediaWiki usage statistics — at trends.BuiltWith.com
 * MediaWikiOrg Twitter feed — (rather dormant and inactive!)
 * MediaWikiOrg Facebook page
 * MediaWiki Developers Facebook group
 * Comparison of UseMod with MediaWiki — at UseMod Wiki
 * Importing pbwiki to mediawiki — KnowledgeLab.org.uk at KnowledgeLab, via Archive.org
 * Importing pbwiki to mediawiki — WikiAngela.com at WikiAngela, via Archive.org (mirror of above KnowledgeLab article)

The wiki sites and / or other articles listed below in this category and sub-categories here on WikiIndex are powered by, or refer to the MediaWiki wiki engine software.