DWPriests - User contributions [en]

Help:Watchlist

2008-10-28T21:53:43Z

Skizzerz: +languages/cat

{{PD Help Page}}
Your '''watchlist''' is a display for [[Help:Tracking changes|tracking changes]], similar to the 'Recent Changes' display, but limited to showing changes only across your set of 'watched' pages. You can see the watchlist display by clicking "my watchlist" link in the top right, however this is only available to users who have registered and logged in.

Before you see anything interesting here, you must add some pages to your watchlist. Do this by navigating to a page which interests you, and clicking the''' 'watch' tab'''.

The watchlist feature is mainly useful on a very busy wiki where the 'recent changes' display becomes too "high traffic". On a typical low traffic wiki, you can normally see all of the editing activity across the whole wiki without feeling overwhelmed. On a more busy wiki you will find that many edits are taking place on pages which you personally find less interesting. To help track changes which are more interesting, start watching pages!

Typically you would watch pages related to your interest areas, and also pages where your care most about the content. If you make a significant edit to a page, you might chose to watch the page, to see if there are any follow-up edits for example. Note that there is a 'watch this page' tickbox provided on the editing screen for this purpose.

On the watchlist display, some page name appear in bold. This indicates whether or not you have visited the page to see the change. It's a bit like read/unread emails in an email inbox. The 'Recent Changes' display will also have some new bold highlighting, but for a different reason. Here bold is just indicating edits to pages on your watchlist.

See also [[Help:Tracking changes]]

{{languages}}
[[Category:Help]]

Help:Namespaces

2008-10-28T21:49:48Z

Skizzerz: /* See also */ using {{mediawiki}}

{{PD Help Page}}
Pages without a ':' in their name are in the main namespace. These are typically the bulk of the content pages in a wiki. Pages which aren't directly related to this core content, may go in other namespaces. These pages have a name of the form "''namespace'':''page''", for example this page is called "''{{NAMESPACE}}'':''{{PAGENAME}}''" (this page belongs to the namespace '{{NAMESPACE}}' and the name of this page is 'Namespaces')

Use of namespaces can vary from one wiki to another, but a typical scheme would be as follows:

;Help: Documentation about working with the wiki software. This could be mirrored from outside sites, or locally written.
;Image: For descriptions of uploaded files or media files. You shouldn't create these directly; they are created when you click the [[special:upload|Upload file]] link in the toolbox.
;Media: Use this namespace to link to uploaded files directly, rather than through the description pages.
;MediaWiki: Use this namespace to change the default system messages, [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:System_message See Help:System message on meta].
;Project: Information about this wiki; i.e. policies that apply here. This namespace also has an alias, which is the name of the wiki installation.
;Talk: Each page has a corresponding ''discussion'' page. This can be used for feedback/comments about that page, or other local notes that another group may want to associate with the page, without modifying the document directly, or for any other additional information to associate with the document.
;Template: This is used for meta-information that is to be transcluded into multiple documents, such as tags to mark the status of a document.
;User: For personal notes. Each User has a corresponding user page for their own information. Users can also create subpages, by using a / after their name.
;User_talk: The discussion page on a user's page can be used for leaving messages. If this page is edited, the next time that user logs in they will see a box notifying them that they have new messages

== See also ==
* {{mediawiki|Manual:Namespaces}}
* {{mediawiki|Manual:Using custom namespaces}}

{{Languages}}
[[Category:Help|Namespaces]]
[[Category:Namespace]]

Help:Sysops and permissions

2008-08-01T22:48:39Z

Skizzerz: +languages and category

{{PD Help Page}}
The way '''permissions''' are set-up on different wikis can vary, but in general...

== Soft security - There ''are'' no permissions ==

Wikis are often set up to be freely and openly editable. This means anyone can edit the pages, often without even registering/logging in. This is only possible because wikis offer a unique kind of "soft security". By making it very simple to monitor edits, and revert changes to retrieve an older version of a page, a wiki doesn't need to be very restrictive at all.

There ''are'' no permissions. Everyone is an administrator. You don't need permission to edit, and you are encouraged to "be bold", go forth and edit!

...at least that is the theory. In practice MediaWiki software does offer many options related to permissions.

== Sysops ==
By default MediaWiki provides extra functionality to a group of trusted users called 'sysops' (or known more generally as 'administrators') Most of the time this should go largely unnoticed by the normal users of a wiki community. Everyone can get involved in editing pages, and even undertaking drastic reorganisation of the wiki. The extra powers of a sysop user are intended for use in settling disputes and preventing repeated vandalism.

=== Who are the sysops? ===
You can find out who the sysops are at [[Special:ListUsers/sysop]]

=== What can a sysop do? ===
There are a number of extra features available to sysops. The key ones are as follows:

;Protecting and unprotecting pages, and editing protected pages
:'Protecting' a page prevents normal users from editing the page at all. There are several reasons why a particular page might be protected. For more information see [[Help:Protected pages]]. For sysop information see [[Help:Protecting and unprotecting pages]]

;Deleting pages, and undeleting.
:A page can be deleted semi-permanently, such that it is no longer available (even in the page histories) for normal users. Normal users do not have this power. See [[Help:Deleting a page]]. For sysop information see [[Help:Sysop deleting and undeleting]].

;Blocking a user or IP address, and unblocking them.
:Users can be blocked from the wiki. This is a useful way of keeping out persistent vandals. Users are identified by their registered user name, or by I.P. address, and can be blocked permanently, or just short length of time to give them a "cooling off" period. See [[Help:Blocking users]]

;Patrolling, and seeing patrolled edits.
:This is a way of coordinating with other sysops, to ensure that every edit of the wiki has been checked over by a trusted user. See [[Help:Patrolled edits]]

== Bureaucrats ==
Another level of permissions within a default MediaWiki set-up, is the 'bureaucrat' group.

The main thing a bureaucrat can do, which 'sysop' cannot, is '''promote users to be sysops''' (and demote sysops to normal users). See [[Help:Assigning permissions]]

== See Also ==

* {{mediawiki|meta:Help:Administration}}

{{languages|Help:Sysops and permissions}}
[[Category:Help|Sysops and permissions]]