FreedomBox for Communities/Wiki

A wiki can be used for collaboratively creating and maintaining information about a community. Information about the community can be made publicly available for everyone on the Internet serving as a public website for the community. It can also serve as an internal noticeboard and provide local news edited collaboratively by its members. FreedomBox can automatically install and manage MediaWiki, the wiki software that powers Wikipedia.

Setting up MediaWiki

1. Visit FreedomBox interface and click on MediaWiki in Apps sections.
2. Click on Install button to install and setup MediaWiki.
3. After installation is completed a configuration interface is shown. Provide the administrator password and click Update Setup. You will be able to login to MediaWiki as user admin and the password provided here.
4. Visit the MediaWiki instance by clicking on the icon in the home page or visiting the URL http://<myfreedombox.domain>/mediawiki/ . Then login as administrator by using the user name ''admin'' and providing the password set in the previous step.
5. Start creating content and adding accounts for other users.

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  MediaWiki app in FreedomBox interface
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  Installing MediaWiki using FreedomBox is a simple step
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  Configure administrator password, private mode and public registrations using MediaWiki configuration page in FreedomBox
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  Login to MediaWiki and start editing and create new accounts for other users

Public Registrations

On the MediaWiki app interface, you can choose if you wish to allow public registrations. If public registrations are allowed, anyone on the Internet will be able to create an account on this wiki and edit pages. If you wish to create accounts for a set of community members, you can enable public registrations, then allow some accounts to be created and then disallow public registrations. Another way to create accounts is for administrator to create accounts from within MediaWiki.

Private Wiki

On the MediaWiki app interface, you can choose if you wish to make the wiki private. On a private wiki, the content can't be read by casual visitors, that is, those who are not logged in. One needs to have an account by contacting the administrator of the community wiki instance and then logging in to view the content. On a private wiki, public registrations are also disabled.

Creating Accounts for Users

If the wiki is not a private wiki, each visitor to the wiki can read all the pages on it without having to creating an account and logging in. However, if content is to be edited, the user needs to create an account and login using the account. On a private wiki, the user needs to login even to read the wiki pages.

Users create accounts for themselves: If the wiki is a public (not private) wiki and public registrations are enabled, users can create an account for themselves using create account link available from the main page. This method can also be used when public registrations need to be disabled. Administrator can allow public registrations for a small period of time to let community members to create their own accounts and after that period the administrator can disable public registrations.

Administrator creates user accounts: The administrator can login to the wiki and then use a special page to create accounts for other users. After this the user will be able to login to the wiki with the credentials provided by the administrator.

Create Content

MediaWiki Handbook provides information for end users on how to edit pages on the Wiki. Help on MediaWiki syntax is also available when editing pages.