MediaWiki Tips

Sportiki.com launched

A new site running on the MediaWiki platform, Sportiki covers the world of sports. Drop by and give them a look… this one has potential to become a very interesting site, and another positive step toward mainstreaming the Wiki platform.

ReefPedia.com launches

ReefPedia, a mediawiki-based site dedicated to the reef aquarium hobby, was launched earlier this week. Following the WikiPedia model, the site is the first wiki launched for the Reef Aquarists to collaborate on fish, coral and invertebrate species profiles, DIY projects, plumbing information, and more.

…and the vultures step in…

Today brings news announcements of a site set up for a class action lawsuit against the WikiMedia Foundation. Here’s an excerpt stating their intentions:

There is a problem with the operation and functionality of Wikipedia. The basic problem is that none of the Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., nor any of the volunteers who are connected with Wikipedia, consider themselves responsible and therefore accountable for the content.

They believe themselves to be above the law.

(edited) is currently gathering complaints from the entire Internet community, including individuals, corporations, partnerships, etc., who believe that they have been defamed and or who have been or are the subject of anonymous and malicious postings to the popular online encyclopedia WikiPedia.

Alternatively, if you are aware of postings on Wikipedia that are either untrue and or potentially libellous to another, please contact them and make them aware of the offending content and this website so that they may file a complaint with our group.

Our intention and the purpose of this website is multi-fold. Specifically, we seek to achieve the following:

* Expose the inherent faults and flaws of the Wikipedia online encyclopedia

* Force Wikimedia Foundation Inc., through legal action, to change its current practices that permit anyone to post content to their website, without formal attribution and without recourse back to Wikimedia Foundation and or the author of the content

* Recover substantial monetary damages, on behalf of those who have suffered as a direct result of Wikimedia’s flaw business model

* Establish a precedent that will ensure similar websites are held responsible for their content

Hmmm… Doesn’t sound like a lawyer. Doesn’t sound like an organized group. The Adsense ads immediately tell me that what this site is really looking for are links (one of those will not be coming from here) and adsense clicks.

Sounds like a vulture.

Here’s the really crappy part

Mr. Siegenthaler proved that his intentions were not to find someone to sue, but rather to bring the wrongdoing against him to the attention of the Internet community and the WikiPedia management. He found the guy who wronged him, and was kind enough not to sue.

Now, here come the vultures, to step in and see if maybe there’s a buck to be made on the side. Way to cheapen the real issue and turn it into what its discreditors claimed from the beginning: This is all just about somebody wanting to sue somebody else’s ass. The good ol’ American way, I guess.

Greed

Last week, many were wondering if defamation and editorial integrity would be the issues that caused the downfall of the grand social experiment called WikiPedia.

Today, we have to wonder if instead it will be greed. Wouldn’t that just be the perfect irony? The online encyclopedia that’s free for all to use, with no ads, supported completely by donations, brought down by greed.

That’s one grand irony I hope is saved for another book.

Update

Here’s a blog post with some interesting insights into the owners of this new site and possible ulterior motives for the “class action” site. Vultures, it seems, don’t limit themselves to Internet controversy.

It’s a good start, Wikipedia.

Over the last week, WikiPedia has come under increasing fire and criticism after issues of not only incorrect - but defamatory - content were raised.

Today, WikiPedia announced that they will only allow registered members to post new articles. Edits to existing articles, however, can still be performed by anyone.

Now that’s what I call a band-aid. The fact of the matter is, the Wiki must evolve into a platform that allows for more controls. As Wikis disseminate into the hands of ordinary webmasters through open-source programs such as MediaWiki, it becomes all the more important that these software platforms allow the webmasters to decide as to the degree of control over who edits the content, and what content can be edited.

Personally, I have seen many requests for MediaWiki features such as hiding specific pages from certain user groups. Better-defined user groups. And better spam control options.

From the developers of MediaWiki, the response to such requests for more flexible controls has largely been dismissed with, to paraphrase, “That’s not what a Wiki is all about.” I disagree. Wikis are about the flexible dissemination of information. If the platform is no longer viable, then the information is no longer disseminated through it, and the whole idea of the Wiki implodes into a useless, idealistic ball of used-to-be.

It’s time to compromise some of the Wiki’s idealistic vigor for the greater good. And for the protection of innocent bystanders such as John Seigenthaler Sr.

Yahoo! Publisher Network with MediaWiki

Using the Yahoo! Publisher Network instead of Adsense in the MWads hack is very simple. Just place the YPN ad code where the instructions tell you to place adsense code.

Remember: Running Chitika with either YPN or adsense is fine. Running Adsense and YPN together… very, very bad.

MWAds hack info page

I have moved the Chitika and Adsense for MediaWiki hack here for posterity.

MWAds hack update

I have tested the hack on a fresh install of MediaWiki 1.5.2 HERE and everything worked fine.

One note: The Adsense Button ad unit won’t function unless you have replaced the default MediaWiki logo. If necessary, you can put an invalid URL for $wglogo in your LocalSettings.php document. Then no logo will show, but the Adsense Button will.

Adding Chitika and Adsense to MediaWiki

After having looked at the tutorial for using adsense with mediawiki, I adapted the changes to accommodate Chitika e-minimalls.

While piecing that together, it made sense for me to add Google Adwords codes in the appropriate areas as well. What I ended up with was an all-in-one advertising solution for MediaWiki.

View the sample site HERE

With this hack, you can

• Run Google Adsense on your MediaWiki site
• Run Chitika e-MiniMalls on your MediaWiki site
• Or run both in unison!

Furthermore, there are several ad unit sizes to choose from

At the top of each page you can have:

• Chitika or adsense 468×60 banner
• Chitika or adsense 728×90 leaderboard

And in the left column you can have:

• Adsense 125×125 button below your logo AND/OR
• Adsense or Chitika 120×600 skyscraper below the menus

Ready? Let’s do it!

Download the hack here

Click here to sign up for Chitika:

Sign up for Adsense by clicking this button: