MediaWiki modifications

This page is for discussing and defining the modifications/patches that we need to make to the MediaWiki software to enable running Content Wiki and Opinion Wiki. A similar page exists for each other wiki code option.

corpus coherence

The interwiki link standard (very minor change), interwiki identity standard and other features on list here which also lists other features like Simple English and Symbolwiki conventions that simplify the UI, very important for worn devices, and other things that can be done without code modification.

MediaWiki-namespace

This is a new feature in MediaWiki. It is a namespace for storing and accessing large number of short items quickly. All [[MediaWiki:]] entries are stored in RAM and can be modified on the fly by sysops. MediaWiki-namespace items have the possibility to use variable-subsitution which is really useful for displaying campaign stats in Opinion Wiki articles among other things.

For further information on this: m:Meta-Wikimedia:MediaWiki namespace

Added namespaces

For Content Wiki to be managed well we need to have at least the following namespaces:

• Product
• ProductGroup for product groups
• Company
• faction and tendency (describing one's own biases/assumptions)

For the Opinion Wiki we need at least the following namespaces:

• Group
• VirtualGroup - virtual group is a group that is not a real world group, but usually an ad hoc action group to drive some campaign goals
• Campaign

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Article signing

The software has to be extended to enable organisations and individuals to sign any version of any article in the Content Wiki with GnuPG or other keys. This is essential to maintain the integrity of the recorded information. Some people may want to see the live wiki, understanding the possible hazards in it, but most will likely want some level of assurance from authorative parties on the correctness of the information

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Content autogeneration

We need to have a module for generating and identifying information coming from the Consumerium Vault, wherein information is verified by staff. Also reacting to editing of autogenrated content (if made possible) has to be dealt with.

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Article creation restrictions

For Opinion Wiki we need to restrict the creation of Group-articles to only those entities that are registered in and verified by the Vault

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Privilege management

For Opinion Wiki we need totally new code to manage the addition, modification and removal of usergroups who can be granted arbitrary priveleges (at present there is only 'developer', 'sysop' and 'blocked IP' status). Mediawiki stores both article privileges and user privileges as a comma-separated list, so it's not much to hack this ---

Editing restrictions

For the Opinion Wiki we need to manage restriction of editing of certain articles and subarticles to certain users belonging to designed usergroups OR alternatively require their editorial approval before an edit is visible.

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Middleware connection with Opinion Wiki edits

Edits to the Opinion Wiki have to be screened by middleware software to update the composite view of the wiki eg. changes in votes or scores