Wiki creator/Guide

Some simple and informative steps on how to create a wiki, Orain-syle.


 * 1) Make sure there is a wiki request or there is someone that can be named as the 'requester'
 * 2) Go to Special:CreateWiki and fill in the database name (ensure the wikidb is all lowercase), founder (the requester) and comment.
 * 3) Add the database to Database list in the follow format: wikidb|Site name|tags
 * 4) * Tags include: closed (closed wiki), private (private wiki) and upload (enable uploads)
 * 5) After waiting around a minute or two; verify the wiki works (wikidb.orain.org without the 'wiki' suffix is the standard)
 * 6) Mark the relevant request as done

Possible Problems
The tool itself is almost flawless (it creates the database always) but the way people act or rare 'one-off' technical bugs can occur and unfortunately, it can cause major problems for (all) wikis. This is a particular reason why the tool was before not given to non-sysadmins or those who can easily poke one in seconds.

Poke a sysadmin to look at it. This can be resolved either by running a maintenance script or renaming the database.
 * This is a cached copy of the requested page, and may not be up to date (in red)

This one should not happen but if it does; it requires a system administrator immediately to resolve the issue. On the good-ish side; if this occurs a system administrator should already be aware of it because of monitoring systems we use.
 * Unknown database errors everywhere

Check that the correct database name is used in the db list or that the correct format is used (without tags it is wikidb|Site name|)
 * The wiki does not appear after 5 minutes

Best thing to do; check that the wiki(s) you added work. If they do, forward them to a system administrator. If they don't, remove the databases and ask them to try again. If you do this, forward the issue to a system administrator yourself and have them resolve the issue.
 * People complain of irregular issues after you have added a new database (account creation problems, log issues etc)

The above list is not always going to be complete, more issues can occur as a result of the process. Best thing to do; if in doubt, stop if a system administrator is not around. If one is around, talk to them about your concern and resolve the issue immediately.

Special cases
The below is a space for special cases to be listed. These can include what to do is x is happening with a wiki or wikis not to touch in the database list.


 * If you feel a wiki may be hosting illegal content or doing in violation of our policies; please close the wiki and make it private before informing a system administrator who can make the final decision about what to do with the wiki (keep it, remove some content, remove the whole wiki etc.)
 * Please do not modify anything with metawiki and loginwiki for technical reasons.