Houston: We Have a MediaWiki Docs Problem

MediaWiki – love the app, hate the documentation, a term used loosely.

Here is a normal set of steps it took to find the answer. What I was looking for was that special MediaWiki URl you need to use to edit the sidebar links of your site.

1. Go to the bookmark I had for MediaWiki Handbook
2. Type in the search box navigation links
3. I get some results but there’s a big red border box warning at the top:
   

   Important note: the instructions on this page may be out of date, incorrect, or unnecessary; for most requirements, the FAQ contains the necessary instructions. This page, however, explains some tasks not covered in the FAQ!

4. Follow the link above for FAQ which looks like I am close, a heading of How do I change the contents of the navigation toolbar?
5. But no, there is a fork in the docs, one for MediaWiki 1.5 and newer, which I take.
6. But this is no answer, it’s the big old “This Page Has Moved”:
   
7. Finally, many clicks later, I arrive at the correct area!

Basically it is a Special page you have to request off the root URl of your own wiki, MediaWiki:Sidebar, which you can edit to make the left side links your own.

I know MediaWiki is complex software, but the documents done by wiki are a sprawling mess (at least here there are forward links set up).

But perhaps it’s more of a user error, as I started form an old page. I will see what happens when I start using this newer URl for a MediaWiki documents bookmark http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Contents

But the experience highlights what happens when Wikis Get Big. They Get Messy. It goes with the territory. I can deal with it, but the average user….?

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