Wiki creator/Guide

Some simple and informative steps on how to create a wiki, Orain-style. Be sure to do all steps in order. Not doing so can cause problems with creating the founder's account!

1. Make sure there is a wiki request or there is someone that can be named as the 'requester', and that all fields are filled in correctly. (everything before the "wiki" part in a db name is included in the URL; testwiki = test.orain.org, orainwiki = orain.orain.org, wikicreatorwiki = wikicreator.orain.org, etc - wikis can request a custom domain. In that case, please use a 'readable' dbname. If the custom domain will be ilovespam.org/wiki/, try "ilovespamwiki".)
2. Add the database to Database list in the follow format: wikidb|Site name|language|tags.
   • Tags include: closed (closed wiki), private (private wiki), upload (enable uploads) and ISO 639-1 code of the default language (en for English, nl for Dutch, fr for French, etc.) (note: the db name must end with wiki, and the db name may only contain alphanumeric characters.)
3. If you're adding a private wiki to the database list, please also add it to Database list/Private. Specifying the databasename only is enough. Do not forget to add the wiki with its private tag to the Database list!
4. Wait 1 minute maximum (to make sure db is created), and go to Special:CreateWiki and fill in the database name (ensure the wikidb is all lowercase, or it will be a huge mess.), founder (the requester) and comment.
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 not given before to non-sysadmins or those who can easily poke one in seconds.

This is a cached copy of the requested page, and may not be up to date (in red)

Poke a sysadmin to look at it. This can be resolved either by running a maintenance script or renaming the database.

Unknown database errors everywhere

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.

The wiki does not appear after 80 seconds

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|language code|)

People complain of irregular issues after you have added a new database (account creation problems, log issues etc)

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.

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 extloadwiki, metawiki and loginwiki for technical reasons.